Confino Expands In Unexpected Direction. One thing that I absolutely love about Confino’s books is that both she and her characters are unabashedly Jewish – yet they also don’t preach it. They *live* it and do not apologize for it at all… yet also do not make a spectacle of it. (A lot of Christians – and Christian authors – could learn from this model, truly.)
Here, Confino takes her story into very nearly thriller territory, which was quite awesome to see her push her normal boundaries just a touch and see what she could really do. The final twists – almost literally up to the final words of the tale – are solidly executed and genuinely surprising… and exciting.
And yet through it all we also get the exact type of tale Confino has made her “bread and butter”… just expanded a bit to test some waters… and absolutely nailed in both the bread and butter and the expansion. There is at least one scene – possibly more? – where an eagle eyed fan will get a particular kick out of what is going on around our central characters here, but even here, the way this is executed is subtle enough to not be jarring – or indeed, perhaps even noticed for what it is at all – to those new to Confino with this book.
Overall a strong historical fiction of the non-WWII sort, and a strong feminist tale that actively celebrates men as well and thus doesn’t even begin to hint at any misandry. It calls out the problems that existed in the era in a manner that more progressive members of that very era would while still celebrating both women *and* men, and that alone makes this book somewhat atypical and thus all the more special.
Truly an excellent work all the way around.
Very much recommended.
This review of Off The Record by Sara Goodman Confino was originally written on June 8, 2026.