I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own. 

One family must make difficult decisions while protecting a young girl during a hostile invasion of their country during WWII in author Charles Palliser’s “Sufferance”. 

The Synopsis

From the author of the international bestseller The Quincunx

Set in Eastern Europe during the Second World War. When his nation is invaded and occupied by a brutal enemy, a well-intentioned man persuades his wife that they should give temporary shelter to a young girl who is at school with their daughter. He has no idea that the girl belongs to a community against whom the invader intends to commit genocide. Days stretch into weeks and then months while the enemy’s pitiless hatred of the girl’s community puts all of the family in danger. Nobody outside the family can be trusted with the dangerous secret and the threat from outside unlocks a darkness that threatens to derail them all. From the bestselling author of The Quincunx (over one million copies sold worldwide), comes a deeply unsettling psychological novel about the hideous decisions that people are forced to make when living under tyrannical regimes. 

The Review

A genuinely haunting, compelling read, author Charles Palliser does an incredible job of capturing the tone and the atmosphere of a war-torn, occupied country. The honest yet chilling experiences and trauma that can come from living under such conditions and the lengths people are willing to go to survive were able to shine in this novel’s narrative. Yet, the psychological thriller aspects of this story, as one man faced the mind games and mental experiences of both a war survivor and a man, pushed to the edge, made this story one that couldn’t be put down.

The heart of the narrative lived through the strong themes that the author explored and the depth of these characters that were effortlessly brought to life. The exploration of the fruitless, seemingly worthless nature of heroism without reward speaks to the motivations that often serve mankind and holds a mirror to the darkest parts of ourselves in the process. This can be seen clearly in the narrator’s tale, showing the true motivations for helping this young girl and the mind games that develop from that point.

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The Verdict

Chilling, haunting, and enthralling, author Charles Palliser’s “Sufferance” is a must-read psychological thriller meets historical fiction novel. The thoughtful approach and contemplation of mankind’s motivations for acts of “heroism” and the downward spiral that can transpire when one’s motivations aren’t pure were perfectly illustrated throughout this novel, and the psychological aspect of this story will stay with readers as they return to this story time and time again. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

About the Author

Charles Palliser’s first novel, The Quincunx, became an international best-seller in 1990 and sold more than a million copies in ten languages. He has published five further novels: The Sensationist, Betrayals, The Unburied, Rustication, and, in 2024, Sufferance.

Charles Palliser has both US and Irish citizenship but has lived most of his life in the UK. After graduating from Oxford, he taught English Literature and Creative Writing at universities in England, Scotland, the US and France. He has taught workshops in creative writing for the Arvon Foundation as well as in France, Greece and Switzerland.

He became the first Deputy Editor of The Literary Review when it was founded in 1978. He has had one stage play produced and the BBC has broadcast two radio plays and a short film for television.

He lives in London.

The Quincunx was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters which is given for the best first novel published in North America. It was chosen by Waterstone’s as Book of the Month and it was short-listed for The Saltire New Author, the Yorkshire Post First Novel, and the Hawthornden Prize.