Point of View

This novel is told from the viewpoint of the main character, Hannah Stern. The thoughts and feelings of all other characters are portrayed through what they say and do, rather than what they think. The singular viewpoint of Hannah does not become tedious, because the author includes a great deal of dramatic action, and she essentially splits Hannah's personality in two. Early in the book, Hannah is an everyday girl in contemporary America, but soon, she is transported, through some unexplained feat of time travel, to a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, where she is a different person named Chaya. Eventually, the reader comes to realize that Hannah is reenacting the life of one of her ancestors, Chaya Abramowitz, who died as a young girl in a Nazi camp. Throughout most of the book, the author does not let Hannah fully understand or...