Call number
FIC BRO
Collection
Genres
Series
Publication
Penguin Books (2004), Edition: Reprint, 416 pages
Description
A man arrives at Larkwood Monastery claiming sanctuary. Edward Schwermann is accused of Nazi war crimes: the chances are he's stained with blood, but politics demand that Larkwood shelter him. And Schwermann has intimated that the Church offered him sanctuary once before, during the war. It is this potentially embarrassing claim which brings Father Anselm onto centre stage. Once a lawyer, Anselm is sanctioned to make discreet enquiries in Rome, but as he edges towards the truth behind Schwermann's crimes, his renewed contact with the outside world threatens to overwhelm his fragile spiritual identity. For Agnes Embleton, seeing Schwermann's face on the television has brought back a flood of memories: of Paris, of The Round Table, a group of idealistic students who tried to save thousands of Jewish children from deportation, of the Frenchman who betrayed them and of Schwermann, the German officer who sent the children to their deaths. But what Agnes doesn't know and Anselm discovers is the personal investment Schwermann had in The Round Table, the silent bargains made by its members and the true extent of Schwermann's final treachery.… (more)
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Media reviews
New BooksMag
There seems to be a new wave of fiction based on the Holocaust (what is meant by `the sixth lamentation' in this title) and investigations by the survivors and succeeding generations into the World War II experiences of their Jewish forebears. Other examples are The archivist (by Martha Cooley,
Incredibly (but necessary for the plot), in the investigation in The Sixth Lamentation, the lawyer-turned-monk main character, entrusted with vitally important documents, `thought of making photocopies but didn't. The notion of duplicating the names of the dead seemed somehow irreverent, an act of trespass.' I found it distasteful and irreverent trespass (as in none of the other novels treating this topic) to use the dreadful events of the Holocaust as the basis of a thriller, over-long (430 pages) and crammed with secrets discovered, identities permuted, papers lost, found and destroyed, dramatic revelations, ecclesiastical plotting, revisionism, revenge sought, murder threatened, misapprehensions and cross-purposes galore.
The language is maladroit to the point of mystification. An adolescent girl records in her journal, after a boy tells her, `I think I may be attached to you', `I woke the next morning with a fountain spurting from the pit of my stomach'. Menstruation? Vomiting? First love? An attack of nerves? Who can tell?
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1998), Disturbance of the inner ear (Joyce Hackett, 2003) and The Nose (Elena Lappin, 2003), following the earlier Little boy lost (Marghanita Laski, 1949) and Sophie's Choice (William Styron, 1979).Incredibly (but necessary for the plot), in the investigation in The Sixth Lamentation, the lawyer-turned-monk main character, entrusted with vitally important documents, `thought of making photocopies but didn't. The notion of duplicating the names of the dead seemed somehow irreverent, an act of trespass.' I found it distasteful and irreverent trespass (as in none of the other novels treating this topic) to use the dreadful events of the Holocaust as the basis of a thriller, over-long (430 pages) and crammed with secrets discovered, identities permuted, papers lost, found and destroyed, dramatic revelations, ecclesiastical plotting, revisionism, revenge sought, murder threatened, misapprehensions and cross-purposes galore.
The language is maladroit to the point of mystification. An adolescent girl records in her journal, after a boy tells her, `I think I may be attached to you', `I woke the next morning with a fountain spurting from the pit of my stomach'. Menstruation? Vomiting? First love? An attack of nerves? Who can tell?
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This first-time novelist was an Augustinian friar before becoming a barrister; his chief protagonist, Father Anselm, was a barrister before becoming a monk. The two vocations offer fitting keys--logic and compassion--to unlock the doors of this labyrinthine tale. A suspected Nazi war criminal,
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Eduard Schwermann, asks for sanctuary at Anselm's home, Larkwood Priory. When the Vatican asks Anselm to investigate on its behalf, Anselm finds reason to suspect the church itself may have been complicit in Schwermann's long-ago escape to England. In nearby London, dying Holocaust survivor Agnes Aubret shares a secret with her granddaughter, Lucy: Agnes was part of a French Resistance ring broken by Schwermann. Schwermann's trial begins with both Anselm and Lucy still hurrying to make sense of the past. Sticky strands of deceit, loss, and betrayal bind together a large cast of characters, and untangling them is both difficult and painful. Though Brodrick builds tension slowly (he's better at foreshadowing than planting clues), he's mapped his plot masterfully, and his approach to the thorny issues of justice and punishment is thoughtful and complex. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
This is a first novel? Hard to believe. I started this book at 10 pm and finished it at 1 am. I couldn't bring myself to stop reading - it was that good. Not only as a mystery, but as a novel in general. The ending is a little too formulaic, but a surprise which I must say I never saw coming. The
Synopsis:
Set in England, present day, the story opens with Agnes Embleton, an elderly mother & grandmother, who has just received news that she's dying of motor neurone disease. She will, at some point the doctors tell her, lose all of her motor skills including the ability to talk. So before the disease develops into the final stages, Agnes feels this great need to share her past life with her granddaughter Lucy. She writes her story in a series of notebooks that she wants Lucy to read before Agnes dies. She reveals a life Lucy never even dreamed of.
