Description
Doppelganger was launched at the Holocaust Centre on 18 March by Charles Justin from the Justin Art House Museum.
“In David’s book, he poignantly indicates that inherited memory brings with it inherited prejudice.
The mantra from the Holocaust is ‘Never Again’. However, in our own lifetimes there have been at least 6 major genocides. So, it is continuing to happen. I believe David’s book in its small way tries to tackle this issue by trying to break the cycle of inherited prejudice. How often do you hear in the justification of human atrocity, the perpetrators referring to events that took place hundreds of years ago? This is inherited hate and prejudice, it can only be combatted by reconciliation. I think David’s plot construction in Doppelganger is quite clever as it juxtaposes the Jewish and German positions against each other, in a way that they have to work it out.”
Listen to the author in conversation with Gary Max, talking about his book Doppelganger.
Australian Arnold Rosen is celebrating his 70th birthday with his family aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. By coincidence, on the same cruise ship, the American Gus Smith and his family are also celebrating his 70th.
The two men meet. They are identical in appearance but clearly not related. Arnold is the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors, while Gus’s parents were German – indeed, his father was a rabid anti-Semite.
It seems they are doppelgangers, or ‘doubles’. However, it may be more complicated than that. Not only were the two men born on the same day, it turns out that they were both born in the same small town, in post-war Germany.
The two men’s backgrounds are so different that despite their similarities, there is surely no possibility that they could be related … What will they uncover when they travel to Waiblingen, the small town in Germany where they were both born, to seek the truth?
About the author: David Finchley practices as a neurologist, and writes fiction in his spare time. He has published three books before Doppelganger.
