Find The Soul Of A Thief Picturized By Steven Hartov Shown In Document

you like Daniel Silva, you'll like Steven Hartov! I wanted to like this book, In fact, I was ready to dive right into this book, It had the right time period that I enjoy reading, This story started out slow but I was fine with the slow start, It gave me a good chance to get to know the characters, Yet, this is one of the problems I had with this book, I never felt like I was able to connect with the characters or the story, In the hopes that this would change, I kept reading, After getting a third of the way into the story and still not feeling a improvement, I put this book down.
Such a disappointment as I feel like there could be something great underneath this all, Steven Hartov's The Soul of a Thief is a treasure, He is master with chapter beginnings and endings, And the prose in between, as a writer myself, made me envious yet so thankful to have read it, And read it again, I will, A true sadness overcame me as I approached the end of this wonderful story, But that sadness will fade as we get closer to Hartov's next release, Bravo Steven Hartov! Slow starting and then couldnt put it down, Fell in love with the characters, Interesting new point of view for a WWII book, Roller coaster of emotions. Poetic prose by a gifted author, Truly a wonderful read Well written, good historical accuracy at least from my limited knowledge, I enjoyed reading, though some parts are quite heavy, it is a well balanced story, Not something I would typically read, but I am not disappointed! I received this book for free in a goodreads giveaway.


This is a great WWII historical fiction, coming of age story, It is told from a different perspective then I usually read with the WWII books and I really enjoyed it.
Definitely one to add to your shelf if you enjoy reading about WWII, Not bad, a different perspective, I had never heard of a partial Jew by that name before, but I guess that's my heritage because I had a Jewish grandmother on my mother's side and her father was Christian, on my father's side his mother was a Catholic and his father was Jewish.
It didn't stop them trying to send him to a concentration camp, he escaped, but it may have helped them survive to some degree.
Really liked this book. Coming of age memoir, as told from “other side” in waning years of WWII,
Unique and exquisite writing, well thought out characters, A simple enough story, war and love and chain of militarycommand themes, told from an older mans view of his young life in.
Suspenseful and exciting, and so well delivered,
I received this book through giveaways for a review, It was a basic world war two story line for the most part, battles scenes and all that, But I did like The slightly different view of it being told from The perspective of a young German SS soldier, hiding his

Jewish heritage rather than the usual allied soliders story.
The main plot was about the love triangle between the young solider, his commander and the commander's mistress, which wasn't the most orginal story line.
I wasn't a big fan of the writing style, but I liked the story line enough to continue with it.
This wasn't a great book nor was it bad, The Soul of a Thief
by Steven Hartov

This book did not work for me, It wasnt a bad story and it read well, although a little wordy at times, but I found it very predictable.


I also have difficulty reading about Nazis, This book involves a Nazi SS unit so if your thing is a war story with dedication and loyalty it might work for you.
It only briefly mentions the nasty things about the Nazis,

There is also a teenage love story here so again if thats your thing and you can swallow the war parts than it might bare a look.


I am giving itbecause I did read it and it had some intrigue, My rating system needs a lot of work,
Have a front seat view of being a German of Jewish descent hiding in plain view in the German Army.
Every decision has ramifications as time runs out with the knowledge of inevitable loss and being on the losing side.
This is a cathartic view of living in this historical time period of war, Survival comes at a cost, This book disappointed me. The Synopses read:

"Shtefan Brandt, an adjutant to a colonel of the Waffen SS, has made it through the war so far in spite of his commander's habit of bringing his staff into battle and in spite of the heritage that he has so far managed to conceal.
Instead, his growing interest in his commander's mistress may be the end of him, were Colonel Erich Himmel to notice.
Colonel Himmel has other concerns, however, He can see the war's end on the horizon and recognizes that he is not on the winning side, no matter what the reports from Hitler's generals may say.
So he has taken matters into his own hands, hatching a plan to escape Europe and the Allies only after stealing a fortune from them.
A fortune that Shtefan, in turn, plans to steal from him, . . "

And I was intrigued by the concept and how Shtefan was going to go about executing his plan and the turmoil he was going to go through to accomplish such a feat thus, "The Soul of a Thief" Instead we had kind of a love triangle, but not really because there was no love in Himmel, just lust, and add brutally at that.
Himmel could be considered the thief, but with the point of view coming from Shtefan, Himmel's soul could not fully be conveyed.
So either the title is misleading, or the Synopses is and it all bothered me, Title and describe the story as something else, and I may not have felt so misled into reading a book that this book was not about.
There are already a lot of WWII books that explore the brutality of war and the brutality of the participants in the war this is just one more.


The Soul Of A Thief was a novel written by a male author that would, I think, mostly appeal to male readers.
This was the story of Shtefan, a half Jewish man who hid in plain sight as the assistant to SS Officer Himmer.
When he fell in love with the woman that the officer took as his fiancé, Shtefans life became very complicated.


