... [a] revelatory, riveting, and deeply moving account of his family’s involvement in Germany’s recent history ... The Merck story, however, is only a sideshow to Wolff’s central narrative in Endpapers , which focuses on the dramatically divergent paths taken by his paternal grandfather and father during the Nazi years. Elisabeth Merck’s first husband, the author’s grandfather Kurt Wolff, became the country’s most illustrious publisher during the Weimar era ... Wolff cast his eye on both contemporary Germany and his family’s turbulent road through the twentieth century, from the vantage point of a city that stands on the fault lines of Germany’s recent past ... For six years Kurt and Helen lived in a comfortable limbo in France (where their son, Christian, was born) and Italy. All that changed suddenly, however, when the Nazis invaded Poland. Declared enemy aliens, the couple was interned in a camp in southern France, and when the Nazis broke through the Maginot Line in June 1940, they became fugitives under the Vichy puppet regime. Wolff has pieced together this period in remarkable detail, capturing the fear, desperation, and helplessness of a literary titan who found himself reduced to a victim, dependent on the goodwill of a few heroic people ... The question of German guilt, both individual and collective, continues to haunt Alexander Wolff as he dives deeper into his family history. Some of the strongest passages of Endpapers capture the emotional arguments between Kurt and his daughter Maria, Niko’s sister.

Now, having looked more deeply into that Germanness, the author is left with layers of ambiguities—“Kurt and Helen’s flight and exile, Maria and Elisabeth’s fate to be ‘rats in a trap,’ Niko’s service on two fronts.” In contemporary Berlin, where the Nazis’ victims are memorialized in the very pavement, Alexander Wolff exposes in his ancestors’ experiences the common thread. It is the barest, most basic definition of purpose in life, neither noble nor subhuman: survival.

... an event-filled biography and, along the way, a captivating case study in the challenges faced by refugees attempting to remake a life ... [the elder] Wolff brought about convulsions of his own, shaking up the American postwar literary scene. His grandson’s book, as enlightening as it is engaging, measures the effects.

Ultimately the real energy of Endpapers comes not from Wolff’s impressive reconstruction of his father and grandfather’s biographies, but from the way he adds himself to the narrative, bringing us back to the present ... Endpapers is more than a book of history; it’s a transnational, intergenerational reckoning.

A knowledge of German will help the reader get through Endpapers, as German words and phrases are scattered throughout. Most of the time, author Alexander Wolff offers a translation when an unfamiliar term first appears. At other times, he uses German without providing the English equivalent, presumably assuming the words are so well known that no translation is required ... Regardless, Endpapers made me understand in a new way the profound effect Naziism had on the world in the 1930s and 1940s, an influence that continues to reverberate today ... employs a design I wish more writers would use: inserting relevant photographs into the text at the point where they are referenced. This is far better than the more common practice of bunching photos together in the middle of a book ... I became impatient with Wolff’s writing at various points. Too often, he chose unduly complex ways of expressing ordinary ideas. My preference, both as a reader and a writer, is for simplicity. And even though Endpapers was written in part during the Trump administration, Wolff mentions the former president only in passing ... a worthwhile read and certainly sheds light on the lingering predicament of some German American families and the enduring stain of the Holocaust.

Stories of Kurt fleeing from Nazi-controlled France and Nico’s tour on the eastern front are engrossing ... The author delves deeply into his ancestry to unravel the complex stories of his multigenerational family, and to show how his father’s and grandfather’s traumatic lives affected him ... Overall, this fascinating, sometimes brutal, and in a few minor instances, rambling narrative will grasp the attention of readers interested in the Holocaust and modern German history.

Book lovers will find Kurt’s story especially interesting ... Wolff concludes with unsettling discoveries about his family’s relationships with the Merck pharmaceutical company and the Nazis. An affecting, emotional, and sometimes harrowing saga.

... poignant ... Wolff skillfully contextualizes his father and grandfather’s tales with military and political history; details links between Merck and the Nazi regime; and uncovers family secrets, including the existence of his father’s illegitimate half-brother. History buffs and literary enthusiasts will be rewarded.