That is plotline #1. Plotline #2:
Eduard Schwermann is a former SS officer who was stationed in France at the time of WWII. He has come to Larkwood Priory in England, and in speaking to one of the friars there, Father Anselm, he asks him what options are open to someone when it seems the entire world has turned against him. Anselm answers that in olden times, a man would claim Sanctuary. So Schwermann does just that. He claims sanctuary at Larkwood Priory, and somehow the media gets wind of the story. The Church realizes they have a dilemma here, so the head honchos send for Anselm, who in his pre-priestly life had been an attorney. They send him on a mission. As he gets more entangled in the lives of those affected by Schwermann, he finds he has a number of questions that cannot be easily answered. For example, why, toward the end of the war, did the church offer Schwermann, a former SS officer, sanctuary? Why did the British government allow Schwermann to get away and even furnish him with a new name? These two stories cross paths throughout the book. The mystery deepens as both Lucy and Anselm try to find the truth of what happened in the past -- but like one character in the novel warns, things are not what they seem.
The author does a great job not only in his characterizations...you never feel sorry for the bad guys here and you get drawn into the lives of most of the people in the novel. He deals with the Holocaust and its effects on his characters with compassion for the victims and disgust for its architects & those who carried out their orders. He also touches upon the role of politics, past & present, in the Catholic Church.
As I said, my only objection to this novel was that the end was a little too pat. Very contrived. The way the book reads, though, is perfect. It starts out slow, builds in tempo as you go along, then you find yourself unable to stop reading as the action builds. Had the ending moved along in this rhythm, it would have been a perfect novel.
Highly highly recommended.
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ending is the reason the book gets a 9...I was a little let down at the way things sort of just a little too neatly fit. Other than that, it is a fine,no, an excellent novel. I highly recommend it.Synopsis:
Set in England, present day, the story opens with Agnes Embleton, an elderly mother & grandmother, who has just received news that she's dying of motor neurone disease. She will, at some point the doctors tell her, lose all of her motor skills including the ability to talk. So before the disease develops into the final stages, Agnes feels this great need to share her past life with her granddaughter Lucy. She writes her story in a series of notebooks that she wants Lucy to read before Agnes dies. She reveals a life Lucy never even dreamed of.
That is plotline #1. Plotline #2:
Eduard Schwermann is a former SS officer who was stationed in France at the time of WWII. He has come to Larkwood Priory in England, and in speaking to one of the friars there, Father Anselm, he asks him what options are open to someone when it seems the entire world has turned against him. Anselm answers that in olden times, a man would claim Sanctuary. So Schwermann does just that. He claims sanctuary at Larkwood Priory, and somehow the media gets wind of the story. The Church realizes they have a dilemma here, so the head honchos send for Anselm, who in his pre-priestly life had been an attorney. They send him on a mission. As he gets more entangled in the lives of those affected by Schwermann, he finds he has a number of questions that cannot be easily answered. For example, why, toward the end of the war, did the church offer Schwermann, a former SS officer, sanctuary? Why did the British government allow Schwermann to get away and even furnish him with a new name? These two stories cross paths throughout the book. The mystery deepens as both Lucy and Anselm try to find the truth of what happened in the past -- but like one character in the novel warns, things are not what they seem.
The author does a great job not only in his characterizations...you never feel sorry for the bad guys here and you get drawn into the lives of most of the people in the novel. He deals with the Holocaust and its effects on his characters with compassion for the victims and disgust for its architects & those who carried out their orders. He also touches upon the role of politics, past & present, in the Catholic Church.
