Handke, Peter "Storm Still"

Handke, Peter "Storm Still" (German: Immer noch Sturm) - 2010

A book about the Slovenian minority in Carinthia. We all know that there are areas everywhere with immigrants from all kinds of other countries, but my knowledge of Austria and its foreigners is quite limited. This novel is described as a play, which I can not quite understand. Admittedly, the story is told by different family members, but there is hardly any exchange.

Either way, this is not an easy book to just follow and then get the hang of. You have to strain your gray brain cells to be able to follow the author at all. Handke is a very controversial author, and not everyone welcomed his award of the Nobel Prize for Literature. But he has a certain something. You just want to keep reading. And in the decade that has passed since the book was published, not much has changed, in Austria or elsewhere, it rather got rather worse.

From the back cover:

"Peter Handke, a giant of Austrian literature, has produced decades of fiction, poetry, and drama informed by some of the most tumultuous events in modern history. But even as these events shaped his work, the presence of his mother - a woman whose life spanned the Weimar Republic, both world wars, and the postwar consumer economy - loomed even larger.

In Storm Still, Handke’s most recent work, he returns to the land of his birth, the Austrian province of Carinthia. There on the Jaunfeld, the plain at the center of Austria’s Slovenian settlement, the dead and the living of a family meet and talk. Composed as a series of monologues, Storm Still chronicles both the battle of the Slovene minority against Nazism and their love of the land. Presenting a panorama that extends back to the author’s bitter roots in the region, Storm Still blends penetrating prose and poetic drama to explore Handke’s personal history, taking up themes from his earlier books and revisiting some of their characters. In this book, the times of conflict and peace, war and prewar, and even the seasons themselves shift and overlap. And the fate of an orchard comes to stand for the fate of a people."

Peter Handke received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019 "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Dumbach, Annette E. "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose"

Dumbach, Annette E.; Newborn, Jud; Gierlichs, Annerose "Sophie Scholl and the White Rose" (German: Die Geschichte der weißen Rose) - 2002

As I already wrote in my description of "The White Rose" by Inge Aicher-Scholl: If there are any books that everyone should read, the story of the White Rose is definitely one of them.

This is another book on the subject. While Inge Aicher-Scholl was the sister of siblings Hans and Sophie, the authors of this book were journalists who researched the life of the group. Another point of view that brings us even more information about the life and work of these young people. You just have to admire them and ask yourself: What would I have done in their place?

A few quotes from Sophie Scholl that we should all take to heart:

Stand up for what you believe in even if it means you stand alone.

Offer passive resistance – resistance – wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late ... (from the first leaflet; 1942)

I still believe I did the best I could for my people right now. Therefore, I do not regret my actions and I want to accept the consequences that arise from my actions.

I am, now as before, of the opinion that I did the best that I could do for my nation. I therefore do not regret my conduct and will bear the consequences that result from my conduct.

And from Hans:
Long live freedom!

From the back cover:

"In the spring and summer of 1942, five young German students and one professor at the University of Munich crossed the threshold of toleration to enter the realms of resistance, danger and death. Protesting in the name of principles Hitler thought he had killed forever, Sophie Scholl and other members of the White Rose realized that the 'Germanization' Hitler sought to enforce was cruel and inhuman, and that they could not be content to remain silent in its midst."

In addition to the Scholl siblings, we should not forget the other members who were also executed:
Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf and the university professor Kurt Huber.

Aicher-Scholl, Inge "The White Rose"

Aicher-Scholl, Inge "The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943" (German: Die weiße Rose) - 1952

Inge Scholl was the sister of Hans and Sophie Scholl and is writing this book about her siblings and the Munich resistance group.

If there are any books that everyone should read, the story of the White Rose is definitely one of them. It shows that even in deepest Nazi Germany there were people who resisted, who paid for it with their lives, but who should be a great role model for all of us.

As the book description says, this book is not only based on Inge Scholl's memories, but also on documents that have been secured.

Similar to the book "The Wave", the author describes how the young people were first carried away by the Nazi movement. Fortunately, there were also some who eventually became skeptical.

A sad book, but also one that encourages.

From the back cover:

"The White Rose tells the story of Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl, who in 1942 led a small underground organization of German students and professors to oppose the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazi Party. They named their group the White Rose, and they distributed leaflets denouncing the Nazi regime. Sophie, Hans, and a third student were caught and executed.

Written by Inge Scholl (Hans and Sophie's sister), The White Rose features letters, diary excerpts, photographs of Hans and Sophie, transcriptions of the leaflets, and accounts of the trial and execution. This is a gripping account of courage and morality."

Fallada, Hans "Every Man Dies Alone"

Fallada, Hans "Every Man Dies Alone" aka "Alone in Berlin" (German: Jeder stirbt für sich allein) - 1947

A remarkable tome. A remarkable story. A remarkable narrator.

Hans Fallada learned about the life and death of the married couple Elise and Otto Hampel and retold their life story. He immortalized them as Anna and Otto Quangel and thus created a monument not only to them but also to all the other little resistance fighters. All those who didn't want to just watch society go to the dogs. Who didn't want to be accused later of not having done anything.

Yes, they did exist, the Annas or Elises and Ottos. They tried desperately to wake up those close to them, perhaps to persuade one or the other not to just accept everything or - even worse - to think it was good.

To this day I still can't really understand how people could just watch. My parents told me different stories, about their parents trying not to get carried away and still offer their children a future. Today I see how many things are repeated. How people believe any story just because they hear it often enough.

