The German House | Annette Hess #DEUfiction

The German House by Annette Hess was a fascinating read.

Translated into English by Elisabeth Lauffer, it's essentially a coming-of-age story about a young woman who works as a translator during the Frankfurt Trials of 1963-65. Her story is complicated by childhood memories that her parents gloss over, a controlling fiance, a co-worker with demons from his past and a sister who is completely disturbed and dangerous, yet works in the maternity ward at the nearby hospital. So many secrets, psychological problems and unresolved issues. All these individual and personal stories of guilt, culpability and responsibility echo the larger drama being played in the court room and across the country.

Hess covers this murky period of time, post-war, where the German people tried to forget the war, with a great deal of perception and sensitivity. The older generation's collective amnesia and motto of 'let the past lie' haunted the next generation as they grew up during a time of peace and well-being, completely unlike that of their parents. What their parents did during the war and how much did they know tainted and divided families with guilt, distrust and shame.

In the 1960's, Germany was enjoying a post-war boom and didn't want to be reminded of its past. The Nuremberg Trials, immediately after the war, had dealt with some of the big names of the Reich leadership, and for most Germans this was enough. The defendants were tried under the international crimes against humanity law. Everyone else was considered to have been just following orders, without really knowing or understanding what was happening in the camps.

In 1963, KGB assassin Bohdan Stashynsky was found not guilty of murder by a German court. Instead he was found to only be an 'accomplice to murder' as the ultimate responsibility lay with his superiors in the KGB.

According to Wikipedia, the implications for this meant that:

in a totalitarian system only executive decision-makers could be convicted of murder and that anyone who followed orders and killed someone could be convicted only of being accomplices to murder. The term executive decision-maker was so defined by the courts to apply only to the highest levels of the Reich leadership during the National Socialist period, and that all who just followed orders when killing were just accomplices to murder. Someone could be only convicted of murder if it was shown that they had killed someone on their own initiative, and thus all of the accused of murder at the Auschwitz trial were tried only for murders that they had done on their own initiative. 

The Frankfurt Trials attempted to bring to account many mid to lower level officials from the Aushwitz-Birkenau camps. Under state law, the judge could only indict for murder if there was a clear case that showed an individual had murdered on his own initiative. Those, for instance, who had operated the gas chambers, could only be indicted as accomplices to murder because they had been following orders.

No wonder the whole issue around complicity and culpability created tension between generations. How to come to terms with supporting and adoring, right to the bitter end, a charismatic leader. Where did his madness and evil end and individual responsibility begin?

The Germans have spent the past 70 years working through this concept of German collective guilt, or Kollektivschuld. I believe there are levels within levels that describe the various phases of this guilt over time.

One such idea is Vergangenheitsbewältigung, the 'struggle to overcome the past' or 'work through the past'.

Modern generations today may wonder about the extent of this generational collective guilt. Young Australians and young Americans seem to have very little concept of historical legacy. They seem to have completely drawn a line under anything that happened in previous generations as having nothing to do with them. The Gen Z's I know have almost no interest in anything older than them. George Santayana's famous and oft-quoted observation that 'those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it', is completely lost on them. I have been told numerous times that this history is not only forgotten, but irrelevant. They would never fall under the charm of a magnetic, yet dubious personality or do anything that they didn't want to do.

Oops. I didn't mean this post to become a soapbox rant about generational attitudes towards history. I've obviously been holding onto that one for a while!

As you can probably guess, I feel very strongly about historical precedent, bias, revisionism, lenses, patterns, cycles, who gets to tell the story of history, which bits get left out and what lessons can be learnt, if any. As Hess implies in her story, the contemplation of history is both a bitter and healing exercise.

The German House was meant to published in Australia on the 3rd December, but we are still waiting for it to appear on our shelves. I'm not sure why it has been delayed.

Facts:

• Lauffer was the recipient of the 2014 Gutekunst Prize for Emerging Translators.

The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman

Text Publishing:

Tom Hope doesn’t think he’s much of a farmer, but he’s doing his best. He can’t have been much of a husband to Trudy, either, judging by her sudden departure. It’s only when she returns, pregnant to someone else, that he discovers his surprising talent as a father. So when Trudy finds Jesus and takes little Peter away with her to join the holy rollers, Tom’s heart breaks all over again. 

Enter Hannah Babel, quixotic smalltown bookseller: the second Jew—and the most vivid person—Tom has ever met. He dares to believe they could make each other happy. 

But it is 1968: twenty-four years since Hannah and her own little boy arrived at Auschwitz. Tom Hope is taking on a batttle with heartbreak he can barely even begin to imagine.

