If we’re lucky, we may find someone with whom we just ‘click’, becoming immediate friends. Occasionally, we sometimes then un-click. In suburban Melbourne, a young Alex Miller became friends with Max Blatt, a Jewish émigré from post-war Europe. Miller subsequently lost touch and didn’t go to Max’s funeral. The guilt has plagued him since.

When Miller’s daughter was living and working in Berlin, it seemed for Miller a perfect opportunity for redemption, able to chase leads on the parts of Max’s life which remained elusive. His travels took him from Berlin to Poland, then on to Max’s surviving relatives in Israel. He delved into archival research and unearthed the primary sources necessary for historiography, but the result isn’t some bland text – it’s coloured with humanity. Through fortuitous and unexpected connections he uncovers Max’s past and is able to write the story Max once suggested he would.

This is an intriguing book: part history of pre-war Europe and post-war Australia, part discussion of the Jewish diaspora, part travelogue, and part biography of a member of the resistance movement. Max’s quiet secretiveness grew from the guilty burden of those who survived but weren’t able to save their family.

There was the possibility that by showing such overt love for his subject, this could become a reverent hagiography of a long-term mentor. However, Miller’s talent as a writer elevates this to a wonderful, heartfelt elegy for a friend.

Reviewed by Bob Moore