Get Hans Fallada and other writers like him back into schools. Let children share in all the things that can go wrong. Otherwise we'll be back very quickly where we've been before and where we never, ever wanted to go again.

From the back cover:

"This never-before-translated masterpiece - by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn’t join the Nazi Party - is based on a true story.

It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbours and cynical snitches ready to turn them in.

In the end, it’s more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order - it’s a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what’s right, and for each other."

Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them"

Stroyar, J.N. "Becoming Them" (The Children's War Book 3) - 2017

Ten years ago, I read "The Children's War" and "A Change of Regime", one of the best books I ever read and still my favourite. As a German, having to live with the consequences of one of the most terrible wars ever, I have always asked myself what would have happened if the Nazis had won the war. We all would have lost, that's for sure. J.N. Stroyar has brought these thoughts to paper and painted a very vivid picture in her first two books. Then, one day, I learned there was a third one. Wow! I couldn't believe it. I was lucky to find a copy. I have no idea why these books don't get reprinted, I know so many people who would love to read it.

So, I finally found a copy. It had been ten years since I read the first two books. Would I remember enough to jump right back in? Looks like I didn't even have to. The author was so clever to include a ten pages of summary in the front where she retells the story for those who want to review what was in the first books and it might even be enough for those who never read the first ones. I think this should be obligatory for any sequel to any book. Makes reading the follow-up so much easer.

They say on the back cover "the long awaited finale". I didn't even know there was to be a finale. I didn't even know there would be a third book. Mainly, I think, because so little is known about the author. All I know is that she's a US physisict who used to live in German (Frankfurt, I believe) and now lives partly in London and partly in the USA. And that she won the "Sidewise Award" in 2001, an annual award for "Alternate History". She doesn't even have a Wikipedia page. So, I haven't seen anywhere that she was writing a third story.

In this final book of the trilogy, we see how everything gets together in the end, how the long and arduous underground work finally leads to the end of the Nazi party. But not without many, many difficulties first. This third book is just as fascinating, exciting and thrilling as the first two. I hope many people will be able to read it.

I also hope that the author is going to write more books.

Quote from Wikipedia:
"The Bradenton Herald described The Children's War as 'a brutal look at what might have been and a reminder of the price of freedom.'"
So very exact and true.

From the back cover:

"The long awaited finale of The Children’s War is presented in Becoming Them. Drawn from genuine historical incidents and people, both from the past and the present, the story examines the psychology of war, torture, and resistance, of guilt and innocence.

Set in a world sixty years after the conquest of Europe by Nazi Germany, the resistance movement continues its struggle for freedom, passing their war on from generation to generation. Peter Halifax, one-time member of the English Underground, has just been released from prison and now works with his assassin wife Zosia Król in Berlin under the direction of her brother, Ryszard, who, as his alter-ego Colonel Richard Traugutt, is second in command of the Third Reich. Together they attempt to collapse the Nazi Party and reform the Reich from within.

The story begins in London where Peter has been sent to liaise with the English Underground as a member of the newly formed Nichtdeutsch Council, but instead he becomes the target of an assassination attempt. It is only one indication of the growing chaos and violence in the Reich as the population becomes disenchanted with the dithering leadership of their new Fuhrer, Josef Frauenfeld.

As a member of the Nichtdeutsch Council, Zosia attempts to organize the various opposition factions into a coherent movement while struggling to raise her family, carefully keeping her three children away from Berlin high society where Magdalena, who is Elspeth’s and Peter’s daughter, might be recognized. She also maintains contact with her base in the Carpathian mountains and undertakes jobs for them that lead her into ever more questionable actions.

Richard Traugutt, as special advisor to the Fuhrer, works to change the laws of the Reich to give more rights and freedoms to its subjects, but he is endlessly stymied by Frauenfeld who has fallen under the sway of Richard’s enemies, the Lederman brothers, who are staunch supporters of the racial categorizations of Reich law. In an attempt to shatter Frauenfeld’s illusions about the rigid class system, Richard maneuvers Peter, who is still classified as subhuman, into the highest tiers of Berlin society, into re-establishing his illicit relationship with Elspeth Vogel, and even into befriending the Fuhrer in the hopes of causing a cultural clash that will force Frauenfeld to re-evaluate his adherence to Nazi philosophy. Traugutt’s plan falls foul of all his directives, and his determination to follow his own personal agenda for reform, ruthlessly manipulating people and events to maximize their effectiveness – whatever the personal cost – results in constant conflict with his allies and a withdrawal of support from the Underground hierarchy.

As their plots unfold and the Resistance begins to tear itself apart, the past comes back to haunt them all, sowing distrust and fear among the conspirators. With each passing month they more and more come to resemble that which they hate. Their loyalties are frayed, their motives are questioned, trusted comrades turn traitor, and their enemies grow in power. Time is running out.

As background to the story, Becoming Them contains a complete summary of both The Children’s War and A Change of Regime."

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2021.

Camus, Albert "The Just Assassins"

Camus, Albert "The Just Assassins" (aka The Just) (French: Les Justes) - 1949

I'm not the biggest fan of reading plays but I love Albert Camus. And what should I say, this almost read like a novel. It probably helped that it was about a subject I am very interested in. Apparently, this is based on real social revolutionaries.

The big philosophical question of the play is: Can you kill for the sake of revolution? Is it just or is it still murder? Do you kill a few in order to save thousands or even more? It's for you to decide.

