I loved this book from the beginning. The anger and passion of Trudi captivated me from beginning to end, and I had a hard time putting this book down.

I found that I had to concentrate harder on this book due to the number of characters, and with all of the german names. This made it much harder to rush through the book, which ultimately should be cherished anyway.

I loved Trudi's strengths as a story teller, and her understanding of her surroundings that bordered on magical realism.

Will read again someday when I can spend more time on the individual beautiful words, rather than trying to get to the end of a very good story.

This book was a random find and turned out to wonderful, I couldn’t put it down. The author transported me to a small town Germany, I felt the pain and fear of those who suffered such loss. It reinforced in me a sensitivity to “otherness”, how we treat those who are different….and our warped perception of “normal”. The story takes place in Germany during WWII when Hitler was at his worst…how people were treated is unthinkable, how they find the strength to carry on, inspiring.

This book should be trending now. It is such an excellent portrayal of how people are turned on each other

Some books disappoint on a second reading, but not this one. When it came time for my book club to read this book I was very excited, because I remembered that I really liked it the first time I read it. And I was not disappointed. I think I liked this book at least as much the second time around as the first.

This is a story with two contrasting themes. One is difference. Told mostly from the perspective of Trudi, a dwarf, who feels how different she is from the members of her community on a daily basis. And she sees how difference in others is persecuted under the Nazis.

The other theme of this book is community. One thing I really liked about this book is how we come to know so many members of Trudi's community throughout their lives. We understand as well as Trudi does why certain members of the community do certain things, because we have known them almost as long as she has. Hegi does a wonderful job of bringing the whole community to life.

And she is more than equal to the task of describing what the advent of Nazism does to this small German community. She does not shy away from the people who enthusiastically embrace Hitler and his party, but she does portray in a more sympathetic way those who at least question Hitler's policies.

Rather than making a judgment call, though, based on how her characters respond to the Third Reich, Hegi seems more interested in demonstrating the range of responses that existed in a small town, and how those differing responses change the character of the town itself.

Impressively captivating full of interesting, surprising details. Nice, clear writing.

You really feel Trudi growing up and evolving. The depiction of her own struggle with dwarfism is realistic and heart-wrenching.

All the characters are extremely multi-dimensional and well-written. There is a large over-arching plot, but the rich details are what make it really special.

Not your typical holocaust book, that's for sure.

An emotionally powerful story of WWII and its effects on a small German town. The storyline begins at the end of WWI and continues through the 1950's giving a profoundly detailed account of personalities and how they may change when faced with adversity that when challenged could bring a death sentence to yourself and possibly your entire family.

This is from a viewpoint that is rarely given - the separate but same aspect of a small country village. They think the world will not reach so far outside the large cities to include them and this story shows how they grasp or fight the inevitability when it does.

I would have to say this is one of my top ten best reads......great book

This is not a book that would usually attract me, so it must have been Book Providence that led me to choose it in a used book store. This is the beautiful and haunting story of a German town before, during, and after the Nazi regime. The protagonist is perhaps my favorite protagonist ever- a Zwerg (dwarf) woman named Trudi, who lives with her father and works in their pay-library. There are so many rich characters and scenes in this book. You will not feel as if you’re reading fiction, but rather like you’re growing up in Burgdorf along with Trudi and learning the awful and dazzling truths she learns.

Read this awhile ago. Sticks with me as a really informative enlightening book that connects world war 1 and the beginning of world war 2

3/5

This is one of my mom's favorite books and I really wanted to love it. My high expectations, combined with having read The Book Thief so recently, left me with some disappointment despite the fact that this is not a poorly written book. Typically my reviews are semi-organized by plot, writing, and characters, but I think for this book it's much easier for me to just go through what I liked and disliked.

Pros:
- I liked Hegi's writing. There wasn't much of it that was particularly moving or incredibly unique, but her writing style suited me (which is really nice to find when reading 500+ pages of an author's work). Though she did have a tendency to very suddenly and bluntly just mention plot points that wouldn't come for years and I was like.... okay why even mention so-and-so's unborn child literally like a decade early? It was a little odd to me.
- The setting- a small town in Germany pre-, during, and post-WWII- is one that is always intriguing. Unlike many of the well-known works of this setting, the focus was not centered on a Nazi or a Jewish person (though there were plenty of both in this tale), and I felt as though I learned a lot about life for the "average" German civilian of the early 20th century.
- I enjoyed the theme of secrets and storytelling that was woven throughout the book. Trudi was, simply put, a gossip, but the rationale behind the stories she shared and the way she spoke to people was written in a very compelling and meaningful way.
- I do just have to give props to Hegi for writing a protagonist with dwarfism because I literally cannot even think of another fiction book to have done that, and to create a character who is both interesting outside of her physicality and deeply affected by her differences from others in her community. Trudi might not be my favorite character but she was definitely intriguing.
- The unknown benefactor plotline!!!!!!! This was the highlight of the entire book for me, both in terms of the mystery and the resolution(?) of finding out their identity. I thought it was the most beautiful part of the whole story. One of the few parts that almost moved me to tears.