This is not really a book about a bookshop.

But the lost and brokenhearted are everywhere.

If you're looking for another 84 Charing Cross Road or The Little Paris Bookshop or The Storied Life of A J Fikry, then this is not it. However if you enjoy gentle historical fiction full of love, tenderness and beautiful scenes of Victorian country life, you've found a winner.

Hillman has previously written the biographies of three Holocaust survivors - all women - so he is pretty well placed to write a sympathetic and accurate story about another such woman. It's not the first time that a bookshop setting has been used to represent culture and civilisation as a counterpoint against a time, person or place that is the complete opposite. But it is a useful, hopeful way of showing us how the better side of human nature triumphs over the worst.

In the Reading Guide for the Canadian edition of his book, Hillman said,

...victory. In the life of all Jews who outlived those who wished to murder them and found the courage to embrace life again, a victory is recorded. For me, every lovingly maintained bookshop is also a victory over all that is dowdy and dumb in the world.

The titular bookshop is more of an idea than the actual setting of the story, though.

The main backdrop of the story is Tom's farm in country Victoria. The bookshop may be a place of courage and ideas, but Tom's place is all about the heart and soul. It's a place to heal, to belong and to feel safe. All the main characters in the story are lost and damaged, one way or another. There are varying degrees of tragedy and trauma explored. Whether it's at the hands of a Christian fundamentalist cult, a deranged gunman, a thoughtless wife and mother, a revolutionary mob or Adolf Hitler. However, Hillman also said that,

it would be grotesque to suggest that the suffering of Hannah at the hands of the SS could be compared to Tom’s sorrow when Peter is taken away. People can recover from a broken heart, but the particular circumstances of Hannah’s heartbreak—no. The issue is not “recovery” but whether a commitment to life might allow a person to bear a terrible burden and still see the poetry in the world.

It is that commitment to life, that this gives this gentle story a little something special. It's easy to say that good will triumph over evil, that education will win out over ignorance and that kindness will oust brutality, but how? It doesn't just happen. You have to decide to make it happen. A life well-lived is the best victory of all.

Facts:

• Longlisted for the Australian Book Industry Award, Small Publishers' Book of the Year, 2019

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

This is one graphic novel that really packs a punch.

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman is one man's journey to understand what happened to his father during WWII. It's obvious from the opening pages that what happened to Vladek during the war had a huge impact on everything that came after. His marriages, his relationship with his son, Art, as well as having deep, abiding influences over Art's life to this day.

Art began his cartoon in 1980. It was serialised in Raw, an avant-garde comic magazine published by Art and his wife, Françoise Mouly, until 1991. The comic reflects conversations that Art began having with his father in 1978 about his war experiences. The story moves between these events and the modern day, where we see Art & Vladek's troubled relationship play our during their meetings.

There is a lot of sadness and unhappiness in this story.

Near the beginning of this story (in a story within the story) we learn that a teenage Art had spent some time in a mental health facility. Art's mother then committed suicide when he was twenty. 

Vladek and Anja were married before the war and had a young son, Richieu, who died during the war. Vladek and Anja survived the Polish ghetto as well as their time in Auschwitz and Birkenau, before eventually moving to Sweden (where Art was born in 1948) and then in 1951 emigrating to the States. 

Spiegelman uses animals as a kind of metaphor throughout.

The Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Polish are depicted as pigs (which created a controversial reaction when the book was translated into Polish in 2001) and the Americans are dogs. In a humorous meta-fiction moment in the story, Art and his wife are discussing how he should draw her as she is French. Should she be a frog? Françoise suggests a bunny rabbit, until they agree that since she converted to Judaism she should also be a mouse. I suspect there are whole websites, papers and articles dedicated to unpacking the meaning behind all of this, but I'm too tired to search them out right now! However, I did read that Art once said that using animals "allowed me to approach otherwise unsayable things." (MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus)

The Complete Maus contains two parts. 

Part I: My Father Bleeds History was first published in 1986, four years after Vladek's death. This part ended with Art walking away angrily from his father after learning that Vladek had destroyed all Anja's diaries and letters after her death when 'one time I had a very bad day'.

Art finds it hard to forgive his father for this act of destruction. 

Part II: And Here My Troubles Began shows Art struggling to come to terms with his newfound fame thanks to the publication of Part I. He has a young family and is obviously still trying to manage his own depressive episodes. 

