373. All for Nothing

Rating:  ☆☆☆

Recommended by:   Meris Delli-Bovi

Author:   Walter Kempowski

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction

384 pages, published July 2006

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

All for Nothing takes place in Germany during the end of World War II when everything is falling apart.  The Russian army is advancing and Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in cars and carts and on foot.  In a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family tries to seal itself off from the world.  Twelve year old Peter von Globig fakes illness to escape his Hitler Youth duties.  His father Eberhard is stationed in Italy with a desk job safe from the front and his mother Katharina has withdrawn into herself.  The house is run by a Auntie with the help of two Ukrainian maids and a Pole.  The family has no plans to leave until Katharina’s decision to house a Jewish stranger for the night forces their hand.

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My Take

A very depressing, but insightful, book about the human condition, especially when under stress.  As a Christian, I don’t agree with  the author’s sentiment that our lives are “all for nothing.”  I think what we do during our brief stay on earth matters and how we live our lives and treat those around us has value.