I expected this would be a highly romantic book similar to Finding Rebecca, but it wasnt, The relationship between Shtefan and the woman ctually lacked romance, It was mechanical and initially so fast that I found it unbelievable, I was also very surprised by the content, I guess I wanted a protagonist who silently suffered pretending to be a Nazi, like the protagonist in The Taster.
Shtefan didnt seem to be too upset that he had to kill and pillage, The hook was that Himmer intended to steal a fortune and flee Europe, and Shtefan planned to steal it from Himmer.
That plot was so slow to develop,

What hooked me was the writing, the way the narrator spoke directly to the reader and asked for forgiveness and understanding throughout his tale.
The narrative was powerful, and full of details about the conflicts Himmer ordered them to engage in, A lot of focus was on Shtefans virginity and didnt really advance the plot for me, It also that seemed to be a point directed at male readers, Weird. Between the focus on sex and the killing this rag tag group of men engaged in the opposite of a romantic tale.
I would call this a gritty wartime novel, that was not my favorite, An estimated,Mischlinge, or people with both “Aryan” and Jewish ancestry, served in the German military during WWII, whether they were allowed due to valuable skills, secretly, or because someone turned a blind eye to their “inferior” stock.
In his novel The Soul of a Thief, Steven Hartov, a former Merchant Marine sailor, IDF paratrooper, and editorinchief of Special Operations Report, imagines the experiences of one of these men.


Shtefan Brandt is working in a Viennese hospital when he catches the eye of the redoubtable Colonel Erich Himmel, who makes the naïve young man his adjutant.
After surviving several of his “masters” reckless forays into danger and losing his virginity to a barmaid at the colonels command, Shtefan finds himself in greater danger than ever before, both physical and emotional, when he falls in love with Himmels unwilling French mistress, Gabrielle Belmont, who is also part Jewish.


When he learns that Himmel, accepting the inevitability of defeat, has made plans to hijack an Allied train carrying cash and escape with Gabrielle, Brandt decides that he must find in himself “the soul of a thief” and steal both the money and the woman he loves.
Whether he will succeed, and if so how, will keep the reader engaged, and rooting for his success, until the final pages.
Yikes. After reading "City of Thieves" about the atrocities the German's committed in the Battle for Leningrad, I picked this up and found out.
now the seemingly naive boy is working with an awful German commander, My stomach turned as I found myself now on the other side and all was honky dory, The commander demands the boy get laid to be a real man so his hormones don't get strewed up in battlerather he just get strewed in the bed.
Naturally, he can't just make it with a prostitute, . . no a pretty barmaid takes pity on him and, . . its magic.
I stopped there.
I'm sure the otherppgs make the boy turn on the German, . . but I don't have time for this trite, predictable stuff,
So no spoiler here, . . just sex inpages. This book is great. Tough to follow at first, but everything ties together and makes sense, I actually enjoy the style of writing, it's different and unique, Highly recommend reading if you like WWII historical fiction, Wonderfully written story set in World War II, While military life is indeed talked about in this book, there's a sweet coming of age love story, adventure and a bit of spy thrilling action.


I thoroughly enjoyed it though and felt the characters were vividly detailed, As the end of World War Two nears, a young German soldier concealing his Jewish heritage plots an escape from his commander and the war and plans to bring his commander's mistress with him.

Atmospheric and intense, The Soul of a Thief captures the turbulent emotional rush of those caught behind the lines of Occupied France, where one false step could spell death, and every day brings a new struggle to survive.


In the spring of, I realised that I was not going to survive the war, . .

Shtefan Brandt, adjutant to a colonel of the Waffen SS, has made it through the war so far in spite of his commander's habit of bringing his staff into combat, and a pair of secrets that is far more dangerous than the battlefield.
Shtefan is a Mischling and one of the thousands of German citizens of Jewish descent who have avoided the death camps by concealing themselves in the ranks of the German army.
And he is in love with Gabrielle Belmont, the colonel's French mistress, Either of those facts could soon mean his end, were Colonel Erich Himmel to notice,

Colonel Himmel has other concerns, however, He can see the war's end on the horizon and recognises that he is not on the winning side, no matter what the reports from Hitler's generals may say.
So he has taken matters into his own hands, hatching a plot to escape Europe, To fund his new life, he plans to steal a fortune from the encroaching Allies, A fortune that Shtefan, in turn, plans to steal from him, . .


Dry, boring, and rambling, I so wanted to enjoy this more than I did but after six chapters, I gave up, Moving on. In, he joined the U, S. Merchant Marine Military Sealift Command, beginning a series of adventures that would later appear in his non fiction pieces and fictional works.
In, he volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces Airborne Corps, serving first as a paratrooper and later in a Special Operations branch of Israeli Military Intelligence.
He subsequently spentyears as a reservist in the IDF, and currently serves as an officer in the New York Guard.
He is the former Editor In Chief of Special Operations Report, a professional journal on military and law enforcement special tactics.
His works are recommended readings by the U, S. Army War College. .