I want to thank St Martins Press and Net Galley for sending me an ARC of Eli’s Promise by Ronald Balson. I began reading Mr Balson’s historical novels with Once We Were Brothers which continues to be my favorite..His characters are all so real. This new book is a stand-alone.
“They will identify us, they will concentrate us and they will eliminate us.” This is a quotation from Esther Gold, Eli’s wife, in reference to the Nazi’s. Eli’s Promise begins in Lublin, Poland in 1945 and then later to Fohrenwald when the war ends, which is a Displaced Person’s Camp. Life is hard and there is one man in particular who finds ways to constantly take advantage of the people for his own gain.
The story moves to Chicago in 1965. Eli finds an apartment and we meet some of his neighbors who think he is part of the FBI. The book then continues back in Lublin, Lodz and the DP camp. Life continues to be intolerable. Visas to the United States are in big demand. They are being illegally sold by unscrupulous people. Eli suspects the same man who took advantage of people before has surfaced again.
The book is really an in depth study of what happened in those years to the Jewish people of Poland and the cruelty they endured.

I have read all of Ronald H. Balson’s books and have enjoyed each one. Eli’s promise was no exception. It was written beautifully and the characters were well thought out and presented authentically. Most of the characters that Ronald H. Balson portrayed were fictional but many of the German officers in the story were real. The story was divided into three time periods and the story often alternated between past and present. It was very hard to put this book down.

Eli’s Promise was a beautiful and heart wrenching story about Eli, his wife Esther and their young son Izaak. It was written as a historical fiction book but some of the story included real places and real names of German and American officers. The first part of the story took place in Lublin, Poland before and during the Nazi occupation. In those days, Lublin was considered by most, the center for learning for the Jewish people. It was not surprising then that the Nazis decided to destroy the most important and sacred building to the Jews of Lublin. They ransacked their Yeshiva, burned all the sacred books and took it and made it their headquarters. Things began to get a lot worse for the Jews of Lublin and for all Jews throughout Poland. Some Jews still raised up hope that things would improve and go back to the way they had been before the occupation. Eli’s wife, Esther, saw the writing on the wall before it actually got so bad. She had predicted that the Nazis would identify all the Jews, round them up and lastly get rid of them. Eli did not want to believe her. He always held out hope that things would get better. Eli had made a promise to his son that one day they would go to America. When Eli had the chance to escape Poland with his family, though, somehow the time was never right. He had to think about his aging father or the family business. Eli was forced to rely on the protection of Maximilian Poleski, a profiteer who benefited from the oppressed Jews of Lublin. Maximilian promised Eli that he would provide protection for him and his family. Eli would learn too late and the hard way that Maximilian could not live up to the promises he had made. Maximilian was a thief and a despicable man that took advantage of desperate people during the war. When Eli finally decided to escape and made a plan, it was too late. He had not known that while he was away from his family, being forced by the Nazis, to run a remote construction business, that his precious wife, Esther, was rounded up and carted off to a concentration camp.

The next part of the book, described Eli’s and Izaak’s life in Fohrenwald, one of the American Zones for displaced persons. The Americans liberated the camp that Eli and Izaak had been in. They had survived but only to be living in another camp. Eli still did not know whether Esther had survived. He never lost faith or hope though and sought out all information for survivors. During his time at Fohrenwald, Eli saw rampant spread of tuberculosis and unjust quotas for Jews that made it almost impossible to get visas to either America or Israel. During this time, Eli was made aware that falsified visas to the United States were being sold on the Black Market by a man known as Max. Eli was sure that this was the same person who had taken advantage of him back in Lublin. Just when Eli had gathered enough evidence to convict Maximilian he was able to slip through his fingers and avoid punishment.

The last part of Eli’s Promise took place in a suburb of Chicago called Albany Park. Eli was there to finally apprehend the man he had been chasing for almost thirty years, the devious, dishonest, one of several war profiteers, Maximilian.

Ronald H. Balson’s book, Eli’s Promise, was about the Holocaust, the guilt of surviving when so many did not, war profiteering,the love of family and the bonds formed by those that survived. Eli’s Promise was a beautiful story that will touch your heart in a special way. It will bring tears to your eyes and smiles to your faces. Eli’s Promise portrayed the unconditional love for a child. There was no greater bond for Eli than the love he had for Izaak. That love that Eli felt for Izaak was evident throughout the book.

