Probing the complex issues of war guilt and collective responsibility, Starritt’s humane, questioning novel is framed as a letter from an elderly German to his British grandson, detailing his involvement on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. Written with acuity and emotional intelligence, We Germans forms a hugely important addition to the canon of war literature.
When a young British man asks his German grandfather what it was like to fight on the wrong side of the war, the question is initially met with irritation and silence. But after the old man's death, a long letter to his grandson is found among his things.
That letter is this book. In it, he relates the experiences of an unlikely few days on the Eastern Front - at a moment when he knows not only that Germany is going to lose the war, but that it deserves to. He writes about his everyday experience amid horror, confusion and great bravery, and he asks himself what responsibility he bears for the circumstances he found himself in. As he tries to find an answer he can live with, we hear from his grandson what kind of man he became in the seventy years after the war.
We Germans is a fundamentally human novel that grapples with the most profound of questions about guilt, shame and responsibility - questions that remain as live today as they have always been.
Publisher: John Murray Press
ISBN: 9781529317244
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 315 g
Dimensions: 222 x 142 x 28 mm
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“A thought provoking read”
Stark but beautifully written, this is an excellent read. It was very interesting to read the German perspective on the Eastern front having read many British and French perspectives on the Western front and British... More
“This brings to life the daily grind of war”
I was drawn to this book as it tells the story of a young German soldier's experience in the war, a perspective that I have always been curious about.
The writing was beautiful, emotional and gripping. The...
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“A German soldier's memoir of World War II on the Eastern Front”
This book comprises a long letter from a German grandfather to his British grandson about his final days on the Eastern Front as a Wehrmacht soldier retreating from the Red Army's onslaught.
As he acknowledges...
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