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3.46 AVERAGE
3.46 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A short story set in post WWII Germany, with the British proposing a 'cleansing program' for the Germans. This book reads like a soap opera or novella. Romance, scandal and the gritty realism of war make for a quick and interesting read.
This novel is definitely not one of my standard choices of literature. But I was immediately encapsulated by the flowing and lyrical delivery of words. Of course, I am truly inexperienced in matters such as these and would understand if there was some use of creative licence. But that doesn't negate the enjoyment I had for this book.
Aftermath is set in Hamburg, Germany and takes place immediately after the second World War in 1946. Its beautiful descriptions highlight the total destruction of the war and the suffering experienced on both sides. The characters were natural, and this such a poignant novel that perfectly highlights the truth of the second world war. That everyone suffered a loss. .
This brilliantly created back drop is partnered with an engrossing storyline with some fantastic twists and turns. I cannot recommend this enough for a true insight into the aftermath of war.
Aftermath is set in Hamburg, Germany and takes place immediately after the second World War in 1946. Its beautiful descriptions highlight the total destruction of the war and the suffering experienced on both sides. The characters were natural, and this such a poignant novel that perfectly highlights the truth of the second world war. That everyone suffered a loss. .
This brilliantly created back drop is partnered with an engrossing storyline with some fantastic twists and turns. I cannot recommend this enough for a true insight into the aftermath of war.
A story about occupation, forgiveness, hatred masked as nationalism and grief. The backdrop is Hamburg, 1946, under British occupation. One of the coldest winters ever recorded has gripped the destroyed city and its damaged inhabitants. On the banks of the river Elbe the British governor and his family move into a requisitioned villa sharing it with its German owner and his daughter...
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the journey of its characters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the journey of its characters.
4.8/5 stars!
I watched the film The Aftermath last year when I had covid and I thought it was amazing. It’s maybe not a book I would buy brand-new, but if I saw it in a charity shop I would get it and I saw it last week and I gasped (I think I scared the person next to me). I’ve been in such a bad reading slump recently I needed something like this to bring me back of track because I already watched the film I sort of knew what was going to happen even though this book deters quite a bit from the film I felt I would stick to this as so many books I have been reading recently I felt nothing/didn’t even finish.
The aftermath truly is about the aftermath of war and the aftermath of Rachael and Lewis’s marriage also with Luthbert and his daughter losing his wife/her mother. It sounds stupid to say, but before watching the film, I didn’t actually realise how much the war affected Germany afterwards, how they were treated like nothing how they were starving, their homes weren’t even properly being rebuilt. It sounds silly, but reading the book as well shed so much light on how badly Germany were treated after the war. Only a very small portion of Germans were Nazis, very very small compared to the millions of Germans that were innocent. Almost made to feel guilty of Hitler’s crimes, like it was all individually their fault for the war camps.
What I like about the book is bringing German and English people together. Rachael at the beginning has resentment towards the Germans for the loss of her son and the estrangement of her marriage. Luthebert losing his wife and his daughter Frieda blaming the English for the loss of her mother. I felt in the film that this was done a lot better than the book. It makes so much sense the changes that they made from the book. It’s so much more heartfelt and the messages so much clearer where the books message is a little bit more murky. The ending of the film is a lot better than the book and the relationship between the characters are so much stronger, especially Lewis.
I think the film focuses a lot more on the affair. There may be other aspects to the book as there are some characters in this book that were not in the film. There was so many changes it did feel like it was a different book slightly, but I have to admit sadly I did prefer the film to the book and that’s why it’s a 4.8 out of five stars. I don’t even know if I would’ve loved this book as much if I hadn’t of watched the film but I still really did love this book I couldn’t put it down. I was so addicted even though the flow is a little bit inconsistent. Sometimes I feel it does go of piece and it needs to be brought back to its centre. I still enjoyed it. I love the message. I think it’s very interesting and it brings to light how the Germans were treated during the end of the war something I didn’t really know too much about being English in history we only really learn of our victory.
I watched the film The Aftermath last year when I had covid and I thought it was amazing. It’s maybe not a book I would buy brand-new, but if I saw it in a charity shop I would get it and I saw it last week and I gasped (I think I scared the person next to me). I’ve been in such a bad reading slump recently I needed something like this to bring me back of track because I already watched the film I sort of knew what was going to happen even though this book deters quite a bit from the film I felt I would stick to this as so many books I have been reading recently I felt nothing/didn’t even finish.
