East of Time is an art­ful­ly told tale of the degra­da­tion and anni­hi­la­tion of the Lodz Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty dur­ing the Hitler years, told through the actions, char­ac­ter­i­za­tions, and deci­sions of its diverse inhab­i­tants. The sto­ry intro­duces us to a wide range of char­ac­ters in Lodz: accom­plices, vic­tims, bystanders, and res­cuers alike. 

This is not a straight­for­ward sto­ry with an eas­i­ly dis­cern­able sto­ry­line; nor is it an easy or quick read. Many seg­ments beg reread­ing, for clar­i­ty or mere­ly to savor the beau­ty of the prose. Rosenberg’s earthy, yet lyri­cal lan­guage express­es the time, place and impos­si­ble choic­es of the cit­i­zen­ry dur­ing a moral­ly chal­leng­ing his­tor­i­cal peri­od, even if the details of the plot are some­what murky. 

Con­cen­tra­tion is required to appre­ci­ate this nar­ra­tive. Per­haps the book’s great­est achieve­ment is the use of tales, hints, and oblique yet evoca­tive lan­guage to con­vey the com­plex issues and choic­es faced by the peo­ple of Lodz. A review of Rosenberg’s title Lives and Embers can be found on page 56.