Review of The Pieces from Berlin by Michael Pye

*The Pieces from Berlin* by Michael Pye (2004). Published by Vintage.

When on vacation in Siesta Key, Florida, I had brought three books and read all of them over the course of two days. There’s nothing to do in Siesta Key except the beach, so when I was sitting on the beach, I ended up getting through my books really quickly. Because of that, I ended up tapping into our rental condo’s meager book collection.

Whoever did the interior design must’ve really been into mysteries and World War I/II fiction and nonfiction, so these were what a lot of the books had been about. I ended up reading a copy of Dead Wake first, finished it the third day we were in town, and then I picked up The Pieces from Berlin as my final read of the trip.

Granted, I had never heard of this book before this moment, but it seemed interesting enough when I had nothing else to read. It was this or one of the James Patterson novels, and I’d rather not read Patterson.

So I continued from World War I to World War II, and while I was pleasantly surprised at times by this book, I don’t think I’d be picking it up myself casually. But as I reflect on it from the future, somehow I’ve been reading World War literature ever since this trip, so it did influence me for sure.

Onwards with the review!

After moving from Italy to Germany right before World War II, Lucia Muller-Rossi is going to change the trajectory of her and her family’s lives.

The Pieces from Berlin begins with a bitter anecdote of sorts. We have Nicholas, the son of Lucia (although we do not know that yet), heading to a small town to attend the funeral of his estranged father. He never grew up with his father around when the war began, and the father claimed to his new family that Lucia and Nicholas had died in a bombing in Berlin.

Nicholas is clearly unwanted at the funeral, but he still goes to pay his respects. This marks the beginning of a story with dark secrets, even if the father’s old family is a dark secret in itself.

We then pivot to the past, where Lucia Rossi is living in Italy. A young woman from a respectable family, she finds herself swept off her feet by a Swiss citizen—the father of Nicholas. They get married, and she leaves behind her life in Italy to start over abroad.

They have their son, Nicholas, and while she doesn’t really seem as happy as she could be in this relationship, the war begins to crank up and her husband enlists in the volunteer Swiss army to fight for the Germans. Nicholas and Lucia are forever left behind by the father, and she decides to pack up and move Nicholas to Berlin to make an income, as volunteer soldiers aren’t given any pay.

At first, life in Berlin is quiet. The war intensifies, and Lucia gets a job at the Italian Embassy. Nicholas is told to hide whenever he hears the bomb and air raid sirens go off, and to seek shelter at a bunker immediately.

His mother tries to get home during these situations, but only fails once—when Nicholas’ pet cat jumps out the window, as everything shatters with the violence of the strike. But even before that fateful night, Nicholas observes how his mother, who didn’t have a ton of money to begin with, suddenly begins accumulating a ton of goods she never could have afforded.

There’s a rug here, a dining room table there, and even nicer clothes. She eventually tells Nicholas to pack up what he can and gets a ton of caravans to lug all of their possessions, and she gains access to Switzerland because of the fact she’s married to Nicholas’ father (or is in writing at that point).

The novel transitions between past and present, and while this is the past, we actually get chunks of the present throughout.

Lucia is still alive many years later and runs her antique shop. When a new visitor to town comes in and recognizes one of the tables in the antiques shop, that opens an entire new can of worms for the family. The dark secret behind all of Lucia’s sudden possessions is this: she agreed to take care of them from the Jews around Berlin fully knowing what was probably going to happen to them.

These people gave them her belongings to take care of for when they returned home, but many did not return home because of the Holocaust. Lucia essentially profited off of stealing these people’s belongings, which is seriously unethical in some ways.

When the woman passes by and recognizes her table in the shop, she decides she wants to get it back. With the help of Nicholas’ daughter Helen, she is going to do whatever it takes, even if it means suing in the name of the law to try and get back what actually belonged to her before being deported.

This will end up unraveling the family and their reputation, as Nicholas even goes out and kills himself because of the fallout of what happened.

Overall Thoughts

This was a fascinating book, but I think it falls flat on the execution. If it had just focused on Lucia and her story, following her up until the point where the woman recognizes the table in her shop, then it would have turned out even better than it did. It’s a bit of a mystery and a puzzle to put together up until everything is spelled out for the reader, but the original synopsis is fascinating.

Because the story becomes diluted with too many characters and their backgrounds, that’s what ended up making this read a bit more unejoyable for me. I didn’t stop reading it, though, which is a major kudos.

If I didn’t like it that much I simply would have stopped reading. I would recommend it though if you’re vaguely interested in the plot.

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