As I said, my only objection to this novel was that the end was a little too pat. Very contrived. The way the book reads, though, is perfect. It starts out slow, builds in tempo as you go along, then you find yourself unable to stop reading as the action builds. Had the ending moved along in this rhythm, it would have been a perfect novel.
Highly highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member bhowell
This is a very literate thriller and a fascinating story of Paris during the Nazi occupation. The story starts with the elderly and terminally ill Agnes in London taking about her past for the first time to her grandaughter. Agnes was a member of a small group of young people in Paris who were
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smuggling Jewish children to safety. The group was betrayed but by whom? Agnes was sent to a concentration camp and her own small baby lost. The culprit, an SS officer, named Eduard Schwermann, was given sanctuary by a Catholic church in France in the war and the church assisted him to escape to Britain. Why did the priory help him? That also puzzles Vatican officials and when Schwermann is exposed 50 years later and seeks sanctuary in Larkwood Priory, a Catholic church in England, Father Anselm is chosen to investigate. But things are not as they seem and the reader is led through a maze of deception and intrigue to the final stunning conclusion. Show Less
LibraryThing member laphroaig
The Sixth Lamentation has an excellent plot (surely dramatisation is a possibility?) and it is this which makes it such an interesting read and ensures that anyone wants to get to the end. Unfortunately getting there sometimes means gritting your teeth at other weaknesses.
The plot focuses upon a
The main problem is that all the characters appear to be inhabited by an amateur dramatist. So extreme is their reaction to almost any dramatic footnote that you begin to wonder about their mental stability, let alone how they can get through the day without those endless stabs of remorse / anger / shame / regret turning them into emotional wrecks. One or two of the characters are so melodramatic that they deserve a cape and opening lines of "it is I, Salomon Lachaise".
It has been picked up in some of the other reviews that the prose style is a little clumsy - this is true (some of the paragraphs need careful re-reading), although it rarely gets in the way.
The Sixth Lamentation is a fascinating story with many twists and revelations. However, it suffers from an over-active author who contorts his characters and language into shapes and gives us far too neat an ending. Give it a read, but for the plot, not for the style.
The plot focuses upon a
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dilemma: a man is accused of being a Nazi war criminal - it is alleged he oversaw the destruction of a resistance operation ("the round table") to smuggle Jewish children out of occupied France; he seeks refuge in a monestry and many characters become entailed in the main questions of his guilt and who betrayed the round table.The main problem is that all the characters appear to be inhabited by an amateur dramatist. So extreme is their reaction to almost any dramatic footnote that you begin to wonder about their mental stability, let alone how they can get through the day without those endless stabs of remorse / anger / shame / regret turning them into emotional wrecks. One or two of the characters are so melodramatic that they deserve a cape and opening lines of "it is I, Salomon Lachaise".
It has been picked up in some of the other reviews that the prose style is a little clumsy - this is true (some of the paragraphs need careful re-reading), although it rarely gets in the way.
The Sixth Lamentation is a fascinating story with many twists and revelations. However, it suffers from an over-active author who contorts his characters and language into shapes and gives us far too neat an ending. Give it a read, but for the plot, not for the style.
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LibraryThing member edwardsgt
A complex novel (the principal character list at the beginning was a warning), which for me failed to engage and I found my attention wandering as I read it.
LibraryThing member Clurb
A war-crimes trial brings to light the mysteries and secrets surrounding a number of families involved with the resistance movement during the German occupation of France, touching on themes of death, love and betrayal.
I worked my way through this one in about a day, but that's not to say that it
I worked my way through this one in about a day, but that's not to say that it
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has a particularly gripping narrative. I enjoyed the relationship between Lucy and Agnes, but finally felt that for a book examining such a complex and inexplicable thing as the Holocaust, the ending was just too neat and tidy to be truly believable. Show Less
LibraryThing member marcenursey1
This novel has all the elements of grand literature, themes of sadness and happiness, love and hate, loyalty and betrayal. William Broderick has loosely based this novel on reminisciences of his Mothers war time experience. He also writes about things he knows, he was a monk and then went into law.
Even with it's slow pace the novel manages to keep the reader interested. The characters are at times complex but this adds to the strength of the novel. There are twists and turns to keep the reader guessing who is the betrayer of the round table smuggling group.
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Father Anselm in the novel was a lawyer who retreated into the monastery. Even with it's slow pace the novel manages to keep the reader interested. The characters are at times complex but this adds to the strength of the novel. There are twists and turns to keep the reader guessing who is the betrayer of the round table smuggling group.
