WHEN TIME STOPPED

A daughter discovers her father’s wartime secrets

Ariana Neumann’s When Time Stopped is not your usual historical memoir. Most tend to recount the author’s personal experiences of a specific period, but When Time Stopped is about a daughter discovering what both her father and family underwent living under the Nazis in World War II.

The book opens by recounting Ariana’s childhood reminiscences of her father, before detailing how he left her a mysterious box with an identity card belonging to someone called “Jan Šebesta”. From there we jump from Neumann’s own experiences to those of her father as she pieces together his hitherto unknown life.

The personal nature of the story and how it’s being relayed results in a work that can be hard going and deeply moving. Yet it is

Author Ariana Neumann Publisher Scribner Price £8.99 Released Out Now

through choosing to tell the story this way that When Time Stopped gains much of its sublime power. The opening chapters, in which Neumann relates her childhood in Caracas, paints a vivid picture of her father as she knew him, as well as cementing the idea of a mystery in his past. As we find out more about her father’s role during the war, we’re allowed into the very personal journey on which Ariana found herself. Photographs of the various documents and individuals mentioned throughout allow us even further insight into her research.

When Time Stopped is a powerful meditation on family and love, as well as another poignant reminder of the evil of the Nazis.