Not just with the location, also with the subject and the way he asks the questions, does he remind me of my favourite Russian authors, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

In any case, this book leaves us with a lot to ponder about. Perfect.

From the back cover:

"Camus’s The Just (Les Justes) is a five-act play based on the true story of a group of Russian revolutionaries who assassinated Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in 1905. First produced in 1949, The Just is a significant, eerily resonant, moving, and highly theatrical work. With a humanist perspective, Camus delves into the hearts and minds of five idealists who each grapple with a heinous choice and ultimately commit murder, in the name of justice. Now, more than ever, the play provokes and reverberates with a troubling yet necessary line of inquiry. Do the ends justify the means? Is terrorism ever a viable choice? What is the true cost of resistance? What is the difference between a freedom fighter and a murderer?

What The Just makes so compelling and haunting is the way Camus uses clearly drawn characters to tell such an intimate yet horrific story. He completely understands and sympathizes with his characters but never apologizes for their actions. And although it was written more than fifty years ago and set in another era, The Just feels entirely contemporary and vital. In this play, Camus attempts to understand what it would require to take violent action and assassinate someone in power yet somehow maintain a sense of justice and morality. Is this even possible?"

Albert Camus received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times".

I contribute to this page: Read the Nobels and you can find all my blogs about Nobel Prize winning authors and their books here.

Hislop, Victoria "Those Who Are Loved"

Hislop, Victoria "Those Who Are Loved" - 2019

I have read a few books by Victoria Hislop and also quite a few about Greece. Next to those by the same author, "Modern Greece" by C.M. Woodhouse is probably the best if you want information about (especially the modern) the history of this interesting country. Victoria Hislop also recommends this book in her list of "Suggested Reading".

Victoria Hislop's stories about life in Greece are so informative and gripping, no wonder the Greek granted her honorary Greek citizenship for promoting modern Greek history and culture. Definitely deserved.

While we have learned i.a. about the history of Greece during the Ottoman Empire, this is a story about Greece during and after WWII. A lot of people always assume that with the end of that awful war, on VE Day, there was peace everywhere in the world except for the Pacific region. But it carried on in Europe in many areas. Like here in Greece where they felt the wounds of what was started during the occupation even more when it came to starting fresh. The country was just as divided as Germany, albeit in a different way.

In this book, we meet a normal family who has different opinions on politics. Sounds familiar? Yes, it happens all the time. There are people who are willing to fight for the freedom of their country, others who don't see a problem where there is a huge one. If this kind of different people are in one family, it can cause a lot of heartbreak and chaos.

As usual, Victoria Hislop manages to describe the different individuals, their feelings and their beliefs true to detail and possible to empathise with.

While searching for the places where this book takes place (mainly Athens and the prison islands Makronisos and Trikeri), I found an interesting website/blog about different books and their locations. Have a look here. I thought it might show some pictures but I quite liked that at least we can see where exactly the places are.

I can't wait for Victoria Hislop's next book.

From the back cover:

"Athens 1941. Nazi forces occupy Greece … and a nation falls apart.

Fifteen-year-old Themis comes from a family polarised in its political views. The Nazi occupation only deepens the faultlines between those she loves while it reduces Greece to destitution.

In the civil war that follows the end of the occupation, Themis joins the Communist army to fight for her beliefs. Ultimately imprisoned on the infamous islands of exile, Makronisos and then Trikeri, Themis encounters another prisoner whose life will entwine with her own in ways neither can foresee. And finds she must weigh her principles against her desire to escape and live.

As she looks back on her life, Themis realises how tightly the personal and political are entangled. While some wounds heal, others deepen.

Already a Number one bestseller, this gripping new novel sheds light on the complexity and trauma of Greece’s past and weaves it into the epic tale of an ordinary woman compelled to live an extraordinary life."

Gorky, Maxim "Mother"

Gorky, Maxim (Максима Горького) "Mother" (Russian: Мать/Matj) - 1906/07

I love Russian literature. Their style is quite unique. This book makes no difference. The author was not only active in the emerging Marxist communist movement, he founded this style, the socialist realism literary method. We meet Pelageya who is abused by her husband. After his death, her son Pavel starts fighting the Tsarist regime. His mother is at first hesitant and fearful, but then she supports the young people because she realizes that things cannot go on like this. She "adopts" all her son's friend and is a second mother to them, sometimes more a mother than their own one.

We learn how hard life is in a village in Russia at the turn into the 20th century and how difficult it is for the ordinary man to feed his family. They had nothing, not even hope that under this government anything would ever get better for them. I don't know what many of us would do in those circumstances nowadays.

The book is mainly about the revolutionists, the underground résistance and why they fought their tsars. We can all imagine but this puts it on paper for all to follow. It's also about the love of her mother to her son and how far she would go in supporting and defending him.

A great book.

Apparently, he was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize for Literature. What a shame he never received it. Would have been well deserved it.

From the back cover:

"Maksim Gorky was a Soviet author and founder of the socialist realism literary method. He was also a political activist who spent several lengthy stays in Capri and Italy. Gorky traveled throughout his native land and at one point became friends with Lenin. His travels overwhelmed him with the vastness and beauty of his country and they also made him sharply aware of the ignorance and poverty of its people. This novel tells the story of the common proletariat who protested against the czar and the capitalists which eventually led to the October Revolution. Pelageya is the wife of a factory worker who ignores the political upheaval in her country in favor of caring for her personal life. She represents hundreds of workers who are concerned with living their lives. Her son Pavel takes a different path and joins the revolution inspiring many Russians who were living under a capitalistic society in Russia. Gorky saw the 'mother country' as supporting her children as they fought for their rights.
…
Every day the factory whistle bellowed forth its shrill, roaring, trembling noises into the smoke-begrimed and greasy atmosphere of the workingmen's suburb; and obedient to the summons of the power of steam, people poured out of little gray houses into the street. With somber faces they hastened forward like frightened roaches, their muscles stiff from insufficient sleep. In the chill morning twilight they walked through the narrow, unpaved street to the tall stone cage that waited for them with cold assurance, illumining their muddy road with scores of greasy, yellow, square eyes."

