The Thief of Auschwitz is the story of Max and his family through their time during the Holocaust and life after.
The story is told through two narrators: Max, and his mother Eidel. With this narration style, the reader is able to learn about life in the men's and women's camps. Men needed to rely on their strength and usefulness to survive, while the women had to resort to more cunning tactics to make it through the day.
I've always been fascinated by novels set during the Holocaust, and this was no different, except for two major issues:
1) Most of the book takes place in Auschwitz, but there are small chapters that take place in present day New York City. The present day scenes are very out of place and confusing. I think they would have been better placed at the end.
2) The parents’ ending was abrupt. Clinch spent 200 pages forming these great characters and there was no closure for them. I would have loved to find out what happened to them after Max escaped.
This is a must read for any fan of the genre and for anyone who supports self-published authors.