This was a very sweet, heartwarming book. It actually reminded me a bit of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, in that both books tackle a wide range of rather serious topics but still manage to remain light and fun and sometimes funny.

Immigration, loss, memory, family dynamics, big dreams, the english countryside as almost a separate character, the therapeutic nature of baking, and friendship are all to be found in Mr Rosenblum’s List. Even though this is a very sentimental book, I don’t think it’s cheesy and I really enjoyed reading it.

A couple of passages that I liked:

“The Rosenblums’ lives were divides into two – a neat line severed each half. There was the old life in Germany that was before. Then, there was the new life in England, which was after. Sadie thought of her existence purely in these terms of before and after but this left no room for right now. Her life was a blur of other times.”

“Her fingers were turning blue at the tips, and she could feel them tingling uncomfortably but she liked the pain – she was supposed to suffer. The others had stayed and died, therefore she deserved to be unhappy… Making Jack a tiny bit unhappy, and nurturing her own hurt, were acts of love in Sadie’s eyes.”