The Hidden Book is a heartfelt book set in Mauthausen during WWII. The book is a dual timeline story that flips back and forth between Nico’s time as a prisoner in a concentration camp and Hannah his granddaughter in 1980s-2000s.

In 1940, Yugoslavian Nico Antonov is just one of the people imprisoned in the Mauthausen concentration camp. He is forced into hard labor in a quarry and comes into contact with Lena Lang who lives across from the camp.

In present day Australia (1980s to 2000s)when Hannah Campbell’s grandfather Nico comes to visit he leaves a mysterious photo album that is stashed away by Hannah’s mother Roza. After Hannah discovers the images in the album, she is plagued with finding the truth behind the shocking photos.

The book covers heavy topics including the atrocities done by the hands of the Nazi soldiers in the concentration camp. There are also triggering scenes regarding suggestive sexual content. In all, the book is a hard truth and a very dark glimpse into the past, but despite the heaviness there was love. It is a moving story about a girl who is in search for her beloved grandfather’s untold story.

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. This was a historical fiction set in WWII and was emotional. The characters were good but the storyline is what really stood out. Great read!

This wasn’t one of my favorites. I enjoyed parts of the story and I always enjoy learning more about this time in our history so I will always pick up a historical fiction book. Hannah wasn’t my favorite character in this book. I enjoyed the timeline going back to 1940’s and the history told there. Thanks for the advanced copy.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I am sorry to give such a harsh review, but I really found this book to drag. The "hidden book" was such a minor part of the whole story. We are introduced to Hannah in 1987 and follow her life up to 2018. Then there is the timeline in the 1940s with Lena and Nico.. However, none of the characters were fully fleshed out. The story of the actual book of photographs taken at Mauthausen Concentration Camp and hidden was not given due justice in this book.

I love learning about the Holocaust and this book taught me something new! At Mauthausen concentration camp there was a photographer who was ordered to take photos of daily life at the camp. He ended up hiding negatives and photos all over the camp which then led to prosecution of the Nazis. There is also a fun love story to help balance out the story and also family during current time. I really enjoyed this book and will recommend!

The Hidden Book is a WW2 historical fiction novel based on photos taken throughout the history of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Prisoners hid thousands of photographs that were eventually used during the Nuremberg Trials to show the brutality of the Nazis. It is a dual-timeline book. It tells the story of the photographer (Mateo) and his accomplices who helped hide the book (Santiago, and Nico), and a local German girl (Lena) who lived next to Mauthausen. It also jumps into the future where we meet Hannah, Nico's granddaughter, who is yearning to learn about her family history after discovering that her mother was given the photo album from her grandfather, but refused to talk about it.

Overall, I thought the book was ok. Initially, I was annoyed by the detail of Hannah's life as a young person. Then I realized that she was around the same age as Nico, so the frivolity of her life was a stark contrast to what Nico was going through at Mauthausen, and I accepted it as a literary tool. But as the book progressed, I became more put off by Hannah's timeline, and I realized I just didn't care for her character as much.

I received a digital ARC of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.

Historical fiction has become one of my absolute favorite genres to read and I have read many different perspectives regarding WWII. This was fascinating and heartbreaking all at the same time. There is a jump in timeline throughout the book but it was interesting to read about both storylines.

I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This is a beautiful WWII story. I love alternating time lines and I loved the development of Hannah and how she learned about what WWIi. A beautiful historical novel.

This was just okay. It wasn’t a new story told at all about the war and I found it quite repetitive with other historical fiction novels. I was hoping for something unique but I didn’t find that here. The writing was fine and it was a quick read but isn’t one I’d recommend to anyone looking for a new war story.

I very much enjoyed the details that were woven into the story and the use of time and place that are not always typical with the current influx of WWII fiction. Making the main character Australian and then connecting the dots to Yugoslavia and Spain. Kristy Manning also writes with depth and intention that makes the reader care. I recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys WWII fiction and family drama. So much these days is simply forgotten because that generation has nearly all died out and it is something that should never be forgotten and luckily if writers like Kristy Manning continue to do so then we the next generations will hopefully never forget.

