get rid of all that fur? It’s everywhere!” Helena Schmidt was a rich widow. “That old cripple—sitting there just wasting away. She’s never had to do a day’s work in all her life.” Rosa’s greatest disdain, however, was reserved for 8 Grande Strasse. A large house, high on a hill, in the upper part of […]
Spit, Soccer, and Survival: The Brutal & Brilliant World of “The Book Thief” Read More »
She’d heard it several times in the past few years. “Communist.” There were boardinghouses crammed with people, rooms filled with questions. And that word. That strange word was always there somewhere, standing in the corner, watching from the dark. It wore suits, uniforms. No matter where they went, there it was, each time her father
The Silver-Eyed Man and the Profane Mother: A Story of Survival and Cigarettes Read More »
How could she move? That’s the sort of thing I’ll never know, or comprehend—what humans are capable of. She picked him up and continued walking, the girl clinging now to her side. Authorities were met and questions of lateness and the boy raised their vulnerable heads. Liesel remained in the corner of the small, dusty
As with most small towns, Molching was filled with characters. A handful of them lived on Himmel Street. Frau Holtzapfel was only one cast member. The others included the likes of these: • Rudy Steiner—the boy next door who was obsessed with the black American athlete Jesse Owens. • Frau Diller—the staunch Aryan corner-shop owner.
Life in Nazi Germany Through the Eyes of a Child: A Summary of Himmel Street Read More »
Listing Yaa Gyasi, Yvonne Owuor, Colson Whitehead, Chimamanda Adichie, and Peter Kimani as examples, historian Dan Magaziner notes in an article on Africa Is a Country that historical fiction “has been having a bit of a moment recently, especially among authors from the African continent and its diaspora” (2017: para. 1). Confirming this, Lizzy Attree
Historical Fiction Is “Having a Moment” Read More »