The Watchmaker's War

A new beginning. An old enemy. A perilous choice.

The Watchmaker's War is a unique and wonderful telling of one of many untold stories: how, after liberation, peace doesn't automatically follow, particularly peace of mind for those who witnessed and experienced so much evil. To be human is to desire justice—or is it revenge?—for your family, your friends, your people. Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz

The best moments of this book are informed by experience, from elders in Ben-Moshe's community whose recollections clang with first-hand authority. Jack Marx, The Australian

When Yakov Holtzman arrives in Melbourne—about as far away as he can possibly get from the graveyard that is Europe—he puts behind him the years he spent in the forests of Lithuania as a leader of the resistance, fighting the Nazis. He has come to join his brother, his only surviving family member, and start a new life as the watchmaker he once was.

Yakov looks for solace—and love—in the fragile, traumatised community of Jewish refugees taking root in a new land. But when swastikas, threats and, most frightening of all, the faces of old enemies appear on the streets of suburban St Kilda, his newfound peace is shattered.

Fierce instincts are reawakened in Yakov, and he knows he must act. But how can justice—or revenge—best be served? And will Yakov's drive to destroy his enemies overtake him too, leaving his new life in ruins?

Based on a true story, The Watchmaker's War is a gripping, high-stakes tale of Nazi hunters in Australia and the war criminals they pursued—killers with links to the highest levels of Australia's spy agency. It offers profound insights into the lingering trauma of genocide, posing difficult questions about competing desires for peace and vengeance, and how far a victim should go in the pursuit of justice when the authorities fail to act.

PRAISE

Can we ever really escape the past? A haunting thriller about old enemies, wounded hearts and rough justice. Spellbinding. Michael Visontay, author of Noble Fragments

A rattling good story told against a factual backdrop. Mark Aarons, investigative journalist, former executive producer Background Briefing, ABC Radio; author of War Criminals Welcome: Australia, a Sanctuary for Fugitive War Criminals since 1945; and co-editor of Nazis in Australia: The Special Investigations Unit, 1987-1994

The Watchmaker's War captures a fascinating, lesser-known chapter of World War II history that deserves attention and will particularly appeal to readers of Australian historical fiction in the vein of John Byrnes. Megan Koch, Books+Publishing

This is an incredible story of tragedy and revenge based on real-life events in the shadow of the tragedy that was the Holocaust. Rob Minshull, former journalist, BBC World Service; and former senior producer, SBS and ABC Radio, Australia

This is a gripping novelisation that explores a side of the Holocaust that persisted long after the war's end, just when tentative shoots of hope were taking hold. It shines a spotlight on a dark chapter in Australian history, when Nazi war criminals found refuge in the suburbs of Australia. Konrad Kwiet, Professor Emeritus, Macquarie University; former chief historian to the Australian War Crimes Commission; and resident historian at the Sydney Jewish Museum

Danny Ben-Moshe has written a suspense-filled story of a Jewish survivor's search for revenge against Lithuanian war criminals who had participated in the Nazi killing fields and had migrated to Melbourne after the war. Based on a true story, the novel highlights the pain and trauma experienced by Jewish Holocaust survivors and their efforts to create a new life in Australia. Yet, the shadow of the Holocaust hangs over them and some cannot escape the desire for revenge. Suzanne D. Rutland OAM, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney; and author of The Jews of Australia and Edge of the Diaspora: Two Centuries of Jewish Settlement in Australia

Danny Ben-Moshe's brilliant new novel, a classic saga stretching from Holocaust-era Vilna to the shores of post-war Melbourne in Australia, brings to the author's narrative talent a deep research of actualities — language, culture, Holocaust history, interfaith relations — that are so often paled into blanket stereotype in multiple other attempts. If it feels like the author journeyed (and sojourned at length) in every inch of the places referenced, it is because he did. This is a major contribution to historical fiction that can at times teach us all more than works of academics. Indeed, the author's two major prior realms of success, as professor and as documentary filmmaker, synthesise in harmony to make this a remarkable breakout novel. Dovid Katz, editor of www.defendinghistory.com and A Yiddish Cultural Dictionary; and author of Lithuanian Jewish Culture