Both Art and his father suffered from versions of survivor guilt, with Art not only living with his own memories but the stories of his parent's memories as well. The ghost memory of his brother, Richieu haunts him as well. Part II is dedicated to him, along with Art's own children, Nadja and Dashiell. (I read Nadja's memoir I'm Supposed to Protect You From All This a couple of years ago - it was one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time.)

This Pulitzer Prize winning book is not an easy read or a comfortable one, but if you only ever read one graphic novel in your lifetime, make it this one.
It's emotionally rich and complex.
The simple drawings convey so much emotion by the end, that I defy anyone to be left unmoved by the final page of the book. But it's Vladek's words that are at the heart of this story. Despite their complicated relationship, Art allows his father's words to stand. He bears witness to Vladek's story in an attempt to find meaning in something that is beyond understanding.

Maybe by Morris Gleitzman

Morris Gleitzman's Holocaust series for younger readers has already attracted much praise and many accolades. His stories carefully balance the reality of what actually happened with modern day sensibilities. Sad, bad things happen to his characters, but he doesn't describe them in gory detail. There is bleakness and injustice and cruelty, but there is also hope, love and mercy. And we all know that Felix survives the war, thanks to book number 3, Now.

Once is 10 yr old Felix's story about trying to find his parents. He is befriended by the spunky, Zelda and sheltered by a dentist called Barney, who is modelled on the real life Polish Jewish doctor who took in and cared for war orphans. Felix uses stories to make sense of the crazy things going on around him and to protect the traumatised Zelda. But, ultimately, Once is the story of lost innocence as Felix finally realises and accepts what is really happening.

Then is the heart-breaker.
The reality of the war and the horror of the Holocaust are really brought to bear in book 2. Gleitzman doesn't shy away from tough details or sadness, but then, how could you write a meaningful story about the Holocaust without them? The magic ingredient in all these books is hope. Felix is always optimistic and despite what awful things might happen, he always finds his way back to a position of hope.

I read the first three books of this series in a huge binge session one rainy, cold weekend. After wiping away my tears at the end of Then, I picked up Now straight away, desperate to find out what happened next. I cannot begin to tell you the huge relief I felt, as I realised that Felix not only survived the war and all the terrible things that happened to him, but fathered at least one child!

Now jumps forward 70 years and we meet an 80 yr old Felix living in Melbourne. He is spending time with his granddaughter, Zelda. But bushfires threaten to disturb the peaceful life that Felix has made for himself as a doctor in Australia. Now is a story about closure, memory and forgiveness.

And Felix's story could have finished there. That was the plan.

But Felix had other ideas.

After takes us back to the war. Felix is now 12 yrs old and has been hiding out in Gabriek's barn for 2 years. When things go bad, he finds himself in the forest with the partisans learning to fight. They also teach Felix some basic doctoring techniques and he quickly realises that he has a knack for it - more so than for fighting and killing. This is a story about the choices we make.

Soon is the tragic tale of what happens when the war finally ends. The horror, the cruelty and the hunger do not disappear just because the war is over. New threats and new fears throw out any ideas that Felix may have had that he only needed the war to end to feel safe and secure again. Instead his post-war life is filled with worry and despair. How can he stay hopeful when everything seems absolutely hopeless? Soon is a story about dreams and imagination.

Maybe is the refugee story that I thought Felix would want to tell us about. He is now 14 yrs of age and in the process of emigrating to Australia. This is his chance to live a in safe, modern world, where he can put his past behind him. But not all Australians welcome the idea of accepting an influx of war orphans and sadly, orphanages can be good - or bad - in any country.

Felix has had to grow up fast and the only thing that bugged me about this book was his voice. At times I wondered if Gleitzman was going to suddenly tell us that Felix was on the autism spectrum. The naive, childish voice didn't match Felix's life experience at all. It jarred. It was like he'd been allowed to grow up physically and intellectually, but not emotionally. The trauma of war, can do that to a person for sure, and maybe that's what Gleitzman was trying to get at. But it felt like a flaw in the story that Felix did not sound like a 14 yr old.

The simple storytelling style of 10 yr old Felix has not been allowed to mature and evolve into a teen story. Yet....

This reader, for one, is always hopeful and optimistic.

Gleitzman's webpage is a treasure trove of information about his books - for dedicated readers, teachers and parents. He also has lists of books that inspired or helped him with his research for this series.

Gleitzman's list of books about bushfires
Gleitzman's list of books about the Holocaust
Book 7 Always (to be published)
Book 6 Maybe
Book 5 Soon
Book 4 After
Book 3, 2 & 1 Now, Then & Once

Non-Fiction November: Be the Expert

This week's topic for Nonfiction November is Be the Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert:

Three ways to join in this week! You can either share three or more books on a single topic that you have read and can recommend (be the expert), you can put the call out for good nonfiction on a specific topic that you have been dying to read (ask the expert), or you can create your own list of books on a topic that you’d like to read (become the expert).

