This was such a good book. I love historical fiction, especially when it is about eras/ situations that I previously knew nothing about and this was definitely one of those books. It was so well researched and so compelling in its narrative that not only did I love reading it but I felt that I learned too. A really enjoyable read and perfect for any fans of historical fiction. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This book was something new to me about the holocaust and the never ending atrocities that the Nazis committed and still manages to be kept hidden so much still, as with a lot of books about the holocaust this is a personal experiences and so it’s hard to say you can ‘enjoy’ such a book, but it’s important and must be shared and taught, I’m a great believer in those not knowing there history…..(been though we do and seem intent on repeating it anyway) . This was a new asp of the atrocities for me and I was so angry, still am , but like the nazi gold, it’s those who still attempt to profit years, decades later that makes it so much more unbearable, if that can be said. This is a worthy addition to anyones learning and education

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

WOW! I really wasn't sure what to expect with this book but I must say I loved it. It is such a new and interesting way to look at what happened in these times, it is something that is real and believable.

I find it hard to write this without giving too much away but I love that it is so well written and so well researched and that the Grand-daughter of Alice is the one to take this story onboard and bring it to us.

A great book and I highly recommend it.

Make no mistake, this is a compelling read, packed with emotion and detail, but rest assured there will be people who think themselves mis-sold, and find they are reading a book they didn't fully expect to read. While the title suggests it might be a biography of a book, it's not – it's a whole family and more.

Alice Urbach was a self-taught chef and cooking instructor in 1930s Vienna, when she was charged with writing a definitive-sounding book about the cuisine of the city, home economics and the whole gamut of things a young housewife would need to know in the kitchen. With the Nazi takeover of Austria, and with Alice rushing to get a ticket out of the country, in parallel with one of her sons, what she was not to know was that behind her back the book was changed. Mentions of a happy cosmopolitan Vienna were dropped, instances of exotic (ie Jewish-sounding) recipes were reworded and retitled, and so on – and the whole thing was republished with a different author getting all the credit.

The selling point of this book then might have been this activity, for the Nazis were not just purloining some cookbooks and this was no one-off. That said, this has apparently been a most hidden aspect of Nazi appropriation of anything Jewish – we knew they took their apartments and art and property, their businesses alongside their freedoms, but not their copyrighted material.

Don't get me wrong, there are sections of this book that are wholly about this case, and other instances found in recent years of this happening. The publishers concerned seem terribly unapologetic about it all, only seemingly intent on remaining the baddies of the piece until this was first published. But there is a heck of a lot else here – one son's experience in Shanghai under Japanese attack, Alice's brother's own (unpublished) book that tells of his experience at having been interned in Britain during the War itself, Alice's second career as a care home boss for children of the Kindertransport.

This then opens so many windows and doors to a lot of slightly different aspects of the Holocaust – not many books relate to someone who left their home country before war started, and whose stories of encampment are as much about the Isle of Man as they are Dachau. This is all fine stuff, but perhaps fine and dandy – because, to repeat, I was principally here for the book side of things. I don't fully object having learnt so forensically about the whole Urbach clan, but I didn't get a sniff of the food in her book and classes, and the whole aspect of books being rebranded by the Nazis, with spurious credits (we don't even know if the chap claimed to be her replacement on the title even existed) is just too new to academic thought for this to get far. As a result, while we don't need any mad-cap dashes through the courts to get retribution, we don't get the bookish subject we may have sought, and as a result the shebang feels too much like a historian – a very good one, mind – reeling through her family history ad lib and doing what she wants. It's a fine reel in honour of many people, but the book aspect of the title is just too absent.

A great addition to the very important library of personal experiences of those who lived and suffered under the Third Reich. This was a new issue for me and one which I found fascinating as it really exposed the issues of rights and ownership in a different way.

Alices story is one that I’ve found very unique in the period. The theft of the cookbook is something that is not discussed widely as most believe that Jewish books were burnt, not amended. It was interesting and thought provoking