A review by aotora
Nemška hiša by Annette Hess

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

This had the potential to be interesting ... too bad it wasn't. The first 3/4 of the books dragged and the last 1/4 felt boring. The book had potential - it's about the trials in Germany where a lot of high ranking SS officers get their punishment. The main character Eva is asked to join the trials because they need a German Polish transator and she knows the language. Throughout the trial she discovers that her own parents were involved, they also lived in the Auschwitz and her father was the cook for Nazis. She doesn't exactly forgive them by the end of the book but at least we learn why they were so against her translating on the trials. Her sister copes with trauma by eating a ton of food and by poisoning the babies she works with at the hospital with cholera, so she can then save them and be thanked - one of the doctors discoveres that but instead of reporting her or helping her seek help he marries her and they move away to another town - that felt so wrong on so many levels. The only character I cared about was David, but it turns out that he was lying part way through the book and he is assumed dead before the end - I wish that Eva and David ended up together by the end because I hated jorgen with passion and I didn't find myself rooting for them at all - so when they are together again at the end of the book instead of going ooh finally I am so happy for them I found myself cringing and groaning because I loathed this man - he is controlling and constantly jealous and speaking in her name, he goes behind her back and demands that they remove her from the trials and he is just generally a weird guy - granted we learn about some of the trauma that caused that towards the end of the book but I didn't really find myself caring, I didn't really care about any of the characters in fact even the victims because they are barely in the story. Overall, one of my if not my least favourite book about holocaust.