Hosted by Kim @Sophisticated Dorkiness, head on over by the end of today to link up and/or read all the fabulous responses.

I've had a Holocaust fixation for a very long time.

It goes back to Yr 9 at high school when I studied the causes and effects of WWII for the first time. We read Anne Frank's Diary as part of our studies. I was appalled, horrified and fascinated in equal measure. I simply couldn't understand how it happened. How did the German people get caught up in such a huge and obviously wrong situation? How did the rest of the world let it happen? And could it happen again?

The conditions and treatment of the Jews inside the concentration camps gave me bad dreams and bad feelings for years. How could human beings treat other fellow human beings so awfully? What did this say about man's inhumanity to man? Not only on a universal level, but also on a more personal, day to day level? What is in our human psyche, our human hearts and souls that could allow something like this to happen? Why did so many people participate knowingly in such events?

Over the years I have read many, many books about the Holocaust - histories, memoirs, commentaries, eye witness accounts, fiction, diaries and the occasional denial piece.

I still don't understand, but the three books that brought it tantalising close are:

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth by Gitta Sereny

Reading the Holocaust by Inga Clendinnen

Mein Kampf is an awful book, poorly written, full of hideous thoughts and ideas. But to understand evil you need to know what it looks like. Skim read it if that's all can you manage, but the early parts about his impoverished childhood give the modern, more psychologically aware reader some inkling into why Hitler and many German people like him, where able to think and act the way they did.

I felt dirty and guilty the entire time I was reading this book, but it reminded me that Hitler was not necessarily born evil. He acted like a monster, but he was in fact a human being, just like you and me, and that's the bit I still struggle to understand.

Gitta Sereny's biography on Albert Speer is a masterpiece in psychology, trust and truth. This huge book is a commitment, but it is worth every word and every page. Sereny wears down Speer's defences slowly but surely in this compassionate yet relentless search for truth, responsibility and conscience.

If you only ever read one book about the Holocaust, make it this one.

I read Reading the Holocaust about 15 years ago. It was hard going. Intellectual, exacting, in your face accounts from survivors and perpetrators that explored the Holocaust from ever angle. Clendinnen used her historians gaze to examine the stories and literature surrounding the Holocaust. Like me she was on a search for the human amongst the inhumanity. It was gut-wrenching, thought-provoking stuff, some of it not for the faint-hearted. But I've always figured that if people actually had to live through such unspeakable, unthinkable things...and survived, then the very least I can do is read about them and bear witness.

Perhaps not the lightest or easiest topic to be an expert on, but if you've ever wondered why or how such a thing could have ever happened, then these three books may help you come a step closer to understanding.

Soon by Morris Gleitzman

Soon is book 5 in the Felix and Zelda series created by Gleitzman in his attempt to "grasp the unimaginable."

Every time that Gleitzman thinks that he has finished this series, Felix pops up with more to say.

Soon finds Felix and Gabriek eking out a life of sorts in an abandoned, bombed out building. The war is over, but now the Russian soldiers have arrived in Poland and street gangs rule what remains of the city.

Felix finds ways to practice his doctoring skills which leads him to new friends and connections.

However, in such a shambolic world, loyalty and friendship can be dangerous things. And hope can seem far away.

As with the other four books, Gleitzman doesn't shy away from difficult topics, but they're handled in such a way that is age appropriate for mature 10+ readers.
Soon touches on war crimes, rape and sadly, once again, death.

When I finished Soon my first wish was for another Felix story.
I think Gleitzman felt this too.
The ending of Soon leaves plenty of room for what could come next - Felix as a refugee perhaps?

How did Felix emigrate to Australia?
What happened to Gabriek?
Who did Felix marry? And how many children did they have?

I also started thinking of possible names for the next book - When, Since, Before, Next, Later...?

But for now, you can find my Once, Now and Then review here and my After review here.

#XmasinSummer

My Year in Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction November is a fabulous meme hosted by Sophisticated Dorkiness et al.

The initial join up post asked about our favourite non-fiction reads for the year so far.

I felt that I hadn't read much NF this year, so I planned to skip this question in favour of focusing on AusReading Month.

However, thanks to a huge storm this afternoon, I've had more inside time than planned...so I decided to see what NF I actually had read in 2014.

I was pleasantly surprised to find 13 adult titles and 8 children's books under my non-fiction/biography tags.
7 were written by men; 14 by women. 14 were written by Australians; 7 by International authors.

