Bücher mit dem Tag "world war ii"

Das Buch ,,Die Bücherdiebin" von Markus Zusak ist eine liebevolle Erinnerung an Menschen, die in einer Zeit gelebt haben, in der die Gnade des Überlebens von Boshaftigkeit gezeichnet war. Die Macht der Worte mit ihren Licht- und Schattenseiten und der Umgang damit nehmen dabei eine ganz wichtige Rolle ein. Auch andere tiefsitzende Themen kommen darin sehr gut zum Vorschein, der Tod als Erzähler bringt außerdem sehr passende philosophische Ansätze mit. 

In dieser Erzählung durfte ich die Hauptprotagonistin Liesel ein Stück weit in ihrem Leben begleiten. Dem Autor ist es dabei besonders gut gelungen, dass ich mich als Leser sehr gut in die Protagonisten und die Zeit hineinversetzen konnte. Es gab viele Momente, in denen hinter jeder Seite die Angst herrschte und auch andere Gefühle wie Traurigkeit, Freude, Fassungslosigkeit und Erleichterung haben mir diese Zeit, in der die Geschichte spielt, so nahe gebracht. Die Reaktionen der verschiedenen Protagonisten waren für mich nachvollziehbar, sie entsprachen ihrem Wesen. Das gesamte Buch ist in 10 Überkapitel unterteilt, welche jeweils noch mehrere Unterkapitel enthalten. Das finde ich persönlich immer angenehm beim Lesen, da ich dadurch nach einer kleinen Pause leichter in die Geschichte zurückfinden kann. 

Ich kann mir gut vorstellen, dass sich viele Menschen bei diesem Buch auch langweilen könnten, da es so gesehen keine krassen Plott-Twists gibt (zumindest nicht so wie es sich vielleicht viele wünschen würden) und auch die Seitenanzahl für jemanden, der nicht so viel liest, sehr groß ausfallen bzw. es vielleicht zu langatmig werden könnte. Natürlich passiert schon sehr viel in Liesels Leben, für mich war das Buch zu keinem Zeitpunkt langweilig. Aber ich glaube, dass es schon auch das Interesse für die Betroffenen und/oder diese Zeit braucht, damit man das Herzstück, die Botschaft dahinter, so richtig gut erkennen oder vielleicht eher fühlen kann. 

Die Kunst der Erzählweise und die Protagonisten mit ihrer Art die Geschehnisse aufzunehmen bzw. damit umzugehen, machen dieses Werk für mich zu einem Symbol von aufrichtiger Anteilnahme an jedem, der den Nationalsozialismus in all seiner Grausamkeit erlebt hat. Denn man beginnt durch diese Geschichte, sich im Detail mit der Struktur dieses Themas auseinandersetzen. Der Autor gibt den fiktiven und doch so echten Zeitzeugen nicht nur eine Stimme, er bringt (wie bereits gesagt) auch viele philosophische Ansätze in das Thema mit ein und bricht absolute Meinungen, indem er dem Leser verschiedene Perspektiven eröffnet. Ich hatte bei meinem Exemplar von ,,Die Bücherdiebin" am Ende der Geschichte extra Bonusmaterial, in dem mir nochmals aufgezeigt wurde, wie vielschichtig diese Erzählung ist. Gerade wenn man mit jemanden über dieses Buch sprechen möchte, geben diese letzten Seiten gute Anregungen für eine interessante und lehrreiche Diskussion. Man findet darin auch ein Interview mit dem Autor, in dem er nochmals auf die Hintergründe zu der Entstehung dieses Buches eingeht. 

Look at that gorgeous cover - the Atlantic Ocean and the walled city of Saint-Malo in Brittany. Now I feel wanderlust for Brittany and want to visit that city, even more so than the more famous Mont Saint Michel in Normandy.

Synopsis: Historical fact is that German garrisoned Saint-Malo and the Allies bombarded it heavily in 1944. The novel culminates exactly there and then when the two main protagonists meet.