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LibraryThing member majorbabs
Excellent story about what happens when a former Nazi requests sanctuary at an English mission. At the same time, the granddaughter of a woman who was in a camp with the Nazi is trying to piece together her story. Definitely a page-turner.
LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
In the main, William Brodrick's novel is haunting and believable, with ordinary characters facing incredible situations and revelations (based, in part, on the experiences of Brodrick's mother). The conclusion, however satisfying, somewhat stretches the reader's suspension of disbelief - too many
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twists and turns, with the relationships between characters changing in every chapter, and fantastic coincidences - but the overall story is historically informative with a natural progression. The dialogue is in turn funny and heartbreaking, and it's easy to sympathise with both the survivors and their betrayers. Thoughtful, poetic writing. Show Less
LibraryThing member uryjm
This was the first "Richard and Judy" recommendation that I've read, and I left it wondering what percentage of their viewers would be gripped by this mystery. Less than one? Less than five, surely, because the fact is that this literary thriller wasn't all that gripping at the best of times. The
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Holocaust, and the psychological fall out from it, inspires hundreds of plot devices these days, the best of which I've encountered in novels like "The Good German". Even Big Steve had a go at it in "Apt Pupil", but this novel is more concerned with how people may have escaped the camps at the time, but are still haunted by the consequences of attempting to do so. How many betrayals and sacrifices were there, and how do you live with them through the generations? When I saw that there was a list of "principle characters" and their relationships at the start of the book, I thought there may be complexities in the plot, but I actually had to reread the ending to be sure I'd understood how it all worked out. It was quite a moving finale, and the book was undoubtedly well written and thought out, but the truth within the Holocaust is so much stranger than any fiction that books like these only raise more questions about the reality of the time than shedding any light upon it. I approach the next "Richard and Judy" selection, because it's difficult to avoid them in the bookshops, with sceptical interest about just who they're trying to impress, but fair play to them for at least stretching the boundaries of what the normal reading public prefer to buy. Show Less
LibraryThing member Matke
A good first effort, with an interesting main character and a well-developed supporting cast. The last quarter of the book becomes extremely confusing as the author tries to tie up all the plot lines. The coincidences required for this would put Dickens to shame.
LibraryThing member labfs39
A page-turner, who-did-what-to-whom-when taking place both in present day Britain and in 1940's France. Main characters include a lawyer-turned monk, a young woman and her grandmother dying of a tragic disease, and a former Nazi on trial for war crimes against the Jews. Others include a butler (of
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course, this is a british novel), an angst-ridden artist, and enough others to warrant a character list. Both entertaining and thought-provoking. Do we ever really know the truth about the past--even the pasts of those we think we know best? Show Less
LibraryThing member arkgirl1
A woman approaching death has to decide whether to share her past screts and at the same time someone she blames for tragedies in her life is claiming 'Sanctuary' at an English monastery; thus the story begins.
An interesting an engaging monk, Father Anselm, draws the threads together and although
The story of French Jews in WWII is one I am inspired to look at in more detail now; questions about the role of the Church, and the philosophical point of whether to prosecute 50 years on when the people can appear to be different people, were challenging sub-plots.
I will look out for more stories with Father Anselm as I felt I wanted to know more about him and why he has chosen the monastic life.
An interesting an engaging monk, Father Anselm, draws the threads together and although
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we do have coincidences, these obviously annoyed some reviewers, I forgave them as it is an engaging historical mystery story with some intriguing twists and reveals along the way.The story of French Jews in WWII is one I am inspired to look at in more detail now; questions about the role of the Church, and the philosophical point of whether to prosecute 50 years on when the people can appear to be different people, were challenging sub-plots.
I will look out for more stories with Father Anselm as I felt I wanted to know more about him and why he has chosen the monastic life.
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LibraryThing member julie10reads
Written several years before Sarah's Key, The 6th Lamentation is also the story of two generations whose lives have been impacted (or destroyed) by the Vel d'Hiv round up of Jews in Paris. Much longer than Sarah's Key, the 6th Lamentation is a complicated mystery story. Brodrick adds the
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interesting angle of a barrister-turned-monk, Father Anselm, as the main character. I was surprised by the frank picture of monastic life: Brodrick himself was once a monk and is now a barrister. Could the book have been shorter? Yes. Fewer coincidences? Yes. But the characters are not stereotypical, as in Sarah's Key, and the book's scope is a tragedy written much larger. Show Less
LibraryThing member rshstigger
Interesting plot with many twists and turns. This was one of those books where I just wanted to keep reading to find out what really happened but I actually needed to sleep. It is complicated and keeps the reader on their toes. Fantastic read.