I had several favourites this year.

parenting

Stepmother Love

All Joy and No Fun

Free Schools

travel

Le Road Trip

memoir/true crime 

This House of Grief
Boy, Lost
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running 

psychology

Change Your Thinking

children's

Big Red Kangaroo

All of these favourites are Australian titles except for Le Road Trip, What I Talk About & All Joy and No Fun.

 ********************************

My most recommended non-fiction book (written by an Australian) of all time is True Pleasures by Lucinda Holdforth.

Meet the dazzling women of Paris: from Colette to Nancy Mitford; Marie Antoinette to Coco Chanel;

Madame de Stael to Pamela Harriman; Napoleon’s Josephine to Edith Wharton. Rule-breakers and style-setters, demimondes and diplomats, these women were utterly diverse,
yet all shared one common passion — Paris, the world’s headquarters of femininity.
At a turning point in her life, Lucinda Holdforth journeys to Paris and takes a very personal tour through the lives, loves, and losses of its celebrated women.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Lucinda a few years ago. We shared a memorable night discussing France and literature - happy times.

My most recommended International non-fiction titles of all time are The Hare With the Amber Eyes & The Paper Garden.

The Paper Garden is unlike anything else you have ever read.

At once a biography of an extraordinary 18th century gentlewoman and a meditation on late-life creativity, it is a beautifully written tour de force from an acclaimed poet.

Delicately, Peacock has woven parallels in her own life around the story of Mary Granville Pendarves Delany (1700-1788) and, in doing so, has made this biography into a profound and beautiful examination of the nature of creativity and art.

In the future?

For balance, I would like to read more non-fiction from & about other countries again. I would also like to add more science & psychology to the mix to round out my preference for history & memoir titles.

I'm hoping that between Non-fiction November & AusReading Month I will finally finish The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and The Biggest Estate.

I also have 3 other Aussie non-fiction titles to peruse this month (time willing) - Adam Spencer's Big Book of Numbers, Sydney by Delia Falconer and The Best Australian Science Writing 2014 edited by Ashley Hay.

*************************************************************************

Ooops! Another 5 days have gone by & I haven't finished this post.

So I will merge the 2 weeks and apologise profusely for posting such a big fat non-fiction rant.

I thank you and applaud you if you have made it this far!

*****************************

Week 2 of Non-Fiction Novemberr is being hosted by Lu at Regular Ruminations.

This weeks question is about experts - being an expert or asking an expert.

Firstly, let me say how wonderful it is reading and exploring all these new non-fiction titles & authors. The extra special added bonus of course, is finding a whole stack of new-to-me blogs to explore as well.

I'm not sure that I am an expert in any one field of non-ficiton as my interests take me into so many areas, but....

During one of my many Holocaust phases I discovered Gitta Sereny.

Her most riveting & telling bio is called Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth. I cannot recommend this one highly enough. Sereny established a trust relationship with Speer from which to probe and push him to finally face the truth about what happened. It's an extraordinary account of how the people involved were able to ignore what was going on; how they deluded themselves & shifted responsibility.

Sereny's bio won the James Tate Black Memorial Award for Biography in 1995.

If like me, you're constantly trying to understand this atrocious time in history in an attempt to come to terms with man's inhumanity to man, then try Australian writer Inga Clendinnen's Reading the Holocaust. Some of her essays are very confronting, but she challenges you to think for yourself and to really see and feel what happened in the hope we will never let it happen again.

For an insider's account of the Holocaust, you can't go past Primo Levi. All his work is insightful & gracious, but If This is a Man is truly one man's search for his own humanity.

To move to a completely different, but slightly related topic - Coco Chanel.

I've read, enjoyed & highly recommend Chanel by Edmonde Charles-Roux & Chanel: The Legend and Her Life by  Justine Picardie. 

These two books not only reveal Coco Chanel warts and all, they also show us about life in France from the 1880's through to the 1970's. For anyone with Francophile tendencies, Chanel's bio's embrace a fascinating period of French history and culture.

On my TBR is the latest bio by Rhonda Garelick called Mademoiselle; Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History as well as Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent by Hal Vaughan.

I will stop here at the risk of overwhelming us all!

Please let me know of your favourite Chanel bio or your most enlightening Holocaust read. 

But for now, let me wish you all a very merry non-fiction goodnight.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The History of Love turned out to be an epic read. It took me nearly half a year to finish the book and almost as long to work out why I had so much trouble engaging with it.

The cover of my book had all sorts of labels attached to it  '1. Shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2006'.

