We Germans
A Novel
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE
A letter from a German soldier to his grandson recounts the terrors of war on the Eastern Front, and a postwar ordinary life in search of atonement, in this “raw, visceral, and propulsive” novel (New York Times Book Review).
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
In the throes of the Second World War, young Meissner, a college student with dreams of becoming a scientist, is drafted into the German army and sent to the Eastern Front. But soon his regiment collapses in the face of the onslaught of the Red Army, hell-bent on revenge in its race to Berlin. Many decades later, now an old man reckoning with his past, Meissner pens a letter to his grandson explaining his actions, his guilt as a Nazi participator, and the difficulty of life after war. Found among his effects after his death, the letter is at once a thrilling story of adventure and a questing rumination on the moral ambiguity of war. In his years spent fighting the Russians and attempting afterward to survive the Gulag, Meissner recounts a life lived in perseverance and atonement. Wracked with shame—both for himself and for Germany—the grandfather explains his dark rationale, exults in the courage of others, and blurs the boundaries of right and wrong. We Germans complicates our most steadfast beliefs and seeks to account for the complicity of an entire country in the perpetration of heinous acts. In this breathless and page-turning story, Alexander Starritt also presents us with a deft exploration of the moral contradictions inherent in saving one's own life at the cost of the lives of others and asks whether we can ever truly atone.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scottish-German writer Starritt (The Beast) unearths the horrors of the eastern front in WWII Poland through a letter written by a veteran of the German army to his grandson in this thoughtful, unsettling chronicle. Meissner begins the long letter by addressing a question he presumes his grandson was afraid to ask him: "Did you do terrible things?" "It's hard to say," Meissner writes, "but certainly not in the way you presume." Meissner recounts his memories of the fall of 1944 near the German border, when he and four fellow soldiers search for a rumored stockpile of food delicacies. They come across a hunting lodge that's being guarded by Feldgendarmen, German military police. Upon killing some of the Feldgendarmen and pilfering the Wehrmacht's store of food and alcohol, the five soldiers flee, fearing pursuit by the remaining Feldgendarmen. As they wander through the woods and ponder their next moves, they come upon a Russian tank brigade and capture one of them before attacking the other Russian tanks. The aftermath of the skirmish is most memorable to Meissner as he recalls the bravery of one of his fellow soldiers, who helped carry him to safety from the Russians. Starritt's gritty depictions of the horrors of war and the moral choices faced by soldiers add intensity to the ruminations on courage. This is a fascinatingly enigmatic addition to the literature of Germany's coming to terms with the past.