This was a slow starter for me and one I walked away from after initially beginning this for various reasons. I think I felt a deep sadness for Fredrich right from the beginning despite his privileged upbringing he really couldn’t buy the one thing he appeared to desperately want which was a true love. He was infatuated by Kristin/ Stella and totally blind to what she was until really the very end when he realised that she’s not prepared to stop doing what she felt she had to. Stella herself as a character was a fabulous actress and essentially bait girl in rounding up her own Jewish counterparts so they could be killed and continuing to do that despite her own parents demise was honestly the ugliest human trait. She really used Fritz for his money and sympathy and I really didn’t like that Tristan knew all along and let Fritz be taken into a play that he didn’t truly understand his role in until the very end. I even felt that his father knew before he did what he had got himself into and he genuinely couldn’t find a way to get out of it without being badly hurt. A hard read with real elements as well as fictional but a good blend and well written.