It is not easy to get into this book, though once the reader overcomes the initial difficulty posed by its peculiar layout and can accept the premise that the narrator is Death itself, with its own inimitable view of the physical and human world, it is possible to become engrossed in the narrative.

One of the first sentences, set out quite starkly, reads ‘HERE IS A SMALL FACT. You are going to die.

It would be difficult to find a more startling way to start a book, and this certainly had its effect on me, making me stop and think before reading on. And so, after accepting the basic premise that the book is written from the viewpoint of Death, who turns out to be an individual with ideas, emotions and principles, we are told about a train journey somewhere in Germany on a cold winter’s day. We learn, after a few leaps backwards and forwards in time, that the period is that of Hitler, the Fuhrer, and that a girl is on the way with her mother and young brother to be delivered to foster parents. The brother dies during the journey, and the girl is left, unwilling and alone, with the foster parents.

The saga of........

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