... not a lengthy book and can be read in several hours. But it packs a punch way beyond its weight. Images from its pages linger—a dark telling of a devastating tale that deserves a place alongside The Reader by Bernard Schlink. Schlink’s novel is another tale of post-Nazi Germans attempting to reconcile themselves with the national guilt still experienced from their Nazi past.
... especially relevant ... a complex and nuanced portrayal of characters who spring to life in all their messy contradictions ... Würger’s writing, translated into English by Liesl Schillinger, is straightforward and spare, as deceptively simple as the complex questions it tackles.
Based in part on the real Stella Goldschlag, Würger’s novel is a powerful, visceral portrait of individuals caught up in a pivotal year during Nazi rule.
... spare, affecting ... While the novel’s ending doesn’t feel fully resolved, Würger skillfully intertwines fact and fiction. This subtle, thought-provoking narrative is worth a look.
Würger’s commitment to the historical reality of the Nazi regime is commendable, and he doesn't shy away from depicting the gruesome horrors it inflicted on Jews in Berlin in the early 1940s. But passages giving historical context for the events of the novel grow tedious, and the excerpted documents can feel extraneous. Conversely, his decision to tell the true story of Stella Goldschlag, a fascinating and terrifying woman, through the lovestruck eyes of a bland and entirely fictional male character is frustrating ... A well-intentioned and thoroughly researched novel that works better in theory than in practice.