Abulhawa, Susan "The Blue Between Sky and Water"

Abulhawa, Susan "The Blue Between Sky and Water" - 2015

This is my second book by Susan Abulhawa. I loved "Mornings in Jenin" and was sure this wouldn't be bad, either. And I was not disappointed.

The author tells us about ordinary Palestinians whose lives changed when the Israeli state was formed. All of a sudden, they had no country any more, no rights, nothing. They were pushed from one side to the next and the world looked upon them as troublemakers. I always wonder what others in their situation would have done. Probably nothing else.

We always hear about Palestinians in the news when they have attacked something. We never hear when they have been attacked. The news would be full of them, I guess.

Anyway, this book is about several generations of a Palestinian family, how the different members cope with the changes - or don't cope. It is especially about the women who, like usual, have to carry most of the burden. And they often become stronger with the troubles that are coming their way.

I have friends in Israel and I don't want this to be seen as a criticism against them. But I totally understand the people of Palestine and that they would wish to have their country back. A lot of the troubles in the Middle East could have been avoided, had not some Europeans decided this was the best way to solve their conflicts.

I will definitely read more books by Susan Abulhawa. She is a great story-teller.

From the back cover:

"It is 1947, and Beit Daras, a rural Palestinian village, is home to the Baraka family - oldest daughter Nazmiyeh, brother Mamdouh, dreamy Mariam and their widowed mother. When Israeli forces descend, sending the village up in flames, the family must take the long road to Gaza, in a walk that will test them to their limits.

Sixty years later, in America, Mamdouh's granddaughter Nur falls in love with a doctor. Following him to Gaza, she meets Alwan, who will help Nur discover the ties of kinship that transcend distance - and even death. Told with raw humanity, The Blue Between Sky and Water is a lyrical, devastatingly beautiful story of a family's relocation, separation, survival and love."

Sansom, C.J. "Dominion"

Sansom, C.J. (Christopher John) "Dominion" - 2011

"The Children's War" by J.N. Stroyar is probably my favourite book ever. Therefore, I was quite pleased to find this book that tells another story about what would or could have happened, had the Nazis won the war. I have always said I am glad they didn't, even though some of my foreign friends might think I shouldn't be thankful Germany lost the war. But that is wrong. Germany didn't lose the war, the Nazis did and that was for the good of everyone, not just the foreigners. My parents who were still quite little when they were elected have been telling me stories that go hand in hand with these kinds of books.

Therefore, well done, Christopher John Sansom. In this novel, we assume that there wasn't a WWII, just a short war in 1939 and that the Nazis won and carried on ruling the world. And what an awful world that was. Just as bad as living in Germany during those years when you weren't a Nazi. You had to hide your feelings from everyone around you, just in case they disagreed with you and reported you. My grandfather made the mistake to warn everyone before the elections and was given quite a hard time afterwards. Luckily, they lived quite remote and he could hide in the nearby bogs.

Back to the book, we follow different kinds of people in Nazi ruled Britain, the followers, the resistance, the Jews, and even some German military guys who come to "help out". We get to know them quite well and follow their stories, their hopes and their dreams.

It was extremely interesting for me to read all this, imagining my grandparents in a time like that. Maybe someday I will come upon a great book about the German resistance in those hard times.

Best quote:
"Whenever a party tells you national identity matters more than anything else in politics, that nationalism can sort out all the other problems, then watch out, because you’re on a road that can end with fascism."

From the back cover:

"1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers, and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled; the streets patrolled by violent auxiliary police and British Jews face ever greater constraints. There are terrible rumours too about what is happening in the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House. Defiance, though, is growing.

In Britain, Winston Churchill's Resistance organisation is increasingly a thorn in the government's side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle forever. Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given by them the mission to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London’s Great Smog; as David’s wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . .

At once a vivid, haunting re-imagining of 1950s Britain, a gripping, humane spy thriller and a poignant love story - with Dominion, C.J. Sansom once again asserts himself as the master of the historical novel."

Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila "Imago" or "The Big Green Tent"

Ulitzkaya, Lyudmila "Imago" or "The Big Green Tent" (Russian: Zelenyi shater/Зеленый шатер) - 2010

I love Russian literature. This is a new, modern author I discovered when I found the book. A brilliant book. The author describes life in the Soviet Union and begins with the death of Stalin and what it meant for the people and how their lives went on after that. I don't think it's a big spoiler if I tell you that it's not getting any better.

We learn about the lives of a group of friends, three boys who have a brilliant literature teacher and how he influences the rest of their lives, how they live or don't live with the inflictions put upon them by the regime of their country. The boys come from very different backgrounds but their lives in the Soviet Union all bring them the same kind of problems. And three girls, as well, their path crosses that of the boys later in life when they are older.

All of them love reading and there are many great books they mention in the novel (list follows at the end). I think most of them are really worth reading.

