Title: I Am Germany
Author: Michael Witt
Publisher: Koehler Books
ISBN: 978-1646637751
Genre: Historical Romance
Pages: 218
Reviewed by: Lily Amanda
Pacific Book Review
I Am Germany is a tender and evocative novel which follows one man into his past as he comes to terms with the events in pre-WWII Germany, and a reconnection with a childhood friend while exploring the huge changes which began after the rise of the brutal Nazi regime.
Henry migrated with his parents from Germany to America as a young boy, just before the Nazi party under Hitler gained vast power in Germany. His childhood friend, Anna Himmel was not so lucky. In Henry’s childhood eyes, Anna was the epitome of German high art and culture. As a child violinist and her parents owning the country’s most famous violin company, Anna’s life falls from a life of privilege to one of deprived existence as she is exposed to acute brutality and cruelty.
When Henry journeys back to Germany decades later to reconnect with Anna and his childhood as well, he finds a broken Anna who struggles to tell the haunting tale of the horrors she experienced. This sees him setting out to find answers for himself in Hartheim, where Nazi authorities carried out deviant euthanasia on their victims. What he unravels transforms his inner-self in a way he never thought possible.
I Am Germany is genuinely a triumph – both in its construction and content. Author Michael Witt writes with passion and the book’s fitting diction is felt as it hurtles along at an even pace across the chapters. The characters are richly drawn and depict the extremes of the human soul – both in its morality and wickedness. Based on true events, the story explores the cultural, geographical, and political changes which took place upon Hitler gaining power as well as the aftermath of the Second World War, and its implications on an already impaired Germany.
Here, every scene is a revelation and a subtle alert to future governments and their citizens to avoid similar circumstances from allowing something like this to ever happen again. The yarn manages to touch upon a delicate yet monumental topic.
Haunting yet beautiful, I Am Germany by Michael Witt brims with adeptness and spirit. It embraces a reader and does not let go. Altogether, this author’s work qualifies as a sumptuous repast for the heart and soul.