2. A quote from Ali Smith "A beauty of a book, totally alive, made with real energy. It restores your faith in fiction. It restores all sorts of faith".

3. And another from the Independent on Sunday "A tender tribute to human valiance. Who could be unmoved by a cast of characters whose daily battles are etched on our mind in such diamond-cut prose?"

So what was my problem?

I didn't not like the book, I just couldn't rave about it in such glowing terms.

I kept waiting for the book to live up to the quotes...and it almost never did. At every page and stage I felt disappointment as I waited for "real energy" and "diamond-cut prose".

Sadly, The History of Love did not live up to my expectations.

However Leo did stay with me the whole drawn-out time. Even as I read other books inbetween and forget about everyone else in the story; Leo stuck. His loneliness and loss struck a chord.

Perhaps the book could have been called The History of Loneliness?

Loneliness, loss and love go hand in hand. To love is to fear losing that love one day. You can't have one without the other.

Certainly none of the characters in Krauss' book did!

I'm including this post in Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thurs L meme.

Lola Bensky by Lily Brett

I've enjoyed the Lily Brett novels, short stories and articles I've read over the years.

And Lola Bensky was no exception.

You know exactly what you're going to get with Brett.

You know there is going to be lots of Holocaust survivor issues, body weight issues and a protagonist who was born in a displaced persons camp, grew up in Australia, married twice, had three children and moved to New York.

I love trying to untangle the autobiographical truths from the fiction.

And I always love Edek.

This story is a little different from her earlier work as the focus is on Lola/Lily's time as a rock journalist during the late sixties.

Lola works for an Australian magazine, but travels to London and the US to interview people like Cat Stevens, Barry Gibb, Mick Jagger, Cher, the Mama's and Papa's, Jim Morrison, Otis Redding and Janis Joplin. She hangs out with Lillian Roxon and Linda Eastman. She gives her diamante-lined flase eyelashes to Cher, she discusses diets with Mama Cass and shares her parents experiences in Auschwitz with Mick Jagger.

Brett rolls out this story with humour, pathos and warmth.

Lola Bensky wasn't as strong or as moving as Too Many Men in my mind, but it was comforting to return to such familiar characters and such a charming style.

Update: November 2014 

Lily Brett is the first Australian (and only the fourth woman) to win the Prix Medicis Etranger for Lola Bensky. The French literary prize is given to an author whose novel has been translated into French from another language.

Previous winners include Doris Lessing, Milan Kundera, Michael Ondaatje, Amitav Ghosh, Philip Roth, Dave Eggers, Paul Auster and Orhan Pamuk.

Holocaust Literature for Younger Readers

Continuing my lists of Holocaust books for kids:

After by Morris Gleitzman


Anne Frank's Diary by Anne Frank  (R)

Chocolate Cake with Hitler by Emma Craigie

Elie Wiesel: Voice From the Holocaust by Michael Schumann

Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter

Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French

I Am A Star: Child of the Holocaust by Inge AuerbacherI Am David by Anne Holm

If I Should Die Before I Wake by Han Nolan

Jacob's Rescue by Makla Druker and Michael Hal

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Once, Then and Now by Morris Gleitzman

Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French

The Silver Sword by Ian Serralier  (R)

To Hope and Back by Kathy Kacer

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr  (R)

(R) read pre-blogging days

These are just a few titles that I remember from my childhood plus new ones I've discovered since writing this blog.

If you know of any other books that I should add to this list, please leave a comment (and a link to your review if you have one) and let me know.

Please also check out my posts for Holocaust Literature for Adults and for Teens.

Holocaust Literature for Teens

Below is a list if books that have the Holocaust as their main theme. 
These books are suitable for teen readers (12+)


After by Morris Gleitzman

Anne Frank's Diary by Anne Frank  (R)

Annexed by Sharon Dogar

Auslander by Paul Dowswell

The Boy in the Striped Pyjama's by John Boyne  (R)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak  (R)

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up In the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli


Night by Elie Wiesel  (R)

Once, Then and Now by Morris Gleitzman

Run, Boy, Run by Uri Orlev

The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail

(R) read pre-blogging


These are just a few titles that I remember from my childhood plus new ones I've discovered since writing this blog.

If you know of any other books that I should add to this list, please leave a comment (and a link to your review if you have one) to let me know.

Please also check out my posts for Holocaust Literature for Adults and for Younger Readers.

After by Morris Gleitzman

After is the fourth book in Gleitzman's series about Felix.

After came as a bit of a surprise for all of us, including Gleitzman himself. We all thought the story was done and dusted after Now. But it turns out that Felix had more to say.

