Helpful Score: 4
Wow. It's hard to describe this book or my feelings about it.
The Eva in the title is Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress-cum-wife who died with him in Berlin. Author Sibylle Knauss conducted interviews with Eva Braun's real-life cousin prior to writing this novel. While it is FICTION, Knauss's interviews with Getrude Weisker did provide inspiration for parts of this story.
I think that the majority of people can agree that Hitler was evil - no doubt in my mind. Yet there were people around him - i.e., Eva's cousin - who never committed any dastardly crime (although some could argue that sitting around doing nothing was a crime itself), but reveled in the luxuries that the elite of Nazi society enjoyed.
This book is both haunting yet enjoyable - if a book can be that way. One knows the history of the THird Reich, but this takes real and imaginary people and becomes a fictionalised historiography that makes fascinating reading. At times I felt sorry for Marlene, yet other times I wanted to reach trhough the pages and shake some sense into her.
An interesting book, worth reading. I hope the next reader will 'enjoy' it as much as I did -- it does make one think.
The Eva in the title is Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress-cum-wife who died with him in Berlin. Author Sibylle Knauss conducted interviews with Eva Braun's real-life cousin prior to writing this novel. While it is FICTION, Knauss's interviews with Getrude Weisker did provide inspiration for parts of this story.
I think that the majority of people can agree that Hitler was evil - no doubt in my mind. Yet there were people around him - i.e., Eva's cousin - who never committed any dastardly crime (although some could argue that sitting around doing nothing was a crime itself), but reveled in the luxuries that the elite of Nazi society enjoyed.
This book is both haunting yet enjoyable - if a book can be that way. One knows the history of the THird Reich, but this takes real and imaginary people and becomes a fictionalised historiography that makes fascinating reading. At times I felt sorry for Marlene, yet other times I wanted to reach trhough the pages and shake some sense into her.
An interesting book, worth reading. I hope the next reader will 'enjoy' it as much as I did -- it does make one think.
