The German House Kindle Edition

I purchased the Kindle version of this novel based on an excellent review in the Washington Post. I came away not totally dissatisfied but let down nonetheless. Perhaps if you're completely unaware of post-WW2 German history or have no knowledge [spoiler alert?] that many Germans sought to put the Nazi past behind them and move on, some of the revelations of this story may surprise you. But if, like me, you're familiar with at least the basics of what happened during de-Nazification, there isn't much in this plot that comes as a big shock. Based on the review I had expected a profound story that delved into the attitudes and mindsets of the German people in the 1960s. Instead I got a pretty simplistic plot, somewhat wooden characters, but a decent narrative pace. Re-reading that review after I had read the novel, I saw that the author is a writer for German television and immediately I thought to myself, "Yes, that's it. Television." I was hoping for a deeply psychological novel, but what I got was a TV movie of the week.

Until I read it I wasn't aware of the 1963 trials in Frankfurt. Hess has well developed characters and a good plot, but the writing is awkward even for a first novel. I realize that the problem could lie with the translation. Too much is going on, though. Annegret's actions distract from the main plot.

I'd always wondered to what extremes we as humans are capable of denying the cruelta going on before our eyes. Is it so important to survive by fooling oneself?

This was a book that was a slow read of what could be a really really interesting subject. The overall plot of using the main character's development through these trials held my interest enough to plod through the confusing sudden shifts in character's points of view. I'm giving some grace to the translation, but it got confusing when in the span of a few paragraphs we have heard from two or more character's perspectives with no visible clues such as spaces between characters. And sometimes we have insight to a minor character which appears random and adds very little to the overall story (like what's up with the sub storyline of the doctor and Eva's sister? There was potential for growth in the sister but nothing really came out of that thread.) So honestly, while I found the overall plot interesting, it reads more like a first draft which should have been edited to fine tune the whole story to be less confusing and more precise, either enriching the subplots or removing some of them. Because I still didn't get enough of a feel for the David character to understand what happened to him. This is really only 2.5 stars.

This was an excellent story. It is complete in its telling. It's characters were well defined. The side story of the older sister seemed out of place and the way the narrative switched, from one paragraph to another, was a bit baffling.

The story resounds with me on many levels, since l spent post-war time in Frankfurt with my father's relatives. They had a dachshund named Purzel. My uncle had also been arrested, like Juergen's father. The only discord in the story, vis a vis my experience, was the nastiness of so many of the Germans in the story, which I didn't personally experience.This book, for me, was a "page turner".

.The holocaust could only happened because the population elected to use this situation of unrest nationally to put their antisemitism and melody of Jewish achievement to a solution.P

Addresses concept of guilt and reparations, can anything atone for great evil? Do children bear the sins of their parents. Memory is a significant motif - who remembers most clearly?

Well, I loved this book. I read in bed in the evening: I found myself going to bed earlier and earlier to get back to this compelling, absorbing story. It really is an immersive read - a brilliant way to spell out/ram home the horrors of the holocaust without making us look directly at it. I thought the story-line was really skillful. It was clearly a translation, some of it was clunky, but I found this made the book even more beautiful - I felt like I was absorbed into German/Germany - fantastic - I don't know much about the methods of translation or if it was intentional but the result, for me, really was perfect. Bravo to the writer (and the translator) - I understand Annette Hess writes TV drama, I'd love to see them here in the UK, and of course, The German House would make a truly aawesome film.

I orginally bought this book to get some background information on life in Germany in the 1960s but soon got caught up in the story and kept reading right through to the end. I loved the twists which were bizarre but utterly believable in the way that they were presented.

Such a fabulous book. I really enjoyed it. My one complaint is that the book seemed to come to a very quick ending

I thought it explored the truth well and enjoyed the story through.

Très bien comme d'habitude.