Die Schildkröten von Veza Canetti

Dr Andreas Kain, a quiet Jewish scholar and poet, lives in a villa on the outskirts of Vienna with his wife, Eva. In 1938 Austria is occupied by the Nazis, who confiscate flats, loot shops, burn synagogues, and take men, women and children away on trucks. Our protagonists try to deal with the threat by retreating into their shells, much like stoical tortoises. In the face of the atrocities happening every day, the Kains plan to make an escape in an aircraft they have secretly purchased.
Veza Canetti wrote her novel THE TORTOISES shortly after arriving in England with her husband, Elias Canetti, following their escape from Austria in 1939. First published in 1999, it is a shocking and emotional depiction of human dignity in the midst of ubiquitous maliciousness.