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Novels set in Germany

47 replies

BasketzatDawn · 04/01/2013 19:26

Either contemporary or old. Any suggestions?

OP posts:
TheLoneRanger · 04/01/2013 19:33

Hans Fallada: Alone in Berlin.

There are loads of wartime ones (as is Alone in Berlin).

CaptainNancy · 04/01/2013 19:34

The Reader by Schlink
More will come to me later...

MegBusset · 04/01/2013 19:34

The Book Thief

MegBusset · 04/01/2013 19:37

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

TotallyEggFlipped · 04/01/2013 19:39

I loved The Bbok Thief.

SwedishEdith · 04/01/2013 19:43

Douglas Kennedy- The Moment

harbingerofdoom · 04/01/2013 19:45

I second Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada.

I read this before Christmas so it's quite clear in my mind. Not at all a normal 'war time' book.

I think it's quite thought provoking given our current political upheavals (EU).

TotallyTopical · 04/01/2013 19:47

Was going to suggest the Book Thief as well!

Anything by Gunter Grass, although a lot of his are set in what is now part of Poland.

bran · 04/01/2013 19:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lilymaid · 04/01/2013 19:54

Another (recent) John Le Carre: www.johnlecarre.com/books/a-most-wanted-man A Most Wanted Man]].

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 04/01/2013 19:58

Alone in Berlin is okay.

I really like The Book Thief but lots of people on here hate it.

Dominion by CJ Sansom isn't set in Germany but is set in an England who had to surrender to Germany in WW2, so is interesting in that context.

All Quiet On The Western Front isn't set in Germany but is The Great War from the perspective of a German soldier and is absolutely brilliant.

tethersend · 04/01/2013 20:07

Have just started Dominion, Remus- does it get better?

I also liked The Book Thief, and loved Alone in Berlin.

Have just finished reading A Woman In Berlin which was fascinating, but not a novel; one woman's factual account of the Russian invasion of Berlin at the end of WW2.

Winter by Len Deighton is very good- follows a German Family from the turn of the century to the end of WW2.

nkf · 04/01/2013 20:09

Christopher Isherwood's novels.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 04/01/2013 20:09

It's not bad, Tethers - not as good as the Shardlakes. It scared me in places, which is quite unusual - just in the sense that it easily COULD have been true. I think it's a bit overlong and could have done with some tighter editing - but I think that about nearly everything anyway!

oricella · 04/01/2013 20:12

Stones from the river, Ursula
Hegi ...

BasketzatDawn · 04/01/2013 20:13

Great ideas. Thanks! I think I have several of those unread on my shelvesBlush. Isn't that Sansom the anti- Scotland/SNP twerp? I read another Hans Fallada for A level decades ago. Good to see him translated nowadays. I think my son has Fatherland. Ta again Thanks.

OP posts:
DuchessofMalfi · 04/01/2013 20:13

Thomas Mann's novels.

BasketzatDawn · 04/01/2013 20:15

Brilliant, more ideas while I was posting. I need to eat dinner but back anonThanks.

OP posts:
sleepyhead · 04/01/2013 20:15

Yes, Christopher Isherwood "Goodbye to Berlin". It's the book that Cabaret was based on.

FloweryDrawers · 04/01/2013 20:15

The Lighthouse, by Alison Moore. Won the Booker Prize in 2012.

FloweryDrawers · 04/01/2013 20:17

Sorry - correction - I think it was just shortlisted.

PenelopeLane · 04/01/2013 20:18

The new Ben Elton is set in Berlin - Two Brothers.

walkbesideme · 04/01/2013 20:18

Pavel and I

willowstar · 04/01/2013 20:21

There are the Bernie Gunther novels by Philip Kerr which are set in post war Germany from what I can remember.

Hellooooo2013 · 04/01/2013 20:22

I really enjoyed Fatherland.

Germania? Can't think who wrote it off the top of my head and I think it's about the Germans rather than beinga novel.

I have Alone in Berlin on my kindle, will be the next book I read.