Whether you like big tomes (almost 600 pages) or short stories, this is a combination of both, although the short stories are linked to each other. A brilliant writer who explains life under the KGB to outsiders, us. A great storyline, carefully described characters, even any smaller character comes to life and brings in their own tragedy.

I am always on the lookout for new writers that I love and here I have found a real gem. A story you can't put down which will stay with you forever. A brilliant fiction book that explains history in a way no non-fiction book is able to.

I read the German translation "Das grüne Zelt" (The Green Tent).

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2026.

From the back cover:

"The Big Green Tent is the kind of book the term 'Russian novel' was invented for. A sweeping saga, it tells the story of three school friends who meet in Moscow in the 1950s and go on to embody the heroism, folly, compromise, and hope of the Soviet dissident experience. These three boys - an orphaned poet; a gifted, fragile pianist; and a budding photographer with a talent for collecting secrets - struggle to reach adulthood in a society where their heroes have been censored and exiled. Rich with love stories, intrigue, and a cast of dissenters and spies, The Big Green Tent offers a panoramic survey of life after Stalin and a dramatic investigation into the prospects for integrity in a society defined by the KGB. Each of the central characters seeks to transcend an oppressive regime through art, a love of Russian literature, and activism. And each of them ends up face-to-face with a secret police that is highly skilled at fomenting paranoia, division, and self-betrayal. An artist is chased into the woods, where he remains in hiding for four years; a researcher is forced to deem a patient insane, damning him to torture in a psychiatric ward; a man and his wife each become collaborators, without the other knowing. Ludmila Ulitskaya’s big yet intimate novel belongs to the tradition of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Pasternak: a work of politics, love, and belief that is a revelation of life in dark times."

She also mentions so many other books - some of which I've read, others I have put on my wishlist - and authors that are certainly worth looking at:

Aksakow, Sergei Timofejewitsch " Childhood Years of Bagrov Grandson" (Детские годы Багрова-внука/Detskie gody Bagrowa-wnuka)
Arzhak, Nikolay (real name: Yuli Markovich Danie) "Report from Moscow" (Говорит Москва)
Dostoevsky, Fyodor "Crime and Punishment"
Herzen, Alexander
Kropotkin, Pyotr "Memoirs of a Revolutionist" (Записки революционера)
Nabokov, Vladimir (called Sirin in the novel) "Glory" (Podvig)
Pasternak, Boris "Doctor Zhivago"
Tolstoy, Leo "Anna Karenina"
Tolstoy, Leo "Childhood", "Boyhood", and "Youth" (Детство, Отрочество, Юность)
Tolstoy, Leo "War and Peace"
Yerofeyev, Venedikt "Moscow-Petushki" (or Moscow to the End of the Line, Moscow Stations, and Moscow Circles) (Москва - Петушки)
Zamyatin, Yevgeny "We" (Мы/роман)

Doerr, Anthony "All the Light We Cannot See"

Doerr, Anthony "All the Light We Cannot See" - 2014

The last couple of years, I have read the latest Pulitzer Prize winner and have usually been very happy with them. So, I had to read this one, as well. And it has not disappointed me.

Anthony Doerr managed to write a different kind of war story, a story about the little people, on either side of the war, those that had not much to say about what was happening to them and who paid the highest price. He tells the story of a German orphan boy and a blind French girl who both suffer from what happened, who were probably not even in school when the election in Germany decided about their fate and who had to pay the highest price.

The story is fascinating, the writing is careful yet beautiful, the characters are described in a loving way. This is one of the books that you would like to read as slow as possible because you hope it will never end. Because, even though you hope for a good ending, you fear for a bad one.

I wish there would be more books written like this because it might teach the people of today what it might have been like to live in Germany during that time, that not all Germans were Nazis and that even those who were often had no choice.

A brilliant book that I would recommend to anyone.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"The epic new novel, set during WW2, from Sunday Times Short Story Prize-winner Anthony Doerr.
Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret.

Werner Pfennig is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering.

At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in. And yet, it will not allow him to remain shut in forever

Doerr’s combination of soaring imagination and meticulous observation is electric. As Europe is engulfed by war and lives collide unpredictably, ‘All The Light We Cannot See’ is a captivating and devastating elegy for innocence and of how, against all odds, people try to be good to one another."

Anthony Doerr received the Pulitzer Prize for "All the Light We Cannot See" in 2016.

There were also a few books mentioned/read in the book.
Darwin, Charles "The Voyage of the 'Beagle'"
Hertz, Heinrich "The Principles of Mechanics"
Verne, Jules "Around the World in Eighty Days"
Verne, Jules "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"

Hessel, Stéphane "Time for Outrage!"

Hessel, Stéphane "Time for Outrage!" (French: Indignez-vous!) - 2011 

This is probably one of the shortest "books" I ever read. It would not even go as a short story for many people. Just about 30 pages.

Stéphane Hessel is 93 years old and he was a member of Résistance during the war.

When he published his book in France, it caused a lot of attention. The author encourages us to be outraged. He has seen what happens when people aren't. He encourages us to stand up not only to dictatorship but before that to the business world, the banks, the financers, to fight for the minorities, against pollution and therefore for humanity and our earth.

I think everybody should read this, it doesn't take long but could change the world for the better if we all acted accordingly.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"This controversial, impassioned call-to-arms for a return to the ideals that fuelled the French Résistance has sold millions of copies worldwide since its publication in France in October 2010. Rejecting the dictatorship of world financial markets and defending the social values of modern democracy, 93-old Stéphane Hessel - Résistance leader, concentration camp survivor, and former UN speechwriter - reminds us that life and liberty must still be fought for, and urges us to reclaim those essential rights we have permitted our governments to erode since the end of World War II."

