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Indlæser... The Flightaf Bryan Malessa
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. This novel was unusual in its brevity and scope of history. I felt the author made a wise choice to avoid writing a sentimental novel and instead stuck to the facts and let the action of the story spell out this profound changes this family faces. There is no sympathy, simply a step by step march through the eyes of a family dislocated from their home in the closing days of World War II. If you're looking for a heartwarming tale, look elsewhere. If you're interested in peering into a world few have been privy to then I strongly suggest this novel, the first written in English of this event some fifty years after the fact. ( ) Good descriptive writing. Strong narrative. Interesting subject matter. But because I have read so many harrowing historical accounts of people being forced out of their homes, I feel there is a superficiality to this book. The Daily Telegraph blurb says that "Malessa has researched his debut novel thoroughly and… he achieves a stark, moving narrative", and this is true but he does not achieve the starkness, or the narrative quality, of the authentic historical accounts given by those peoples unfortunate enough to have suffered the effects of Hitler's policy of Liebensraum.
'Everyone should know their history", warns a Jewish coffin-maker at the start of The Flight. Since the end of the second World War, this need never to forget has moulded Germany's post-war struggle to come to terms with the legacy of Nazism and the Holocaust. Only since the fall of the Iron Curtain has the subject begun to be discussed, and it remains highly sensitive. The Flight joins a small but growing body of literature on the subject, but the novel does not seek to exonerate the Germans. Through the character of Karl, it examines the East Prussians' complicity in the fate of their Jewish fellow-citizens, and the day-to-day indoctrination of hitherto decent people.
A powerful novel set at the end of World War II about one woman and her family's struggle for survival. The thrust of this epic novel occurs in the spring of 1945, during an event known in Germany as Die Flucht, or The Flight, when some 12 million Eastern European ethnic-Germans fled their ancestral homes to escape the advancing Soviet Army. 'The Flight' tells the story of Ida, a mother who attempts to take her children from their village in East Prussia to the assumed safety of Berlin. Travelling by foot, boat and rail across enemy lines, she quickly discovers that their survival is dependent on her will to save them, and on overriding the silent tragedies they will face during the journey west. Ida's is a terrifying passage, soaked with a bleak sadness, but her quiet bravery and sorrowful resilience in the face of the depravity of war is captivating. Told with clarity and beauty, in a remarkably understated way, 'The Flight' is a captivating novel of authenticity and power, which opens up a chapter of World War II long overlooked. No library descriptions found. |
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