Eli’s Promise by Ronald H. Balson was an incredible story. I didn’t know a lot about war profiteering, one of the main themes in this book, but felt such a strong resentment against those that took advantage of others during such turbulent and sad times. It was so hard to fathom how some could have hoped to profit from the weak, suppressed or violated. Presented and written about in three different locations and time periods, Eli’s Promise is a book not to be missed. I highly recommend this book. It will be published in September 2020.

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Ronald H. Balson for allowing me to read this advanced copy of Eli’s Promise. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

As the author notes in the afterward, "at its heart" Eli's Promise is "a story about corruption and war profiteering," told from the perspective of the victims, who lost their families, their livelihood, and their lives. The story is presented in three locations over three different time periods: Lublin, Poland during WWII, the Föhrenwald Displaced Person Camp in the American Occupation Zone of Germany in the mid-1940s, and the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago in 1965-66 against the backdrop of the United States' escalating involvement in Vietnam. The reader sees fake Jewish Identity cards that exempted Jews from deportation marketed to desperate Jews during the war years, the selling of blackmarket goods and even visas during the postwar years in DP camps, and the operations of unscrupulous defense contractors during the Vietnam. These human cost of this corruption and war profiteering are brought to life through the eyes of the novel's main character, Eli Rosen.

The novel's greatest strength is its historical accuracy. The author exquisitely captures the whittling away of the freedom of Jews in Poland as well as the false hopes, uncertainty, and hard choices faced by Polish Jews confronted by the unimaginable. Similarly, the author painstakingly describes the efforts of Jews to rebuild their lives, their identity, and their community in the immediate aftermath of war. Although the Vietnam era is presented in less detail, it too is accurately presented.

The novel's one weakness in my estimation is the dialogue, which at times seemed stilted and forced. This, in part, was a byproduct of the author's efforts to provide the reader with historical detail, resulting in characters occasionally giving short speeches on relevant topics. Although the information was good in these scenarios, the method of delivery did not work. For example, Ann Stewart, a British woman working at the Central Tracing Bureau, gives Eli Rosen an introductory lecture about the conditions at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Given this is a Jewish man hunting for his Jewish wife and would already know firsthand camp conditions, this information is actually intended for the reader, not for the person to whom it is spoken. Consequently, this conversation seems somewhat contrived..

That said, the author seamlessly weaves together the stories from the three locales and time periods, expertly alternating between each one to create tension and spark the reader's curiosity about missing elements from each time period.. A powerful read.

I have to say I was a little disappointed in this book. The references to the history at the time seemed forced, the jumping around in time periods seemed disjointed, and it read more like a young adult novel. I would have liked more of the history of the Polish people in Lublin and the surrounding area in the late 1930s into the mid 1940s and how they survived. Part of the story takes place in the 1960s in the Chicago area but nowhere in the book do you find out how Eli ended up in the United States. Since visas seemed to be a big part of this story, you would think the author would mention how Eli got his.

Eli’s Promise is a historical fiction tale jumping through three eras; Nazi-occupied Poland, the American Zone of post-war Germany, and Chicago at the height of the Vietnam War. The author explores the human cost of war, the mixed blessings of survival, and the strength of love. Even though the book is named Eli's Promise, it actually revolves more around Max, a "fixer" in a Polish town during World War II, his betrayal of Eli's family, and Eli's ultimate search for justice 25 years later.

I'm never the biggest fan of stories that jump back and forth, however this book did a good job of titling each chapter so that the reader knows where and when they are. This is key to making a book like this a success. Being from Chicago, I particularly enjoyed the more modern parts of the story, which are set in Albany Park, and at one point they even reference having a deli tray from Kaufman's, one of my favorite haunts in Skokie. There is also a great description of making and eating babka (coffeecake) which really resonated for me as well. That detail aside, I did find the modern part of the story the most compelling, because, well we all know what happens to the Jews in Nazi times, and it isn't anything good. This part of the story I didn't know what was going to happen, so it was like reading a thriller, and it kept me in suspense. Although I was a bit disappointed with the ultimate resolution between the two protagonists. (no spoilers)

The post-war part of the story was also interesting because I wasn't aware that victims of atrocities continued to live in DP camps for SOOOO long after the war ended and that the US had such a strict quota on the immigration of Jews after the war. So it was good to be educated on that.

