A “haunting . . . searing and honest” (People) family saga inspired by Maria Hummel’s own extended family and their status as Mitläufer, Germans who “went along” with Nazism, reaping its benefits and later paying the consequences.
Inspired by the stories told by her father about his German childhood and letters between her grandparents that were hidden in an attic wall for fifty years, Motherland attic wall for fifty years, Motherland is a novel that attempts to reckon with the paradox of the author’s father—a product of her grandparents’ fiercely protective love—and their status as passive Nazi-sympathizers known as Mitläufer.
At the center of Motherland lies the Kappus family: Frank is a reconstructive surgeon who lost his beloved wife in childbirth. Two months later, just before being drafted into medical military service, Frank marries a young woman charged with looking after the surviving baby and his two grieving sons. Alone in the house, Liesl attempts to keep the children fed with dwindling food supplies, safe from the constant Allied air attacks and the tides of desperate refugees flooding their town. When one child begins to mentally unravel, Liesl must discover the source of the boy’s infirmity or lose him forever to Hadamar, the infamous hospital for “unfit” children.
Bearing witness to the shame and courage of Third Reich families during the devastating final days of the war, each family member’s fateful choice leads the reader deeper into questions of complicity and innocence, and to the novel’s heartbreaking and unforgettable conclusion.
“Hummel’s haunting novel is set in the ravaged landscape of German just before the country’s collapse at the end of World War . . . Searing and honest, her book illuminates the reality of war away from the front lines—betrayal and compromise, neighbor turning on neighbor, the unexpected heroism of ordinary people—with a compassion and depth of understanding that will touch your heart.” —People, four stars
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In stunning, pitch-perfect prose, Maria Hummel gives us a deeply moving portrait of lives on the wrong side of history. This isn’t just another World War II novel; it’s a spectacular story about what it means to love and hope in the most difficult times.
I always come back to WWII books. This one was different because it was the story of Germans, a German woman who married a man she knows slightly because his wife died in childbirth and now he has three sons to take care of. The father is a surgeon and he is immediately conscripted into service at a hospital in another city. So the book is about …
Through the intimate story of one German family at the end of the Second World War, Motherland weaves a universal tale of moral obligation, wartime complicity, and the lengths we will go to protect those we love. From the bare bones of her own family’s history, Maria Hummel has built a visceral, magnificent creature.
German “civillan” view of the WWII at the end of the war, with perspectives from women and children.
It just wasn’t very interesting.
Motherland has a wonderful premise. It goes into the war not from a Jews POV or an ally but it talks about a family that lived in Germany. It kept me intrigued throughout the whole book. I loved that the characters were focused on their family and surviving the war, not who was right or wrong in the war. I feel like it showed how some of Germany …
Loved this book – grim as it was. A reflection of the terrible times.
Fascinating perspective on the innocents among our enemies in the world’s greatest conflict. In author Maria Hummel’s acknowledgements she states that she realized while writing that she needed to ask of her characters “What did they love?” and “What did they fear?” I gave this book a 4-star rating, not because I didn’t fully like it, but because …
Found “Motherland” very interesting and a bit of a twist from most WWII novels.
Frighting of how easily control over you family and life can be turned upside down during the Nazi rule.
Liked getting a different point of view– war from the other side.
I liked it
Well written.
Motherland was the first book about WWII written from the perspective of a German that I have read. It was interesting but hard to believe that the townspeople didn’t know what was going on just outside of town. It is easy to feel the pain of the main characters, no one should suffer as much as they did throughout the last years of the war. But …
Well written and with an unusual and fresh perspective on the German homefront during WWII. I love the characters and felt for them during desperate times. And I appreciate that they were drawn from letters the author’s grandparents wrote to one another during the war and he stashed in an attic while he was in hiding. The letters weren’t found …
It is rare together a fictional account of what it must have been like to try live and survive under Nazi regime and during the Allied bombings and take over. This is a story about the little man and the sufferings that a dictatorship landed on them — this is not about excuses or guilt — it is simply about survival against high odds.
Good book, true happenings during war.
I’m only halfway through. It seems repetative. I don’t know whether I wil finish it.
A courageous and unsettling novel arising from the questions that Maria Hummel had about her grandparents’ lives during the Third Reich. How much did they know? How did they survive?
This is a tender, profound novel of a young woman who steps into a shattered German family and makes it her own. The radiance of her sacrifice, and of Hummel’s storytelling, illuminates this dark chapter of human history with heart and revelation.