Title: Concentration
Author: Jack Haberek
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, LLC
ISBN: 978-1628578935
Pages: 430
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Reviewed by: Anthony Avina
Hollywood Book Reviews
British espionage novelist John le Carré once said, “Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.” In author Jack Haberek’s book Concentration, the author delves into the story of one man’s struggle for justice and finding meaning in life after being falsely imprisoned, and the journey that ensues as a global catastrophe changes his circumstances greatly.
In the book, the author presents an ever shifting story about a man falsely accused of a crime and deported out of the United States and into Rumania, where he is held in a concentration camp and tortured until a nearly apocalyptic cosmic event destroys half of the planet, allowing him to escape into a desolate world. The story shifts from various character’s perspectives and jumps between various periods of time, from the childhood of the main character and the lives of the people around him to the time spent in his prison and the people who actively chose to ignore his innocence, and the few people who attempted to get his story heard all before the journey into the debris filled world left behind.
The best way to describe this book is that it comes across as a very artistic and thought-provoking dark fantasy/science fiction novel. You can feel the emotion and fusion of storytelling, character growth and artistic expression in every page, as in this passage: “We renounce responsibility, with it the misterium tremendum becomes misterium ridiculum and you’re here, and the only other that sees you is me, as much as I don’t want to. Depth condemns you to silence and poverty”.
This is a book meant for those who enjoy intense character studies and deep dives into artistic expression with a fantasy and science fiction background setting driving the narrative home. This novel is often filled with great instances of dramatic irony, showcasing the author’s ability to lay out the inner workings of the mind for the characters as the reader begins to see the pieces fall into place, especially in relation to the main character’s plight being falsely accused and the system that keeps him imprisoned. As a fan of character study, this was the absolutely perfect read.
This is a great book. Besides a few instances of grammatical errors, the only thing I’d point out for both readers and the author is that at times the passages could be a little drawn out, with paragraphs sometimes taking up entire pages. Whether this is merely a formatting issue or not, it is just something that could be fixed going forward. Yet it was never enough to take me out of the incredibly deep narrative told by the author. Filled with emotional psychological deep dives into the characters of this novel and a powerful story of living life in the face of hopelessness, this is a powerful novel worth reading. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy of author Jack Haberek’s Concentration today!