Binet, Laurent "HHhH"

Binet, Laurent "HHhH" (French: HHhH) - 2010

"HHhH", the French title is the same as the English, the German has an addition that explains the weird letters: Himmlers Hirn heißt Heydrich. The translation: Himmler's Brain is called Heydrich.

The story is not about Hitler or Himmler but about Reinhard Heydrich, a high ranking German Nazi officer and Jozef Gabčík, a Slovak soldier, and Jan Kubiš, a Czech solider and their "Operation Anthropoid" whose goal was Heydrich's assassination.

Heydrich was a member of the SD (Sicherheitsdienst = security service, part of the SS). The least-known and the most sinister of all Nazi organizations. Including the Gestapo. He didn't just'invent' the yellow star to be worn by all Jews, he also designed the gas chambers. Needless to say, he was considered the most dangerous man in the Third Reich, they called him the "Hangman of Prague", the "Butcher" and the "Blond Beast". Not really a title any sane person would want to achieve.

Laurent Binet has found a unique way of combining the telling of a non-fiction story, part of an autobiography and making that into a novel. Apparently, he calls it the infranovel. Interesting way to get through the subject, great way to get the reader accustomed to the characters in the book. It might need some getting used to him jumping from the first to the third person but I really love his style.

Even if you don't want to read any more about WWII or the Nazis, this is one book you should give a try. There is a lot of heart in it and it is very informative at the same time.

He starts with: "Let me tell you a story. A true story. A story that you might know, but only in the passing." and that is how he carries on, talking to the reader as if he were in the same room.

And I shall finish with another quote:
"Memory is of no use to the remembered, only to those who remember." Therefore, let us remember.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"'HHhH: 'Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich', or 'Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich'. The most dangerous man in Hitler’s cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the 'Butcher of Prague'. He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible - until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service, killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History.
Who were these men, arguably two of the most discreet heroes of the twentieth century? In Laurent Binet’s captivating debut novel, we follow Jozef Gabćik and Jan Kubiš from their dramatic escape of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to England; from their recruitment to their harrowing parachute drop into a war zone, from their stealth attack on Heydrich’s car to their own brutal death in the basement of a Prague church.

A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and Laurent Binet’s remarkable imagination, HHhH - an international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman - is a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing, a fast-paced novel of the Second World War that is also a profound meditation on the nature of writing and the debt we owe to history."

Some of the books mentioned by the author:
Burgess, Alan "Seven Men at Daybreak"
Flaubert, Gustave "Salammbô"
Harris, Robert "Fatherland"
Sand, George "Jean Zizka" (Žižka)
Schmitt, Éric-Emmanuel "La Part de l'autre" (no translation)
Vollmann, William T. "Europe Central" 

Gillham, David R. "City of Women"

Gillham, David R. "City of Women" - 2012

This was a novel chosen by our book club. This will probably be the last International Book Club book I discuss for a while. For health reasons, I regrettably had to decide to end it for now. But I hope to start again at some point.

I probably would not have chosen this book if I had to decide for myself. I like to read books about the war but I prefer to read them when they are written by someone who lived through the war, and there are plenty of accounts like that.

What was even worse in this case, the author is a non-German man but he writes mainly about German women. I could have forgiven that fact if I had had the feeling that he knows what he is talking about. But already the names give you the impression that he has no idea. They are all spelled differently, no German would spell the name Erika with a "ch" (so Ericha), for example, and even Karin with a C looks weird. It just leaves behind a weird taste of unprofessionalism and makes the story less believable. It reminded me of those of my American friends who find out that the city Wiesbaden is pronounced Weeesbaden and henceforth spell it Weisbaden.

Anyway, the names were not the only part that was annoying, the whole plot, the whole language was rather simple. Yes, he was trying to tell how the women in a war torn city lived, how they carried on their lives in Nazi-Germany. But did he really manage to do that? The story wasn't as brilliant as a lot of the critics suggest, it was boring at times and didn't reveal anything new that I hadn't read in other, much better books about the second World War.

Not my book. Probably goes well for those people who would call it a "beach read". I would file it under "chick lit".

We discussed this in our book club in September 2013.

From the back cover:

"Whom do you trust, whom do you love, and who can be saved?

It is 1943—the height of the Second World War—and Berlin has essentially become a city of women.
Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.

But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets.

A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit.  A young woman doing her duty-year is out of excuses before Sigrid can even ask her any questions.  And then there’s the blind man selling pencils on the corner, whose eyes Sigrid can feel following her from behind the darkness of his goggles.

Soon Sigrid is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.

In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death."

Hislop, Victoria "The Thread"

Hislop, Victoria "The Thread" - 2011

This is my third book by Victoria Hislop and it is not going to be the last. I have loved every single line of this.

While a young man visits his grandparents in Greece, they tell him the story of their life and at the same time the story of their town and country. Thessaloniki has gone through a lot of turmoil and so have its inhabitants.

We get to know successful men and unhappy women, determined men who want to save their country as well as people who have given up all hope. We go through the German occupation and follow the resistance fighters into the mountains. We meet a young seamstress who is determined to work hard to get through life. Her love to the man she shouldn't fall in love with has to overcome many obstacles but since we meet them as the grandparents of the young man at the beginning, we already know that they will finally have a happy end.