After takes us back to the war. Felix is still in hiding in Gabriek's barn, but the Russians are on their way and the German's are fleeing...burning and pillaging as they leave.

After sees Felix and Gabriek helping the Partisans, fleeing the Germans and Allied bombing and confronting the reality of the concentration camps.

As with the other three novels, the story is told simply though the young Felix's eyes. Despite (or maybe because of) the juvenile language and thinking processes, the emotional impact is quite powerful in places.

Gleitzman has written a wonderful series for younger readers that takes them into the heart of Nazi Germany and the effects of the Holocaust. In spite of all the horror and heartbreak, he shows us the power of resilience, hope and love.

Mature 8+ readers could manage this although the content is aimed more at the 10+ reading level.

The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail

I've been trying to work out what I want to say about The Wrong Boy for a couple of days now.

The writing was pretty good, the story was exactly as you would expect from a teen romance/holocaust story and the history was accurate. But I was uncomfortable the whole time I was reading it.

I've read quite a lot of Holocaust literature over the years.

It is a subject I return to regularly, almost obsessively at times.

I am not Jewish or German, and I have not lived through a world war.

But ever since my first real brush with Nazi Germany in my Year 9 history class I have been on a mission to understand how the Holocaust could have happened.

My head, heart and soul are continually searching for the answers to how & why it is that 

Man's inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!

(Robert Burn - Man was Made to Mourn: A Dirge - 1784)

And that's when I realised what was wrong about The Wrong Boy - it didn't provide me with any clues or insights into man's inhumanity to man. I was not provoked into confronting any of my preconceived ideas or challenged into see a new perspective.

Fictionalising the Holocaust is not an easy job.

Many Holocaust stories are actually based on real events and real people with the author often feeling compelled to write the story as a way of processing their own family history and bearing witness. This kind of writing can be cathartic for the writer and eye-opening for the reader.

Perhaps if I was still a teenager just beginning my quest to understand, The Wrong Boy may have provided me with some answers. But as an adult, it failed to bring anything new into the ever-expanding field of Holocaust literature.

Suzy Zail has also written books for adults including 'The Tattooed Flower' about her father's experiences during the Holocaust.

P.S. I felt compelled to check what the rest of you were saying about this book on your blogs, especially the teen/YA readers.

There were many rave reviews that declared they were moved by this story and that they were shocked by many of the descriptions of events that were new to them. They were recommending this book to friends and hoping it would win awards. There were lots of blog discussions on man's inhumanity to man.

Knowledge is indeed a powerful thing. The more people who know about the Holocaust and are appalled by it, the less chance we have of history repeating itself.

Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French

Although I have enjoyed a number of Jackie French books over the years, I haven't thought of her writing as being particularly elegant or sparkling. I usually consider her writing to be more prosaic and deliberate than beautiful.

She writes marvelous historical fiction for children, but there are times when you can see her formula at work.

However, Pennies for Hitler has proven to be a cut above the rest so far.

The story of young Georg fleeing Germany alone, in fear of his life just as WW2 is about to start, is engrossing and at times, almost poetic.

I give you pg 110 "Crashes shook the air - different crashes now, not the dull roar of bombs but long slow crumbles as buildings stopped trying to stand up." 

and pg 147 "and that too high, too blue sky was new as well. A tiny cloud was creeping into it now, looking timid against all that blue."

pg 252 "The war dragged on, dragging the year with it".

Pennies for Hitler is a fine example of Jackie French at her best.
This is not a sequel to Hitler's Daughter. The only link is WW2 and the themes of identity, war and loss.

Edmund de Waal

I'm going to break my self-imposed silence to tell you about the Sydney Writers Festival event I went to yesterday.

Edmund de Waal of The Hare With the Amber Eyes fame spoke to Caroline Baum. This was one of my favourite books of last year, so I moved heaven and earth to get to the Opera House by 2.30 yesterday.

And I was well rewarded.

My first observation was that I was the youngest person in the room. At 44 I don't get to feel that very often anymore! But it gave me cause to reflect on the people who read memoirs and the people who have the time and money to attend writer's festival events!

Edmund (at age 48) was quietly erudite. He spoke with humility and grace. He was emotional and very giving of his time and thoughts. I feel that my appreciation for The Hare has deepened and expanded. If I had the luxury of rereading time, I would have started the book again last night.

As a result of The Hare's success, Edmund's grandmother's "unpublishable" book from the 1950's is about to be published for the first time. The Hare is going to be made in to a movie and his father has been able to return to the home of his birth in Vienna to wander around the old rooms once more.