The aftermath truly is about the aftermath of war and the aftermath of Rachael and Lewis’s marriage also with Luthbert and his daughter losing his wife/her mother. It sounds stupid to say, but before watching the film, I didn’t actually realise how much the war affected Germany afterwards, how they were treated like nothing how they were starving, their homes weren’t even properly being rebuilt. It sounds silly, but reading the book as well shed so much light on how badly Germany were treated after the war. Only a very small portion of Germans were Nazis, very very small compared to the millions of Germans that were innocent. Almost made to feel guilty of Hitler’s crimes, like it was all individually their fault for the war camps.
What I like about the book is bringing German and English people together. Rachael at the beginning has resentment towards the Germans for the loss of her son and the estrangement of her marriage. Luthebert losing his wife and his daughter Frieda blaming the English for the loss of her mother. I felt in the film that this was done a lot better than the book. It makes so much sense the changes that they made from the book. It’s so much more heartfelt and the messages so much clearer where the books message is a little bit more murky. The ending of the film is a lot better than the book and the relationship between the characters are so much stronger, especially Lewis.
I think the film focuses a lot more on the affair. There may be other aspects to the book as there are some characters in this book that were not in the film. There was so many changes it did feel like it was a different book slightly, but I have to admit sadly I did prefer the film to the book and that’s why it’s a 4.8 out of five stars. I don’t even know if I would’ve loved this book as much if I hadn’t of watched the film but I still really did love this book I couldn’t put it down. I was so addicted even though the flow is a little bit inconsistent. Sometimes I feel it does go of piece and it needs to be brought back to its centre. I still enjoyed it. I love the message. I think it’s very interesting and it brings to light how the Germans were treated during the end of the war something I didn’t really know too much about being English in history we only really learn of our victory.
I really enjoyed this book. I only picked it up as the second half of a 'buy one get one half price' deal at Waterstones at the till. It was recommended by the bookseller.
The blurb did not sell the book to me. I thought it sounded shallow and too close to chick lit for my liking. It was so far from that! It's a raw look at post-war Germany. Looking at the effect of war on the English, the Germans, children, parents, soldiers and everyone in between. It's about real people and real problems.
I would recommend!
The blurb did not sell the book to me. I thought it sounded shallow and too close to chick lit for my liking. It was so far from that! It's a raw look at post-war Germany. Looking at the effect of war on the English, the Germans, children, parents, soldiers and everyone in between. It's about real people and real problems.
I would recommend!
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
There aren't a lot of novels set in the years immediately following the Second world War. The war itself has been thoroughly covered, but the period after it when a shattered Germany embarks on its reconstruction is rarely mentioned. That is what first attracted me to this book, and it's that period and the difficulties coming to terms with what happened and the personal complications that causes is the premise of this book.
The Aftermath tells the story of Colonel Lewis Morgan who heads up the British administration in an area near Hamburg. As with other senior officers he requisitions a grand house nearby for himself and his wife Rachael and son Edmund who travel over from Britain to join him. However, in a story that is based on real life events from Rhidian Brook's own family, rather than throw out the German architect Stefan Lubert and his daughter Freda, he instead insists that they stay on in the house with his family. Although this creates surprise and slight suspicion from colleagues, it is Morgan's wife Rachael who finds this hardest to adapt to with memories of losing their eldest son Michael through a stray German bomb whilst living in supposedly safe rural Wales, still fresh in her mind.
What this book is first and foremost is a story about relationships and shared experiences, and people's different attitudes to dealing with complicated world they now live in. Lewis Morgan has been on the frontline during the war, but wants to help get to know the Germans and help improve their lives post-war. Rachael Morgan has lost a son, about which she feels very bitter and makes understanding the similar pain felt by many Germans very difficult to empathise with, even though Lubert is struggling, but in a quieter way, to comes to terms with a loss of his own. This book eventually centres on the way these two start to bond over this shared experience despite supposedly being 'enemies'. This theme of a shared experience is also emphasised by metaphors such as the Elbe flowing out to the North Sea which links Germany to Britain, and two characters watching a fire that is described as a 'theatre with its own plots and sub-plots'. There is a distinct melancholy throughout much the book, but it is one interspersed with good times and a hope to return to the past when Germany was a great cultured and prosperous country.