This is a story about love and a story about survival. How do people, especially women, get through tumultuous times. Even in wartime, some people seem to try to hold up a class system whereas for others it just seems to became unimportant. We learn how families react differently in difficult situations as well as how relationships are formed - or not - and how different marriages function - or not.

There is so much history in this book, so many details that make history interesting even to people who are not interested in history at all. Victoria Hislop has earned her place on my list of favourite authors. She usually starts with a prologue taking place today and then goes back into the history when finally coming back to modern times in her epilogue. I especially loved the title of this book, a light allusion to the job of a seamstress as well as to all the different people in the story whose lives are linked together.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

From the back cover:

"Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a devastating fire sweeps through the thriving Greek city where Christians, Jews and Muslims live side by side. Five years later, Katerina Sarafoglou's home in Asia Minor is destroyed by the Turkish army. Losing her mother in the chaos, she flees across the sea to an unknown destination in Greece. Soon her life will become entwined with Dimitri's, and with the story of the city itself, as war, fear and persecution begin to divide its people.

Thessaloniki, 2007. A young Anglo-Greek hears his grandparents' life story for the first time and realises he has a decision to make. For many decades, they have looked after the memories and treasures of the people who were forced to leave. Should he become their next custodian and make this city his home?"

Find the other Victoria Hislop books I read here.

Kladstrup, Donald & Petie "Wine and War"

Kladstrup, Donald & Petie "Wine and War" - 2001

A book about World War II. Not unknown to me, I have read a lot of accounts of this terrible time in our history and usually am impressed by the way people can report about their lives or that of others during this period. Not this time, I'm afraid. It was chosen in our book club after having been suggested the second time in a row. I didn't vote for it last year, I didn't vote for it this year. I must have known why. I didn't care for it at all. I don't drink wine or any alcohol and compared to all the other atrocities that happened in that war, I couldn't care less about the disappearance of a couple of bottles of grape juice gone sour.

In addition to that, a lot of the subjects were only barely touched and very superficial, I didn't have the impression the authors had researched this topic very well. I also really disliked misspellings of French or German words, sorry, but that is just unacceptable in any book but especially a non-fiction one. As to the rest of the book, I learned more about this subject in my history lessons at school. One more thing, the authors don't even have a page on Wikipedia, not good news nowadays.

As to the book club, only one other person disliked the book. She thought it was a confusing, disjointed read, even though there were some interesting parts.

Most of the others really liked it. They said they learned that not all Germans were bad (true, that did come through). The whole idea about collaboration raised new questions with De Gaulle sitting in England in safety whilst Petain who did not want to be in the situation like in WWI had to make decisions in France. Of course, it's always easier to judge after the fact anyway. What would we have done?

One member mentioned that although it was not a fine piece of writing, it was interesting to read about different families throughout France and their situations. The description of the way of life and the importance of wine in the culture, how the production of wine has changed since the war, the Vichy, the restoration of the vineyards, which years were good/bad wine years and why, and the relationships between the Germans and the French (particularly the wine growers) were some of the more interesting bits.

So, most of our non-European members, especially when they were new to Europe, thought they learned a little from it. I guess, maybe the book should stay in North America. ;-)

Two quotes that caught my attention, one I like, the other one I didn't.

The letter Maurice wrote to his wife: "In my meditations, I find that nothing in life counts more than the happiness we can give others, the good that we can do. This is what we must teach our children, to think of others more than they think of themselves, for it is in this way they will find the most noble satisfaction of all.”"

"Although the war was awful for the world, it was the most beautiful moment of my life. I felt so full of patriotism." (That's why I don't like patriotism.)

From the back cover:

"The remarkable untold story of France's courageous, clever vinters who protected and rescued the country's most treasured commodity from German plunder during World War II.

'To be a Frenchman means to fight for your country and its wine.' Claude Terrail, owner, Restaurant La Tour d'Argent

In 1940, France fell to the Nazis and almost immediately the German army began a campaign of pillaging one of the assets the French hold most dear: their wine. Like others in the French Resistance, winemakers mobilized to oppose their occupiers, but the tale of their extraordinary efforts has remained largely unknown-until now. This is the thrilling and harrowing story of the French wine producers who undertook ingenious, daring measures to save their cherished crops and bottles as the Germans closed in on them. Wine and War illuminates a compelling, little-known chapter of history, and stands as a tribute to extraordinary individuals who waged a battle that, in a very real way, saved the spirit of France."

We discussed this in our book club in March 2012.

Levi, Primo "If Not Now, When?"

Levi, Primo "If Not Now, When?" (Italian: Se non ora, quando?) - 1982

Primo Levi lived during the most part of the 20th century. He was Italian, he was Jewish, he was a chemist, and he wrote a couple of books. This one is about two Russian Jews who join a band of partisans behind enemy lines.

The books is based on a true story. I must say I loved it. The language was great, the story interesting, the people well described. An action-filled story that also brings up a lot of questions about war. Good read, a good basis for interesting discussions.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2024.

From the back cover:

"Primo Levi was among the greatest witnesses to twentieth-century atrocity. In this gripping novel, based on a true story, he reveals the extraordinary lives of the Russian, Polish and Jewish partisans trapped behind enemy lines during the Second World War. Wracked by fear, hunger and fierce rivalries, they link up, fall apart, struggle to stay alive and to sabotage the efforts of the all-powerful German army. A compelling tale of action, resistance and epic adventure, it also reveals Levi's characteristic compassion and deep insight into the moral dilemmas of total war. It ranks alongside 'The Period Table' and 'If this is a man' as one of the rare authentic masterpieces of our times."