Cons:
- I've never before read a book that began before the birth of the main character (if you can even call Trudi that- this story is about 50% hers, 50% every single person she met until 1952). This wasn't inherently bad but it did instantly confuse me. On a related note, I was constantly overwhelmed by the number of characters I was expected to know/remember (because believe me, nobody was only mentioned once in this book. The butcher? You better remember his name because he will show up at least every third chapter. I kept forgetting that the Buttgereit girls existed and every time they were mentioned I had to recall just who they were. There were just so. Many. Characters. And although I thought I signed up for Trudi's story, I have left this book knowing very intimate details of just about every citizen of Burgdorf for half a century). And that being said, there were so many people to keep track of that I often found myself indifferent to the majority of them. Honestly the only characters I have opinions on coming out of this book are Hans-Jürgen and Helmut (because they were literally the worst), and Eva and Leo (who were the only characters I consistently liked). I didn't even feel particularly connected to Trudi because her latent rage and her initial weird possessiveness of Jutta's daughter Hanna were very off-putting to me.
- The way she wrote children. It occurred to me that perhaps Hegi had never met a child under the age of 6 or so because she wrote some pretty damn cognizant toddlers. I'm not trying to undermine children's intelligence, but I'm a nanny and have been working with young children for nearly a decade and happen to know that most people don't have actual memories from when they were three years old.
- This might just be a personal complaint, but I felt that (other than getting to and then waiting for the war to be over) there was no big plot moving the story forward. I was interested in the day-to-day lives of the characters but that felt like all that this book was. It's quite realistic historical fiction, so perhaps that should be expected, but I just kept waiting for something more that never was introduced. This is likely why I enjoyed the unknown benefactor parts so much.
- These did not put me off the book entirely but were sometimes hard to stomach, so I do feel obligated to mention trigger warnings for this novel, including: sexual assault (one rather detailed scene of perhaps an attempted rape, other very brief mentions of incestuous sexual assault from an older man onto at least two young women), two instances of animal abuse, suicide (several mentioned, one scene not graphically written but in the point of view), mentions of miscarriages/stillborn infants, one scene in which a woman attempts to murder her children, and of course antisemitism from characters who are antagonists/mentions of concentration camps (typically referred to as KZs within the novel, and are spoken of in speculation and not graphic detail).

So overall, I walk away from this novel feeling not like I regret reading it, but certainly like it too up way too much of my time. For the right reader I think it can succeed tremendously, in the wrong hands this book will be a flop.

Although I often read history, especially books regarding World War II and Germany, memoirs, collected memories, analysis into the various horrors and sheer arrogant stupidity of what the Nazis and others did, I seldom, if ever, read fiction books about those times.

This book, however, caught my eye because the central character was a Zwerg, or dwarf, one of the many groups considered “unfit to live” which were summarily done away with under the Nazi regime. Secondly, this character, Trudi Montag’s best friend as a child was a boy named George whose mother dressed him as a girl and kept his hair long. Without reading anything further into the short synopsis on the back of the novel, I thought it might be about their personal interactions, regarding their “disabilities”, with those who meant for them to die. In the end, the book is about far more.

My Background

I like living in Germany. It’s where I was born, though not my ethnicity, and was one of my favorite places in the world to live by simply existing. Doing my thing, and being allowed to do so. A separate space. This is quite shocking to some people, those who still look on Germany as Nazi, intolerant and ugly. Whatever one thinks of modern Germany and its population, whether one is insistent on their culpability and propensity to commit evil acts, or is merely doubtful in some way, few people know the depth of the self-loathing, national examination and fury of descendants of “those ones” who participated, “looked the other way” or somehow minimized what happened. Though it is considered a more “unreligious” Christian country, many are insistent almost nearing religious fervor, that one be allowed to live or do what they wish, within universal bounds. That can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

The Holocaust is taught in schools, and students are required to learn about it, but it’s a subject few Germans except scholars or other academicians will discuss with “outsiders”. It’s a subject if brought up, the faces shut down, become wary or misdirective, or if they are the outspoken sort, they will question why you are pursuing the topic. Some, usually the younger generations, don’t want to hear about it anymore because they are sick and tired of the still accusatory comments or jokes made towards them, their people and country. Australia, Spain, the UK, the USA, France, the core EU (or previous EU partners) were all colonizer invaders who attempted genocide, and in some populations succeeded, because of their beliefs of superiority and manifest destiny. It is still happening in areas of Asia and Africa, and the effects of genocide are on-going in the Americas, the Pacific Islands and Australia.

