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A review by bookwormmuse
The German House by Annette Hess
4.0
I am lucky in that I get to read some books that I normally wouldn’t be able to. ARCs from NetGalley tend to do that and I am so glad that I got to know about it. The German House is about Frankfurt trials and I admit that I didn’t know much about this but I am so glad that I chose to request this one. I know a bit about the matter and the book also helped me gain knowledge so yay for that.
It’s translated fiction and it was a bit dry in the beginning and my pace was slow in the beginning because of that. However as the plot started to reveal itself, I started speeding up the reading. It also made me pause my reading and google some things because I simply wasn’t aware of those things and needed help.
So let’s get into the story. Eva Bruhns is twenty four years old, she’s hoping her boyfriend (Jürgen Schoormann) will propose to her soon, talk to her family about their wedding soon. She’s a translator and someone called David Miller suddenly wants her to translate some interviews, she does arrive to the interview and realises that it’s not her normal work. It’s about the war crimes trials and what she learns during this time horrifies her.
This is the gist of the book but what made it really notable to me was the way it’s written. While there was a patch in the beginning that was jarring when it just simply switched perspectives and I was super confused but apart from that, the book is so solid. Eva is a great main character and I think, from what I have read on the internet, her overall feelings on the trials are similar to what many people thought during that time who were also living Frankfurt.
There are other perspectives that also work wonderfully in the book, unlike in the beginning, these happen later in the book and were written in a better way. The other thing I loved about this one is the way the author wove a way to go into detail about the atrocities of war and concentration camps and just the general inhuman acts that happened in Auschwitz.
As someone who is always ready to learn more about history of the world, this one was a great educational trip. Seriously. So much googling. But in the best way possible. I would definitely recommend it to those who like to read about history or more importantly, WWII then this is a great pick.
It’s translated fiction and it was a bit dry in the beginning and my pace was slow in the beginning because of that. However as the plot started to reveal itself, I started speeding up the reading. It also made me pause my reading and google some things because I simply wasn’t aware of those things and needed help.
So let’s get into the story. Eva Bruhns is twenty four years old, she’s hoping her boyfriend (Jürgen Schoormann) will propose to her soon, talk to her family about their wedding soon. She’s a translator and someone called David Miller suddenly wants her to translate some interviews, she does arrive to the interview and realises that it’s not her normal work. It’s about the war crimes trials and what she learns during this time horrifies her.
This is the gist of the book but what made it really notable to me was the way it’s written. While there was a patch in the beginning that was jarring when it just simply switched perspectives and I was super confused but apart from that, the book is so solid. Eva is a great main character and I think, from what I have read on the internet, her overall feelings on the trials are similar to what many people thought during that time who were also living Frankfurt.
There are other perspectives that also work wonderfully in the book, unlike in the beginning, these happen later in the book and were written in a better way. The other thing I loved about this one is the way the author wove a way to go into detail about the atrocities of war and concentration camps and just the general inhuman acts that happened in Auschwitz.
As someone who is always ready to learn more about history of the world, this one was a great educational trip. Seriously. So much googling. But in the best way possible. I would definitely recommend it to those who like to read about history or more importantly, WWII then this is a great pick.