After reading House of Gold by Natasha Solomons, I was intrigued to learn more about the Rothschild 'dynasty' and thought a fictionalised history would be both instructive and entertaining. Sadly not in this case. I don't know what was lost in translation, but I found Sara Aharoni's biography of Gutle Rothschild, told in the form of a personal diary, both clunky and cloying. The first person narrative is told in the effusive faux-formal style of bad historical fiction, full of adjectives and stilted dialogue - and a jarring amount of Americanisms and anachronisms - while the content is Ancestry meets Wikipedia. We are told of every Rothschild hatch, match and dispatch from the time of Gutle and Mayer's wedding in the Jewish ghetto in the first half, while the second is packed with dry reports of business deals and historic events.

"I need five coachmen to steer five different carriages, the fleet of M. A. Rothschild and Sons. I need a family representative in every important hub in Europe. Each one will be run by one of my five sons, and with constant, ongoing collaboration between all hubs, we will become the largest firm in Europe.”

I did get a sense of the raging anti-Semitism faced by the Rothschilds in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe, and some of the characters managed enough nuance for a two-dimensional portrayal - although not Gutle herself, ironically enough - but I learned far more about the traditions of various branches of the family tree from Solomons' novel. I found this account far too dry and repetitive - and long! - to really hold my interest or capture my imagination. ( )

This is a piece of historical fiction about the family financial empire of the Rothschilds. It is the story of neverending anti-Semitism, a woman's love of her husband, the building of one of the wealthiest banking families ever. I enjoyed the historical portion of the story, cringed at the anti-Semitism, admired the perseverance of the Jews, respected the original values of the family, and was completely lost in the family web of intermarriages by the end of the book. Interesting, but not riveting. ( )