{"title":"Books by Walter Kempowski","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781847087218","title":"All for Nothing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliantly evocative, atmospheric novel about the delusion and indecision of a wealthy family in the last days of the Third Reich as the Russians advance from the east\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn January 1945, the German army is retreating from the Russian advance. Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in their thousands, in cars and carts and on foot. But in a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family seals itself off from the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProtected from the deprivation and chaos around them, they make no preparations to leave until a decision to harbour a stranger for the night begins their undoing. Finally joining the great trek west, the remaining members of the family face at last the catastrophic consequences of the war.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProfoundly evocative of the period, sympathetic yet painfully honest about the motivations of its characters, \u003ci\u003eAll for Nothing\u003c\/i\u003e is a devastating portrait of the complicities and denials of the German people as the Third Reich comes to an end.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205847122098,"sku":"9781847087218","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781847087218.jpg?v=1786029729"},{"product_id":"9781783788866","title":"An Ordinary Youth","description":"\u003cp\u003eGrowing up in Rostock, in the north of Germany, Walter has a comfortable upbringing: quiet and content, he spends his days scheming with school friends and resisting the torment of his older siblings. But, as the country rolls toward war, the attitudes of his teachers, peers and family begin to slide, and it isn't long before the roar of falling bombs, charged silences and mounting intolerance begin to puncture Walter's carefree youth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFollowing the Kempowski family from the months before the outbreak of war through to the fall of Berlin, \u003ci\u003eAn Ordinary Youth \u003c\/i\u003eis the fascinating story of an ordinary childhood in extraordinary times. Here, Walter's academic struggle sits alongside his father's conscription; his brother's love of jazz burgeons amid the destruction of the barrages. And all the while, the horrors of Nazism loom in the peripheries - communicated in furtive looks or hushed conversations - running alongside the Kempowski family's daily rituals and occasional scandals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA bestseller in Germany on publication, \u003ci\u003eAn Ordinary Youth \u003c\/i\u003eis all the more unnerving for the warmth, humour and empathy with which Kempowski imbues his hometown. Written with a sensorial immediacy, it is a meticulous chronicle of daily life in 1930s Germany, and a discomfiting exploration of the many forms that complicity can take.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44581834031282,"sku":"9781783788866","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781783788866_bae5bbf9-8d4f-40d1-8899-a107d47b51d8.jpg?v=1786025555"},{"product_id":"9781783783533","title":"Homeland","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt is 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall came down. Jonathan Fabrizius, a journalist living in West Germany, is asked to travel to the contested lands of former East Prussia - where the Nazi legacy lives on in buildings and fortifications - to write about the route for a car rally. It's a plum job, but his interest is piqued by a personal connection. Here, among the refugees fleeing the advancing Russians in 1945, he was born.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eHomeland \u003c\/i\u003eis a nuanced work from one of the great modern European storytellers, in which an everyday German comes face to face with his painful family history, and devastating questions about ordinary Germans' complicity in the war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305239851381,"sku":"9781783783533","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781783783533_86031f63-2960-4edc-a242-1a91ff8e90f7.jpg?v=1786026202"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-walter-kempowski.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}