Deforges, Régine "The Blue Bicycle"

Deforges, Régine "The Blue Bicycle" (French: La Bicyclette Bleue) - 1981

I thought this might be an interesting book, the description sounded good, a young French woman working for the Résistance during WWII with her blue bicyle.

However, I was shocked, the further I got into the book, the more I was convinced that I knew the book. It's practically the French "Gone with the Wind", the same story, the same scenes, just different names. Apparently there are now 10 parts, so maybe they also copied "Scarlett".

I wanted to know more about this and googled it. I found out that Margaret Mitchell's heirs had sued Ms. Deforges for plagiarism. Why they lost? It's beyond me, I suppose the judge has never read "Gone with the Wind".

From the back cover:

"'The little savage from Montillac' is what her suave lover Francois calls Lea, passionate heroine of this frankly lush, romantic novel of France during the war years 1939-1942. Daughter of a rich wine grower in Bordeaux, Lea sees her adored childhood sweetheart, Laurent, married to his cousin, namby-pamby Camille. Lea has lovers but never stops carrying the torch for Laurent, while tending pregnant Camille during Laurent's service at the front, holding down the family estate of Montillac, where Germans are billeted, and cycling through occupied checkpoints with messages for the Resistance. Deforges, a bestselling writer in France, gives us moving scenes of civilian panic and carnage and glimpses of Paris high life enjoyed by collaborators and black-marketeers. Radio broadcasts by the still unknown de Gaulle, and defeatist Petainhead of the Vichy puppet regimefire French patriotism and keep the underground going. Plenty of entertainment here, and echoes of Gone with the Wind, though it's hard to tell what lusty Lea sees in Laurent."

Stroyar, J.N. "The Children's War" and "A Change of Regime"

Stroyar, J.N. "The Children’s War" - 2001

Stroyar, J.N. "A Change of Regime" - 2004

When people say that Germany lost WWII, I always answer, the Germans didn’t lose the war, the Nazis did. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if the Nazis had won? Well, J. N. Stroyar gives us a pretty good idea. Little is known about the author. She is an American scientist who lives in Germany and has done extensive research on dictatorships around the world.

In her two books "A Children’s War" and "A Change of Regime" she draws a picture that couldn’t be more vivid if it was reality. She describes Europe (and the rest of the world) how it would be today if the war had ended differently. In her scenario, the Nazis won and are still reigning most of Europe. In her history, Hitler’s astrologer convinced him that attacking the Soviet Union was a bad idea, and the German nuclear weapons program saw better progress.

I can honestly say that this is one of the best books I have ever read. The story is completely intriguing, the characters are described in the best possible way, they really are characters, every single one of them, even the description of the landscape that usually is just added to the story is so interesting, you want to devour every single word. There are some very powerful scenes where you think you are part of this book, you can hardly put it down.

You won’t forget this story very fast, I’ve read it six years ago and I still think about it daily. The only bad part is that there isn’t a third book, actually!

From the back covers:

THE CHILDREN'S WAR

"'Peter has had more identities than he can remember and suffered pains and humiliations he longs to forget. But, whether spy or prisoner, slave or propaganda tool, none of his roles has brought the one thing he wants above all: freedom.'

Bad papers. That's how Peter's nightmare began. Living in contemporary Europe under Nazi domination -- more than fifty years after the truce among the North American Union, the Third Reich, and the Soviet Union -- Peter has struggled to make sense of the reign of terror that governs his world. Now, arrested for bearing a false identity, he is pulled full-force into a battle against Nazi oppression. The crusade for freedom that belonged to generations past is now Peter's legacy -- and his future depends not on running away, but on fighting back.

Escaping a Nazi prison camp and joining the Underground Home Army, Peter dedicates himself to breaking down the system that betrayed him. But by facing the evil at the heart of the Nazi political machine, Peter falls deeper into a web of intrigue and adventure that risks everything he holds dear -- in this life and for the sake of future generations.

A disturbingly real vision of what could have been, 'The Children's War' is a page-turning epic thriller with a mesmerizing premise and an unforgettable cast of characters. J.N. Stroyar's searingly authentic, impassioned vision of human triumph over the forces of corruption and cruelty stands as a powerful tribute to the millions who have sacrificed and died in the name of freedom."

A CHANGE OF REGIME

"The struggle against evil continues in 'A Change of Regime', with the characters introduced in J. N. Stroyar's award-winning, critically-acclaimed novel 'The Children's War'. The Third Reich lives on! Having carried out the assassination of his former tormentor Peter Halifax returns to the secret enclave of the anti-Nazi resistance to continue the fight against the regime with his wife Zosia. Emboldened by his success in overcoming his past, Peter returns to Berlin and dices with death to fulfill his dream: providing an escape route for the slave laborers of the Reich. Meanwhile Zosia's brother Ryszard continues his attack from within as he infiltrates, as S. S. Colonel Richard Traugutt, ever deeper into the core of Nazi power, even to within grasp of the ultimate prize: Fhrer of the Third Reich. But there are other forces at work and as Ryszard is forced into betraying Peter, his political enemies plot their own Armageddon. Based on meticulous research and real-life stories, painstaking attention to detail gives the story a brutal reality. The novel addresses the issues of today as the characters wrestle with mad dictators, terrorism, and their own desperate passions. A tale of espionage, of love and betrayal, of courage and collaboration." 

 

13 years after this, the author published a third book from this series:
"Becoming Them" - 2017

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2021.