Although this book is set 70 years ago, the theme of trying to rebuild countries devastated by war and dictatorship is also a very modern one, having a resonance with what is currently happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the ever present difficulties throughout this book is how much to trust the 'enemy' with parallels with the fear of what has become known in Afghanistan as 'green on blue attacks' where supposed allies turn out to be very much not so. In many respects the language used is also very similar, "we had a convoy attack by two insurgents last week."
Although I enjoyed this book a lot I do have a few quibbles. One was the feeling every so often that the author had certain passages or lines that he'd pictured in his mind and just levered in to this story even though they didn't necessarily fit with the rest of it. Some of the description of Lubert's dreaming of his late wife seemed oddly graphic compared to the rest of the book. Another was Morgan's sudden poetic thoughts about his interpreter "he wanted to know about those boots - their provenance, the roads they'd travelled, the experiences had in them." when there hadn't been any other such elaborate language up to that point in the book. My biggest source of dissatisfaction though was the ending which I felt petered out rather than coming to a satisfactory conclusion. Once the rapprochement between two of the leading characters had started to take place I thought I knew how the book would end, and I was pleased that my guess was wrong, I did end up being left with a feeling that it hadn't ended properly.
Despite the ending however, this was an enjoyable book and one I would definitely recommend to others. The book has already been bought to be turned in to a film by Ridley Scott, and I expect it will make a very good film, possibly a better film than a book, but I'd guess that it is therefore going to be big. So read it now, before the film is released.
The Aftermath tells the story of Colonel Lewis Morgan who heads up the British administration in an area near Hamburg. As with other senior officers he requisitions a grand house nearby for himself and his wife Rachael and son Edmund who travel over from Britain to join him. However, in a story that is based on real life events from Rhidian Brook's own family, rather than throw out the German architect Stefan Lubert and his daughter Freda, he instead insists that they stay on in the house with his family. Although this creates surprise and slight suspicion from colleagues, it is Morgan's wife Rachael who finds this hardest to adapt to with memories of losing their eldest son Michael through a stray German bomb whilst living in supposedly safe rural Wales, still fresh in her mind.
What this book is first and foremost is a story about relationships and shared experiences, and people's different attitudes to dealing with complicated world they now live in. Lewis Morgan has been on the frontline during the war, but wants to help get to know the Germans and help improve their lives post-war. Rachael Morgan has lost a son, about which she feels very bitter and makes understanding the similar pain felt by many Germans very difficult to empathise with, even though Lubert is struggling, but in a quieter way, to comes to terms with a loss of his own. This book eventually centres on the way these two start to bond over this shared experience despite supposedly being 'enemies'. This theme of a shared experience is also emphasised by metaphors such as the Elbe flowing out to the North Sea which links Germany to Britain, and two characters watching a fire that is described as a 'theatre with its own plots and sub-plots'. There is a distinct melancholy throughout much the book, but it is one interspersed with good times and a hope to return to the past when Germany was a great cultured and prosperous country.
Although this book is set 70 years ago, the theme of trying to rebuild countries devastated by war and dictatorship is also a very modern one, having a resonance with what is currently happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the ever present difficulties throughout this book is how much to trust the 'enemy' with parallels with the fear of what has become known in Afghanistan as 'green on blue attacks' where supposed allies turn out to be very much not so. In many respects the language used is also very similar, "we had a convoy attack by two insurgents last week."
Although I enjoyed this book a lot I do have a few quibbles. One was the feeling every so often that the author had certain passages or lines that he'd pictured in his mind and just levered in to this story even though they didn't necessarily fit with the rest of it. Some of the description of Lubert's dreaming of his late wife seemed oddly graphic compared to the rest of the book. Another was Morgan's sudden poetic thoughts about his interpreter "he wanted to know about those boots - their provenance, the roads they'd travelled, the experiences had in them." when there hadn't been any other such elaborate language up to that point in the book. My biggest source of dissatisfaction though was the ending which I felt petered out rather than coming to a satisfactory conclusion. Once the rapprochement between two of the leading characters had started to take place I thought I knew how the book would end, and I was pleased that my guess was wrong, I did end up being left with a feeling that it hadn't ended properly.
Despite the ending however, this was an enjoyable book and one I would definitely recommend to others. The book has already been bought to be turned in to a film by Ridley Scott, and I expect it will make a very good film, possibly a better film than a book, but I'd guess that it is therefore going to be big. So read it now, before the film is released.