I didn't like the Nazi era storyline as much, it just felt so frantic to me. I know it was a frantic time, but I've read a lot of Jewish literature, and this part of the story just wasn't as satisfying, it just felt like the characters were running back and forth saying oh me, oh my...
The author does a great job of conveying the uncertainty of the time, and how there are always people trying to go around the system, as well as balancing out how hopeless things can be with how some people continue to hold on to hope.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free ARC of this book. My opinions are my own.

This story follows Eli Rosen, a businessman from Poland through the Nazi’ occupation in WWII, the displaced persons camp after the war and into 1965. The harrowing story of the trials and tribulations of Eli’s family, and their betrayal by Maximilian Poleisky was both sad and uplifting. I really enjoyed getting to know all of the characters and I was constantly trying to guess what would happen next to no avail. Eli was a strong,trusting man who fought hard to keep his promises to his family. While the ending was bittersweet, I’m so glad that Eli was able to get some justice in the end.

I loved this book! Having read other books by this author I was really excited to get ARC from Net Galley. This book starts in Poland at the beginning of WWII. One is able to visualize the lives the Jewish people had under German control and realize the ways people had to deal with things to try to survive. Although it is historical fiction, it still seems real enough to imagine what people were having to go through. I have not previously read any books where part of it takes place in a DP camp. I found that to be very informative. The book goes back and forth from the 1940s to present day Chicago to tell the story. I found this book easy to read, well written and kept my interest. I didn't want to put it down!

A historical novel written from the point of view of a Nazi concentration camp prisoner, both during the time leading to his incarceration and then one year after his release in the environs of a Displaced Persons Camp.
We share the pressures and fears he faced in his efforts to protect his family and then of the betrayal of the man who was supposed to protect them. Somehow surviving his incarceration Eli somehow has to rebuild a life for himself and his son but how do you do that when you have nothing?
Balson balances the historical details with emotional impact and strong characters to create a tense re-telling in which the reader lives for the moment Eli can hopefully attain a level of peace.
This was well-written and an absorbing story that came from a slightly different angle.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for this opportunity!
This is my 1st read by Ronald H. Balson but not my only book by him~ I have his book "Once We Were Brothers" which was given to me and highly recommended that I will read next!
The characters in this story, "Eli's Promise" were well defined and I become attached to them quickly! The story goes back and forth into different time periods which I must say, sometimes seemed a bit choppy! All in all I enjoyed the story! This was an extremely dark and heartbreaking time in our history and one I like to learn more about!
Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this arc and giving my review!
Linda

This historical novel takes place in Lublin, Poland during the Nazi occupation during WW2, the American displacement zone post WW2 and Chicago during the Vietnam era.. I had not read any novels about the American Displacement Camps and found that part very interesting. The main protagonist Eli and his family are well developed characters as is the antagonist, Max. Eli loses his family, business, and way of life in horribly difficult circumstances yet he perseveres. Max and his cohorts ( Max is fictional while the Germans are actual war criminals) embodies all the depravity of the war in ghettos and occupied lands. The novel brings to light the anti-Semitism and difficulties the Holocaust victims faced after they were freed from the concentration camps. Eli spends a considerable amount of time searching for Max only to have him escape retribution time after time. Ronald Balson has created an emotional educational and informative historical novel. I look forward to reading more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins press for this wonderful novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

A fixer in a Polish town during world war 2 betrays a Jewish family and a search for justice over 25 years.. This story spans 3 eras World war 2 Poland The American Zone after the war and Chicago during Vietnam Nam War.. it is a powerful and emotional story.