LibraryThing member graffitimom
A group known as The Round Table tries to save Jewish children during the Nazi occupation in France. Something goes wrong and they are arrested. Years later, the alliances and consequences of the Round Table become the elements of the trial of a Nazi war criminal. Who betrayed the group? Are people
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really who they are presumed to be? There is a common thread that links them all : Agnes Aubret. Father Anselm tries to put the pieces together and find out exactly what had happened years before. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I had heard a lot about this novel and several of my friends had recommended it (indeed, a couple positively raved about it). I was, therefore, rather disappointed. While the basic plot about an alleged war criminal seeking sanctuary in an old monastery was promising, I just couldn't make myself
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interested in any of the characters. Show Less
LibraryThing member jan.fleming
In creating clerical detective Father Anselm William Brodrick, drew upon his own experience first as an Augustinian friar and later as a practicing barrister plus the actual story in the Sixth Lamentation is loosely based on the wartime experiences of his mother
Elderly Agnes Aubret lived through
This is the premise of the Sixth Lamentation which weaves a huge cast of characters spread over three generations and their interconnecting stories, through German occupied Paris to modern day London.
The only thing wrong with it was my own doing. Where I went wrong was listening to it as an audio book whilst driving… as the first third of the book introduces layer upon layer of story, endless characters and to make it worst I found out after that the hard copy had a list of characters at the beginning for reference!. I think if I had know this I would have read it instead of listening to it as I found it hard to engage with as I was, up until about one third of the way in, struggling with the vast cast and the French, German, Italian names.
I really admired the way the author managed this labyrinthine story with its twists and turns and revelations. The historical attention to detail was superb and as the author states 'I did not want to record a single detail that was not supported by a contemporaneous record.'
This is a novel that requires time and patience to fully appreciate it and I would imagine that it is a remarkable reading experience.
I haven’t been put off and intent reading A Whispered Name by the same autho
Elderly Agnes Aubret lived through
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the German occupation of Paris and the persecution of its Jewish citizens but now time is running out for her as she is dying from motor neurone disease. At Father Anselm's monastery a man has just claimed sanctuary as he has been exposed as an SS officer and alleged war criminal.This is the premise of the Sixth Lamentation which weaves a huge cast of characters spread over three generations and their interconnecting stories, through German occupied Paris to modern day London.
The only thing wrong with it was my own doing. Where I went wrong was listening to it as an audio book whilst driving… as the first third of the book introduces layer upon layer of story, endless characters and to make it worst I found out after that the hard copy had a list of characters at the beginning for reference!. I think if I had know this I would have read it instead of listening to it as I found it hard to engage with as I was, up until about one third of the way in, struggling with the vast cast and the French, German, Italian names.
I really admired the way the author managed this labyrinthine story with its twists and turns and revelations. The historical attention to detail was superb and as the author states 'I did not want to record a single detail that was not supported by a contemporaneous record.'
This is a novel that requires time and patience to fully appreciate it and I would imagine that it is a remarkable reading experience.
I haven’t been put off and intent reading A Whispered Name by the same autho
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LibraryThing member janerawoof
Father Anselm, a Gilbertine monk, previously a lawyer, who came to the monastic life late, is tasked by the Vatican to find a collaborator with the Nazis. The story is not really his, but is a Holocaust story of the Resistance and betrayal in Vichy France. Several strands of the story are separate
Well-written novel. Labyrinthine story. Recommended.
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but come together: that of Agnes, once in the "Round Table", a resistance group smuggling Jewish children from France, and who is now dying of ALS [Lou Gehrig's Disease]; her family; a Nazi war criminal; the "Round Table" Much of the book is the courtroom trial of the war criminal. Many of the characters are not who you think they are. Besides this Holocaust story at the remove of many years later, there is the theme of forgiveness. Well-written novel. Labyrinthine story. Recommended.
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Awards
Waverton Good Read Award (Longlist — 2003)
Dilys Award (Nominee — 2004)
Pages
416
ISBN
0142004626 / 9780142004623