Review:

I initially found the book difficult to get into, not because of topic, but because of style, which was choppy and sporadic, with a POV which toggled between an omnipotent viewer and the main character as an infant and toddler who made observations about individuals and situations that would be impossible for a child of that age. Often there were snippets of thoughts or memories provided as if from old age looking backwards, yet it was in early childhood details. Many other facts are merely implied. You have to ascertain a conclusion from information presented, and you’re often left doubting or wondering if you understood something correctly.

The setting is a small village in Germany, one of the many burgs which often surround or are near a larger, cosmopolitan city. Hegi is excellent at setting a mood so you can “see” and feel what it’s like to live in such a place: the little relationships, the jealousies, the short-lived boasts and affairs which kept everyone just a certain distance apart yet always together. There are good people and bad people, ones you ultimately as a reader can judge as such, yet the author makes no such attempt. She gives you the information, you can draw your own conclusions.

You are drawn into the world of Trudi Montag, her father owns a book circulation library and is a former injured veteran of WWI. She is visibly different, painfully and emotionally aware of the fact, yet with ingenius courage survives and keeps a dignity so many thoughtlessly attempt to brush away. That very difference, Trudi’s birth, her dwarfism is yet another trigger into her mother’s slow descent into madness, and poignantly we observe the bittersweet nature of a child’s desire to please and make happy a parent who soon is helpless against their own compulsions.

As other peers grow taller, grow up and pursue the nature courses of life, Trudi feels trapped yet determined to also grow in all ways, but her obsession with being “normal” teaches hard yet important lessons which keep her alive during the years to come. Unrequited love, secret abuse, solitary agony and loneliness. Trudi is small in stature but hugely spirited, fierce and passionate in her hates and personal battles.

Characterization is extremely important to this writer, even if the amount of names and descriptions can be confusing at times, with each person Hegi shows aspects of the German character, its idiosyncracies, faults and positives. About midway through, Hegi finally hits her stride, as the inevitable events we now know as history, begin to unfold. Almost frenetically we are drawn along in the emotional flood knowing what is going to happen, but as we’ve been made to care for each person, reluctant to progress already realizing the inevitable.

Conclusion:

For some who are more narrow-minded, they will not take away from the book the knowledge Hegi is trying to impart: that although virtually all Germans of that time knew and felt something very wrong was occurring, and they knew the basis on which it was focused, the ridding of the fatherland of Jews, some resisted and helped those Jews or others as they could with risk to their own lives. Some more than others. Others not at all, but many in some way or another did. It’s easier with hindsight to proclaim what one would have done in such a situation, but Hegi excels at showing just how normal people can change, and how the world around can change you.

For those who’ve studied facism, you’ll clearly see the examples of what type of attitude a police state creates in its populace. One most notable is the willingess to turn in others to prove their own loyalty, even children against parents, sibling to sibling, old friends of old friends. And later, to minimize or justify those acts. To conveniently forget what roled they played.

Yet the book is not a political statement. It is not a justification. It is not a mediation. It is starkly plain as seen through Trudi Montag’s eyes what people are and can be. As a little person who was often ignored or dismissed, her insight is brutally honest yet acceptable as truth. It is a character which I often find in Germans today, the willingness (if they allow you in) to harshly examine self, to admit to weaknesses or wrongdoing of thought or deed, but with a pragmatism which accepts those facts but is unwilling to be dismayed by them. Life goes on. Again, for good or bad, as this tendency can be problematic in actually caring that one's own actions can negatively impact others even if it feels good for you. That's colonialism still at work.

As an editor, I would have been compelled to “clean up” Hegi’s writing, make it more coherent and flowing, yet it would have lost the sparkle which makes unique her voice. As a reader, I found it challenging, but overall this book is extremely successful. I would strongly consider it one not to be missed. Although they make hundreds of films these days about anything and everything, this is a book I would love to see adapted for film. With its snippet like quality, it would be perfect for the big screen.

A bittersweet and wonderful gem. I am glad I didn’t put this one to the side simply because I don’t often read contemporary fiction or because the stamp on my copy proclaimed it a “Oprah’s Book Club Selection”. I would have been much less having not read it. It really is near perfect in it’s view of German life of the era, the complexities underlying an entire country and people’s past which continues to haunt with a darkly golden light.

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I wanted so badly to like this book. After the first several chapters I assured myself that she was still setting the story. In the second half of the book I sighed because, Ahhhh, finally, this is the story! And then the action ended and there were more words! Words, words, words, so many words and so much to decipher. Exhausting! Alas, I did finish and now I am wishing for those 525 pages back.