But all starts ten years earlier when six year old Marie-Laure LeBlanc lives with her father, the master locksmith of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Natural_History,_France">Natural History Museum</a>, in Paris (oh, and did I already say that I absolutely have to visit that one?). She is about getting blind, and her father builds her intricate miniatures of the surrounding cityscape so that she can learn by feeling it.&nbsp;

At the same time, eight year old Werner Pfennig lives in an orphan house together with his sister in the Ruhr District. He is a genius kid, repairing radios and teaching himself mathematics. They often listen to a French program teaching natural science to kids.&nbsp;

Time flies by, and Marie-Laure has to flee with her father from occupied Paris. Unknowing to her, her father protects a famous gem, the Sea of Flames, with purported magical abilities, granting immortality to the bearer but cursing their companions. Werner is granted a stipend at a Nazi elite school where he learns the harsh realities of Nazi upbringing but also physics. Most importantly, he learns radio technology and uses an invention by his teacher later on to track illegal radio signals in Eastern Europe.&nbsp;

Enter the antagonist, Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel, who wants to track down the famous Sea of Flames for personal reasons.

Review: The novel has been waiting on my physical shelves since 2014. I bought it after GoodReads declared it as the winner of their choice award but was never in the mood for historical fiction since then, at least not for reading WWII novels. Boy, was I wrong!

I loved the discourse between the two main protagonists in extremely short chapters of only two or three pages each. Those 517 pages of my hardcover edition feel more like a hundred pages less because of&nbsp; the huge amount of pagebreaks and spacing. It reads mostly like a page turner and drew me in right from the start: A science boy and that mythic gem remembered me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which similarly has a immortality McGuffin and Nazis going for it.&nbsp;

Only the last part, after Werner and Marie-Laure have met in Saint-Malo dragged on unnecessarily. I'd rather have the story stopped there than getting the years after it told like the third ending of the Lord of the Rings.

I recommend this coming-of-age novel, a winner of the Pulitzer Award, to readers who like historical fiction with an enigmatic touch. Those years in the Nazi elite school were top-notch!

"April 9, 1940: Peace-loving Norway is invaded by Nazi Germany. Although unprepared for an invasion, the Norwegian military puts up a valiant fight for several weeks before disbanding. The King and parliament escape to England. Now the Nazis are fully in control. Or are they. . .?" The occupying Germans expect Norwegians to welcome them as protectors against the Soviet Union. But why? They think that the Norwegians embody the ideal of the Aryan race, being fair-haired, blue-eyed, tall and fit. Unexpectedly, the Norwegians confront the occupying force with hostility and resistance. There is not only an organized military resistance, even ordinary Norwegians, young and old, find endless ways of resisting. Those people know that every part they play in the underground, no matter how small it might seem, can be significant. Fourteen-year-old Espen is one of them. Shadow on the Mountain tells his adventures during World War II in Norway. Espen, his family and his friends are swept up in the resistance movement, but some of his former friends seem to be on the wrong side. Can he still trust them or does he have to fear them? Espen starts his career in the resistance with small jobs, at first he only delivers illegal newspapers. During the following years of war he is sent on more and more dangerous missions as a courier or even as a spy. With these strictly forbidden activities he risks his own life and those of his loved ones, his family and friends. Although he sometimes wonders if he is on the right path and what is the right thing to do, at some point he cannot stop the events anymore or return to a normal childhood. Except the major historical figures, all characters in this story are fictional. However, many of Espen’s and the other character’s experiences are based on real events and the experiences of real people. Although the book covers about five years within only about 300 pages I didn’t feel like I lost too much information about the main or side characters in this time. You can perfectly see the development of all those persons. I don’t think that the reasons that led to the respective actions or decisions would have contributed very much to the story. What I really liked was the mix of every day life with games, fun, first love, the effects of war and German occupation and the fight in the resistance or against the resistance on the one hand and the changing point of view between Espen, his sister and other young persons in their village on the other hand. This stylistic device offers the perfect range of information that the reader can easily find himself part of the scene. The story provides a lot of adventure and suspense without being too brutal or gory. I was a bit (positively) surprised and impressed that the author didn’t make a perfect good versus evil story out of this novel about war and resistance. Although on completely different sides of the war, all persons fight for their nation – the same nation! Some of them are not really well liked but others seem to have plausible reasons for their decisions. Espen’s sister even sometimes feels sorry for the young German soldiers who have to live far from their families. This is an aspect that I wouldn’t have expected in a children’s/YA book about resistance but which is absolutely comprehensible. Shadow on the Mountain is an informative and thought-provoking, yet action packed and suspenseful novel about war and resistance in Norway in World War II. I would recommend this book not only to young readers but also to adults : 5/5 stars.