Aleksander Altmann A10567 (Suzy Zail, Walker Books)

Aleksander Altmann is 14 years old and hasn’t heard his name called in six weeks—he’s now known as A10567, the prisoner number branded on his arm. A Jewish boy imprisoned in a concentration camp during World War II, Aleksander has learned to shut off his emotions to cope with his situation and the loss of his beloved family and horse. But things take a surprising turn when Aleksander is chosen to work as a stable boy and tend to the SS officers’ horses. He’s given a particularly difficult beast, Midnight, to tame and make fit for the SS commander to ride. The survival of boy and horse become entwined as both must learn to trust again, and Alexsander’s life hangs in the balance if he fails. This is a confronting but gripping novel from Australian author Suzy Zail, whose father was a child survivor of the Holocaust, and whose first novel for young adults, The Wrong Boy, was shortlisted for the 2013 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year award for older readers. Zail creates a vivid sense of time and place in Aleksander Altmann. It’s a powerful story of hope, adversity and redemption.

Carody Culver is a freelance writer and editor and a part-time bookseller at Brisbane’s Avid Reader and Black Cat Books

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Category: Reviews