I finished reading Address Unknown by Katherine Kressmann Taylor a month ago, and I have been thinking about it ever since. It came highly recommended by a friend. Address Unknown is the fictional story of two Jewish art dealers in San Francisco. One of the business partners returns to Germany in 1932 and the book chronicles their correspondence thereafter through letters.
There are many amazing things about this 64-page powerful book. First of all Address Unknown was first published in 1938 in Story magazine and was later published as a book in 1939. It was written before Hitler began any violence in Germany. The book is not historical fiction because it was written before the war. Katherine Kressmann Taylor wrote the book because she was concerned about the changing attitudes of her friends in Germany concerning Hitler. The book became a huge hit in the United States, but was banned in Germany.
Another remarkable fact about the book is that it was originally published with the author using the pseudonym, Kressmann Taylor (see the two different covers of the book in my photo.) The book was deemed too strong to have been written by a woman so Katherine was encouraged to drop her first name by her editor and husband. All of her subsequent work also used the pseudonym.
The book is compelling because the author’s fictional perspective on Germany turned out to be accurate. Parts are chilling to read because we now know what happened in Germany during the war. The Introduction by Margot Livesey and Afterward by Charles Douglas Taylor, Katherine Kressmann Taylor’s son are especially poignant aspects of the book. I highly recommend Address Unknown.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
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