This is the first book I have read by this author. I was granted a copy to read through Net Galley. I have been reading it over time because I was not swept up by the story due to characterizations vs truly horrendous events and the telling of them.
What I liked: The descriptive text of what Polish Jews went through during WWII.
What I didn't like: Organization of time frames and the dialogue utilized in telling story unnaturally. Almost none of the dialogue held true for my sensibilities. I'm happy to see that other reviewers were able to embrace the story more readily than I.

Net Galley copy

Wow! Another great read from Ronald Balson! I have read all of his books and he never disappoints! I was delighted to receive an ARC of his new book from the publisher and NetGalley as I am always anxiously awaiting his next book.
Ronald Balson is a fantastic historical fiction writer and his characters are portrayed flawlessly. This book follows Eli Rosen and his family during 3 time periods, World War II, post war Poland, and Chicago in the Viet Nam era. This was a harrowing tale of Eli's quest to bring justice to a war criminal many years later but it is also a heartbreaking story about the cost of war and the strength of family. I would highly recommend this book as I have shared all my Ronald Balson books to anyone who will read them!

Eli’s Promise by Ronald H. Balson is an excellent historical fiction novel that is unique in that it expertly weaves the story of Eli Rosen and his family (wife Esther and son Isaac) through three different time periods: Lublin, Poland during war,
Fohrenwald displacement camp 1940s post war
and Albany Park, Chicago 1965. It is interesting that the majority of the book focuses on post-war challenges and occurrences vs mainly during the German occupation. I think that bringing light to significant struggles that the Holocaust victims faced after in the war in regards to anti-Semitism, Displacement Camps, trying to find hope and life afterwards in a country that was willing to help and accept Jewish individuals is not discussed enough. For many, one war ended, while another began.

It was very hard to see what Eli and his family went through in regards to having their entire lives altered and, for many, lost and all that they had to endure afterwards as well (as if they hadn’t been through enough). Eli Rosen is a fictional character, yet the author does an amazing job at creating a person that personifies and represents many that suffered through such horrific tragedies and subsequent treatment thereafter. To lose your business, your way of life, your family members, and all that you know is nothing short of devastating.

I cried several times reading about the loss of life, and the unspeakable events that happened not only to Eli, but to so many people through no fault of their own. I will not go any further into the synopsis, as this book is too good to risk spilling any further plot details.

To be able to elicit such strong emotions, create a platform for learning and awareness, and to also create a story that is enthralling from beginning to end, is nothing short of impressive. This is what historical fiction is all about.

Excellent book and I look forward to reading more from Mr. Balson in the future.

5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication.

Eli’s Promise is a gripping tale of Eli Rosen and his quest to fulfill a promise to bring justice to a war profiteer. Balson introduces us to the Rosen family at the beginning of WWII before things took a turn for the worse for the Jewish residents of Poland. Eli and Esther had a wonderful marriage, a beautiful son and thriving family business until...the Germans invaded and piece by piece their lives went from blissful to uncertain. A demon of a business partner “sold” the Rosens his protection from the Germans. Everything he promised came with a price and as time passed, Eli realized Maximilian to be the snake his wife always told him her was. But when things are increasingly uncertain during wartime, promises can mean hope and Eli made deals with Max despite his better judgment all to protect his family.

This story spans war torn Poland in the 1940’s to Chicago USA in the 1960’s. I don’t want to dive too deep into the story line because I’m not quite sure how to do it without spoiling it for readers. I will say that Balson has created a cast of characters you can immediately connect with. You can feel their emotion and in the case of Max...his arrogance and greed. You quickly become attached to theses characters and the promise Eli is trying to fulfill...though it takes him a couple of decades.

This story paints a vivid picture of a prominent Jewish family as they are slowly stripped of their lives by the Germans. Promises of protection were made and sold to those desperate to find a way to live. To the Germans and to profiteers, it was a game. It’s unbelievable what historical fiction can teach you!

Ronald Balson latest release does not disappoint. It will captivate you, keep you on the edge of your seat and it might even get you to shed a tear or two. I highly recommend this book. It’s beautiful!

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martins Publishing Co and Ronald Balson for the opportunity to read this book! I enjoyed it so much!

