A review by editrix
After Midnight by Irmgard Keun

I finished this book six weeks ago and have been putting off writing a review because it was TOO GOOD SO GOOD I CAN’T HANDLE IT. Now that I’ve accepted there’s no hope of doing it justice, I’m coming back just to say formally that I love, love, love this book and will need to buy my own copy. In an earlier update, when I was only 10 percent in, I wrote: “The narrator is nineteen and perfectly eye-rolly in a way that feels real and also dangerous,” and that assessment definitely held up. When I went back just now to find some quotes to back up my enthusiasm, I got overwhelmed by how much stuff I’d highlighted because the writing (and translation) is so solidly excellent throughout, and so I’m sorry but you’ll just have to go find your own things to love about this wise, funny, harrowing book about being a feisty young woman in Nazi Germany (much of it based on the author’s own extraordinary life).