Hannah's mother is a Hungarian refugee to Australia. Hannah's grandfather was in the Mauthausen concentration camp and was part of the scheme to smuggle photos of the camps to the outside world. Hannah's mom won't talk about the book of photos her father gave her. Hannah wants to know more. We also get the stories of Hannah's grandfather while he was in the camp and his German-born Mauthausen town wife. Yay, except that Hannah is a whiny twerp who even as an adult doesn't know anything about empathy or compassion or PTSD or is capable of thinking about anyone but herself. It's hard to like a book when the protagonist is someone you'd pay actual money to the author to remove from the story. If you want a good book about Mauthausen, let me recommend The Photographer of Mauthausen written by Salva Rubio; drawn by Pedro J. Colombo; colored by Aintzane Landa, to which I gave 5/5 in 2020.

The Hidden Book is a World War II centered novel told from three primary points of view over two timelines. The two time lines are 1944-45 World War II Austria and 1987 through 2018 Australia.. The points of view belong to Lena Lang, a young Austrian woman who lives with her parents and a younger sister, Greta, in a village adjoining the Mauthausen concentration camp, Santiago, a thirteen year old prisoner in the Mauthausen camp who assists Mateo, a fellow Spaniard conscripted by the Nazis as the camp’s photographer, and Hannah, who initially lives with her overbearing, widowed mother, Roza, in the rural village of Liverpool Plains, New South Wales, Australia.

As the story begins, Hannah is visited by her beloved grandfather Nico, who lives half a world away in Mostar, Yugoslavia. Nico brings gifts and a mysterious rectangular package, which Hannah discovers is a photo album containing black and white photos which the reader will immediately recognize as wing of Nazis and a concentration camp. Roza whisks the photos away and forbids Hannah to see it. Hannah becomes consumed with finding and viewing the album for much of the book.

We learn that Nico was a prisoner in the Mauthausen camp, with his story being told through eyes of Lena and Santiago. The history and significance of the photo album are gradually revealed throughout he book and the varying story lines are brought together nicely, if not a bit conveniently by the end of the story.

The story was interesting overall and held my interest. My primary criticism is that the importance of the photo book to Hannah’s quest to find herself and her family’s history lacked the gravitas that I believed was needed. I appreciated Hannah’s need to discover her family’s history but what exactly in her experience created this near obsession was understated, at best. At times, the writing felt as though the story was being assembled, rather than crafted, which lessened the overall impact for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Set in Austria during WWII and modern day Australia, it is the story of the horrors of the Holocaust and how some of those stories came to light.
The book centers around two women, Lena in Austria and Hannah in Australia, both of them struggling to deal with the realities of their lives. I thought that it was a well written story, especially the historical parts, but the fiction played out just as one would expect with everyone happy in the end. If only that was the way life worked!
I am thankful that I read a Kindle version of the book and was able to look up he many Aussie words and figure out what they mean.
I thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for an unbiased review.

I always enjoy an historical novel that seesaws back and forth between the past and the present. It is entertaining and enlightening to see how the past can and does come into play in a more contemporary setting.

There is so much to unpack about the Holocaust, and this book added another piece of important evidence. A fictionalized version of a photograph album that does exist, done by an interned Spanish photographer, of the horrors of Mathausen, one of the Nazi concentration camps, is at the basis of this absorbing story. Told in the words of three characters: the current character is Hannah, a young woman from Australia, curious about a book her grandfather brought over but her mother would not let her see; Lena, a young woman whose family lives next door to the camp, and is approached to assist in hiding the photos; and Nico, intended in the camp for political reasons, risking all to preserve the photo album. Well written and informative, I recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

"The Hidden Book" is a story of generational trauma set against the backdrop of the horrors of the Nazis' Mauthausen Concentration Camp. Hannah's grandfather Nico visits her and her mother in Australia and brings them a photo album, but Hannah's mother, Roza, won't let her see it even when she is grown. All Hannah knows is that Nico, as a young man, was interned at Mauthausen, but she wants to know more. What is it about Nico that her mother doesn't want her to know? Nico told Hannah that, perhaps, someday she could tell the story but how can she if Roza won't let her see the photos. Moving back and forth between Nico's life at Mauthausen and Hannah's quest to uncover the secrets that have affected Roza all her life, Manning unveils how the trauma of one generation can affect generations to come in very powerful ways.

