4 stars

Kurt De’ath narrates his own story in this book. He begins with his childhood and moves to when he came to live with the Gagnon family, the chocolate makers in Canada. Kurt freely admits that he likes to tell stories, even to the point of lying. Although he claims to lie, cheat and steal less when he lived with the Gagnons. He claims that the honesty and uprightness of the Gagnon patriarch changed his attitude.

This book names very many names: Churchill, Hitler, and so on. He tells the very detailed story of how the world sunk into war in 1939.

It is very clear that Kurt loves to tell a story. He does so in great detail, often derailing himself in the process. It is funny in places but we must remember it deals with a very serious subject. The research is exhaustive and hats off to Mr. Boyd for delving into the near impossible and extensively detailed telling of how WWII began.

This is a great book. Although a little slow in places, it is both well written and plotted. (Kurt does wander about a bit.) I had to spell myself once in a while because of the story’s denseness, but I enjoyed the book nonetheless.

I want to thank Netgalley and Wonderdog Press for forwarding to me a copy of this enlightening book to read.