THE LAST PALACE: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House by Norman L. Eisen tells us the story of the castle built in Prague by a wealthy Jewish man,  Otto Petschek, after WWI. This is his story as well as the story of some of its previous occupants. This is also the story of Norman’s mother, a holocaust survivor born in Czechoslovakia, who grew up poor.

After accepting the role of U.S. Ambassador to Prauge, the author gets to live in Otto Petschek’s palace as it is the house purchased by the U.S. for the ambassador to live in. While there he starts to uncover bits about the house and determines to learn more about it and its previous occupants, such as why there are swastikas on furniture around the house.

This book was written from collections of  correspondence, letters, interviews with the author, as well as the authors personal experience and that of his mother’s to show us how its occupants really lived as well as Europe’s past.

I highly enjoyed this book. It wasn’t dry or boring. It was written as narrative nonfiction and I loved it. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in opulent houses or history in general.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. This is my honest and unbiased opinion of it.