- hangs perfectly over this book. This is their story. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 22, 2021. "I have seen everything that is done under the sun and, behold, all is vanity and chasing after the wind." In January 1945, as the German army retreats from the Russian advance in East Prussia, a wealthy family seal themselves into their manor house. It’s a moving tale of the last days of East Prussia in 1945, told through the story of the fictional von Globig family and those they come into contact with. Interspersed with a surreal absurdism is an acute appreciation of the meaninglessness (?) Beth reveals a secret to her father; John confronts two cowboys about old feuds; a search gets underway on the reservation. Slow, steady, episodic, fantastic characterization, deep POV shorthand at times, summarized scenes shaded by a paragraph's primary character's psychology, never ostentatious but always attentive language, no storytelling tricks other than fluid perspective shifting among characters, no insight zingers or attempts to render emotional or historical heft as HEFTY, light-handed dispersal of a sense of life throughout supplied to all characters including the semi-pathetic local Nazi honcho and the Hi. Kempowskis atmospheric novel powerfully conveys the delusions and indecision of the last days of the Third Reich. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Swansong 1945: A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich, 'The Office of Historical Corrections' and the Power of the Short Story. Walter Kempowski was almost 80 years old when he wrote this account of the final winter of WWII, with the central character being a 12 year old boy who may or may not have been based on himself. This German author exposes the horror of life in his homeland at the end of the war, no sentimental claptrap, no heroic efforts on anyone’s part. Reminds thereader of the totalitarian nightmare of victorious Russia and defeated Germany colliding. Maybe others will like it better. In Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, J.G. There are not many writers who can write across ages, classes and countries, however Kempowski is one of them. Most of them feature relationships between various characters, interweaving both fictional and realistic events, tragedy aplenty but some hopeful possibilities, as well. Peter, through whose eyes we observe most of the story, his mother, and their 4 servants are fascinated--as are we, too--by some of the visitors who stop at the house in their getting out of the way of the advancing front. As the road fills with Germans fleeing the occupied territories, the Georgenhof begins to receive strange visitors—a Nazi violinist, a dissident painter, a Baltic baron, even a Jewish refugee. Kempowski spends 2/3rds of the book building his characters, and then in the final chapters they are swept away almost as an afterthought. It's all for nothing again. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in. Despite my avid interest in this, the final episode of East Prussian history, I was disappointed with All For Nothing. Previous. … I have read many novels set during WWII. In East Prussia, January 1945, the German forces are in retreat and the Red Army is approaching. It was difficult for me to follow but that might be just my unfamiliarity with the author, his style. Yet in the main, life continues as banal, wondrous, and complicit as ever for the family, until their caution, their hedged bets, and their denial are answered by the wholly expected events they haven’t allowed themselves to imagine. The … Walter Kempowski was an obsessive collector of memories of the Second World War in Germany, which he compiled in a series of volumes called Echolot, literally Soundings. Sir Peter Hall Professor of Shakespeare Studies, Kingston University; author of Shakespeare in French Theory: King of Shadows. The book struck me as straightforward and revealing with regard to the characters it followed. Soon the family is forced to join the stream of refugees and their carts piled high with the belongings of their lives. There is a mass exodus of refugees fleeing in below zero weather, with over 300,000 perishing. This German author exposes the horror of life in his homeland at the end of the war, no sentimental claptrap, no heroic efforts on anyone’s part. Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2018, Everything is covered by snow and the Germans have lost the war. It helped me to get into the Austro-Germanic mindset but, more importantly, it was a beautifully written account of what ended up being a tragic series of events at the back end of World War II. When Ottawa couple Eric and Angie Muis decided to renovate their home for resale, they quickly came across an advertisement for reality TV show, All for Nothing? Kempowski's depiction of the. walter kempowski anthea bell jenny erpenbeck. is a Canadian real estate and design television series that airs on the W Network.The series is produced by Mountain Road Productions and is based in Ottawa and its surrounding areas. I happened upon this book in the airport en route to Salzburg and a new freelance job. Auntie runs the estate as best she can since Eberhard von Globig, a special officer in the German army, went to war, leaving behind his beautiful but vague wife, Katharina, and her bookish twelve-year-old son, Peter. This is the story of a family who have enjoyed privilege in the past but now live ordinary lives. Owner Erhard Von Globig is serving in Italy while his beautiful wife Katharina, whose dreamy vagueness, “it was all so complicated”, may be an inward escape from an unhappy marriage and the tedium of life in a rural backwater, leaves all the work to a handful of foreign servants escaped from the east, under the control of bossy spinster “Auntie”. Everyone should read this novel that reads like a documentary about the humiliation and suffering of ordinary Germans as they fled the invading Russian army on the Eastern Front in the final days of the Second World War. All for Nothing is a novel set in January 1945, when the Soviet Army invaded East Prussia, destroying everything in their path and raping every woman they could get their hands on. Diane: Because if I don't, that means that all the damage I got isn't good damage. Walter Kempowski was an obsessive collector of memories of the Second World War in Germany, which he compiled in a series of volumes called Echolot, literally Soundings. Profile: Female-fronted hardcore band from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Beautiful rendition of everyday life in East Prussia during the last days of WWII. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. 300,000 refugees died during this refugee trek in the winter of 1945, most o. And that is the point. This book was a totally unknown quantity to me. Beautifully written, dramatically understated and very bleak, This is a historical novel set in East Prussia in January, 1945. They say it's hard to live here. STEP 3. all in vain. 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