Thank you to netgalley.com for this ARC. This is the first Ronald Balson book I have read though I am by no means a newcomer to WWII and Holocaust historical fiction. Eli’s Promise is a work of fiction although the Nazi officers portrayed in the story were real. The Yeshiva, DP Camps and Jewish ghettoes were all real. The inhumanely restrictive immigration quotas were very real. The book is well researched although it does not appear the author traveled to Poland to view what remains which to my mind would lend even more depth to the novel. Perhaps he has visited to research his other works.

The book moves between Poland, the DP Camps and Chicago. It moves smoothly, but returning the story to Poland and Germany in the later chapters is distracting. That part of the story could have been completed in earlier chapters. The all too frequently employed epilogue is weak. Fiction or fact, I grieved for the loss of life at the hands of the Nazis and the long road back for those who survived. Though Esther is a character of the author’s making, these words she spoke are haunting: “They will identify us, they will collect and concentrate us and then they will eliminate us.”

I was excited to be able to read and review ELI’S PROMISE by Ronald H.Balson. Somehow, the title, and the fact that it was, for the most part, set in post WWII times in Poland ,really appealed to me.

It’s set in Poland and a Post War Displacement camp in the 1940s, and also in 1965 Chicago. I could tell that a lot of thorough research of the times and history of the Jewish plight during this time, was done before and during the writing of the book.

I’ve got to give an honest review, so here goes.. I’ve never been a fan a of jumping back and forth in time periods, and this book did that a lot. Many times as I was reading it, I found myself trudging along and making myself keep reading. It seemed dull at times and did not hold my interest. The end seemed to come all of a sudden and then kind of dropped. But my opinion is but one, and I would recommend the book simply for the reason that the author has written several books, one of which I have read which I really enjoyed.. this one, however, was disappointing to me.

This was a wonderful book. Gripping and heartbreaking. It was interesting for a book of this genre to take place immediately after the war and so interesting to read what happened to those liberated from the many camps. Some parts felt a little ‘wordy’, mainly those set in the 60’s and could has been a little more succinct however it didn’t detract from the book in any way. I would recommend this book to my family and friends.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

When I saw this book's description on NetGalley I thought that it sounded like the recipe for an incredible story and luckily my read request was granted! Eli's Promise is written in three timelines, following the story of Eli Rosen pre-, during, and post- World War 2.

Learning more about what happened to Jewish people during WW2 through historical fiction novels has left me feeling like I need to pay my respects every time, and Eli's Promise is no exception. Ronald H. Balson had me feeling every emotion immediately in the first chapter of the book, and that's when I knew I had to complete Eli's story to understand more about this awful time in history.

There are a few things in this book that made me rate it at a 3.5. The dialogue between characters, especially between Eli and his wife, Esther, had a lack of emotion that I couldn't get past. There were random inconsistencies, such as when Eli was giving a detailed description of Esther at the Central Tracing Bureau and he said she was a seamstress. In the next paragraph the CTB employee mentions a woman working at a hospital in Denmark and he gets excited because Esther was a nurse. Why would he not have given that employee such an important detail about his wife? Why only her slave labor position under the Nazis but not her actual career? There were a few instances like this that bothered me. Lastly, I personally didn't like how the third timeline switched from Eli's POV to Mimi's. We had been with Eli for the whole story and it didn't land well to change the POV for one third of the book to a character I personally didn't care about at all. I was invested in Eli's thoughts, feelings, and story!

That was a rant for sure, but I really did like this book. Like I've said, there are a few things that pulled me out of it, but the pieces of history that I learned made it worth it. I hope people keep writing and reading WW2 stories, because our global population is forgetting this history at an alarming rate and that needs to STOP. History is repeating itself as we speak and hopefully with more education on this subject more people will stand up against it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an advance e-copy in exchange for this review!

There are few WW2 reads that show the in-between on either side of the concentration camp period quite the way that this book does. Though fiction, it has such a rich amount of details and true-to-life feel that it must be based on a conglomeration of true stories. We follow Eli through the late 1930s, prior to Nazi occupation and at its start, briefly through his time in a concentration camp, and then in the 1960s as he works with the United States government. It is a story of tragedy and wrongs, and in real-world fashion, things don't always have a fairy tale ending. If you like history, intrigue, and true crime stories, you will love this book!