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬
𝗞𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴
WWII Historical Fiction
304 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs
This story tells of a brave young woman and young men living in the camp who risked a great deal to hide away a pictorial look at the atrocities that went on in the Mauthausen concentration camp located in Austria.

The story is told as a future relative writes a college thesis paper about her grandfather and his stay at this camp.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs
Again, I was surprised to learn of another area where a concentration camp was located and the backbreaking work the men there experienced carrying heavy granite up steep, unsteady stairs.

As with all stories from the Holocaust, it turns your stomach and brings tears to your eyes, as it should.
Though it is sickening, I feel it is essential to learn about and recognize those who were there. That is why I read so many books about this topic. There is always more to learn.

The characters grabbed my heartstrings from the start. They were so sad and scared yet brave. The story shows a look at both those in the camp and those living in fear outside of the camp while taking us to the present to see how future relatives deal with what has happened to loved family members.

💕Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

Have you ever seen a flip book? Most people have. If you haven’t, Wikipedia will catch you up. Reading Kirsty Manning’s speedy novel, The Hidden Book, felt like reading a flip book. The chapters—and the characters, plot, etc.—race by and create more of an impression than a fully-fledged story. This is particularly disappointing because Manning used someone’s story to create this novel. The photo album at the heart of this book was created by Spanish photographers, Antonio García Alonso and Francesc Boix Campo, who were imprisoned at Mauthausen, and brought to Australia by Bodgan Ivanovic, another political prisoner. I have a lot of questions about Manning’s decisions.

The Hidden Book is told in two parts. One part follows Hannah Campbell, the granddaughter of Nico Antonov, a Yugoslavian man who was incarcerated at Mauthausen. The other part shows us Lena Lang, a young Austrian woman who lives near Mauthausen. The novel shifts its perspectives back and forth from the 1990s and 2000s in Australia to 1944 and 1945 in Austria. Tonally, this book is all over the place. While Hannah jumps from relationship to relationship while trying to figure out how to get her grandfather’s photo album from her mother, Roza, Lena dodges the coercive advances of a camp commandant and helps Nico hide an album full of evidence of Nazi atrocities. It’s hard to care about Hannah’s long coming-of-age when, at any moment, Lena and Nico could be caught and executed.

My other issue with The Hidden Book is that it never slows down long enough for good character development for Nico, Lena, and the other characters in Austria. The only reason I don’t say the same about Hannah’s half of the narrative is because so many of the chapters show important moments in Hannah’s life; this has more of a quantitative effect rather than a qualitative one. I was really frustrated with both the pace of this novel and the choices of who got to be a protagonist. This book could have amazing if, say, the main character or narrator was Nico Antonov.

The only reason I didn’t give this book a single star instead of two is because I was fascinated by the kernel of real history in the fiction. I knew prisoners hid evidence of their existence and of Nazi crimes against Jews, Russians, political prisoners, LGBTQ+ people, religious dissenters, Roma/Sinti people, and many more. This evidence—including the Mauthausen photo album—was used at the Nuremberg and other tribunals to convict Nazis of their appalling crimes against humanity. Manning’s book gives me a window into these heroic acts of preservation.

I was immediately drawn in to this WWII story. I loved Nico, “Deda’s”, character.

The different time lines and multiple POVs was intriguing and kept my attention.

I preferred Santiago and Lena’s stories much more than Hannah’s. I was on the edge of my seat every time Greta was involved. Sweet Santiago, so tragic.

The romances were out of place and seemed forced.

I truly enjoyed this book about the importance of knowing your own history and some of the unforgotten history we are not taught. The love between the characters is well written, as well as the hurt and sadness. I did feel like Hannah's timeline moved too quickly at times but it made sense to the story and timing.