The 3 biggest influences on his writing have been Primo Levi's The Wrench, Vasily Grossman and Austerlitz by WG Sebald. I've only read Levi on this list...but I suspect that the other 2 will find their way onto my ever increasing TBR list. 

Edmund is also friends with AS Byatt and Vikram Seth! Two authors that have written some of my all time favourite books. In fact, Edmund met AS Byatt when she approached him for help with potting...which she needed to write The Children's Book.

The Germans and Austrians have received The Hare very well, whereas the French have virtually ignored it. They seem to be upset that an Englishman dared to write about Proust (he referred to Proust's writing as an "anatomy of snobbery").
Edmund was also quite scathing about the "poisonous" undercurrant of anti-Semitism that has always existed in French society - something he feels has never been addressed by the French because of its deeply hidden and embedded nature and because it still exists. There was obviously no love lost there!

This is the last time that Edmund will be speaking publically about this book as he is about to start on a second one.

I was grateful to be part of his final audience and look forward to book #2.

Here is the link so you can listen to the interview on Radio National.

Happy Listening!

To Hope and Back by Kathy Kacer

This is the true story of the St. Louis, the last boat to leave Germany in 1939 with nearly 1000 Jewish refugees on board.

The journey is told through the eyes of 2 young children from different families, Sol and Lisa.

I have read quite a lot of Holocaust literature over the years, but this was a story I had never heard about before.
A boat full of refugees all with visas for Cuba, bought at great expense. A number of the families also had numbered visa permits for the US. The plan was to wait in Cuba until their number came up before emmigrating to the States.

As soon as the ship set sail the Nazis began a media campaign to convince the Cubans that the boat was full of dirty, poor, undesirable Jews who would take their jobs and use up their resources. The campaign was so successful (with street protests and letters of outrage to the President) that by the time the St. Louis arrived in Havana, the President had issued a decree renouncing all the visas of the Jewish refugees.

Various Jewish organisiations worked desperately to resolve the situation, but one by one, country after country in the area (including the US and Canada) refused entry to the St. Louis. The Captain of the ship had no choice but to turn around and head back towards Germany.

The story is told quite simply without pathos or drama.  Kacer uses photographs and documents throughout the book.

It is suitable for young readers 10+ and due for Australian release in May through Allen and Unwin.

If you would like to know more click here.

A Book of Sighs

The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund De Waal is one of those magnificent stories that made me sigh at every turn.

I sighed with pleasure; I sighed with sorrow; I sighed with delight; I sighed with horror; I sighed with anticipation and I sighed with satisfaction.

I hugged this book to my chest. I sniffed the pages. I caressed the cover and poured over the photos and illustrations.
The Hare with the Amber Eyes was a full body experience!

The Ephrussi family were an amazing group of people.

Hard-working, well educated, socially connected. They embraced the times they lived in wholeheartedly - they mixed with artists, poets and politicians. They were collectors of books, art, furniture and property. They lived through some of the most extraordinary periods of history in some of the most extraordinary cities of the world.

De Waal's device of following the trail of the netsuke through the generations was a lovely way to provide this story with a structure and a purpose. 
However this is not just another ramble through a family history. This is an extraordinary tale of family, love and loss.
*sigh*

Holocaust Literature for Adults

Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth by Gitta Sereny  (R)

All That I Am by Anna Funder

Austerlitz by Sebald  (R)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak  (R)

The Boy: A Holocaust Story by Dan Porat

The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert  (R)

Day After Day by Anita Diamant

Eichmann in Jerusalem:A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt

Exodus by Leon Uris  (R)

The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Raphael Baker  (R)

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels  (R)

The Hidden LIfe of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee

If Not Now, When by Primo Levi  (R)

Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor E Frankl


Maus by Art Spiegelman

Mila 18 by Leon Uris  (R)

Night by Elie Wiesel  (R)

The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman 

Ravensbrück by Germaine Tillion (with thanks to Nancy @ ipsofactodotme)

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink  (R)

Reading the Holocaust by Inga Clendenning  (R)

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Schindler's Ark by Thomas Kenneally  (R)

Sophie's Choice by William Styron  (R)

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky  (R)

Too Many Men by Lily Brett  (R)

World of My Past by Biderman

(R) read pre-blogging days

These are just a few titles that I have read plus new ones I've discovered since writing this blog.

If you know of any other books that I should add to this list, please leave a comment (and a link to your review if you have one) and let me know.

Please also check out my posts for Holocaust Literature for Teens and for Younger Readers.