A truly gripping read – a great book set in Berlin
- Book: Two Brothers
- Location: Berlin
- Author: Ben Elton
The story of two boys who became brothers but who had different biological parents and how the issue of birth in Germany came to mean so much in the build up to the Second World War. It is poignantly and realistically told, in modern parlance, which I thought would grate, but actually adds to the immediacy of the story. You can hear the footsteps on the streets of Berlin and feel the creep factor of oppression, torment and death. As a reader I felt I was there with the two brothers Ottsy and Paulus, and their Saturday gang made up of Silke and Dagmar. In tandem, as they grow up, the National Socialists are also growing – they were founded on the day of the birth of the boys, 24 Feburary 1920.
It is truly deserving of 5* for both atmosphere and story and setting should I mention the two things that I thought weren’t quite right? One was – a little bottle of olive oil was taken on a picnic at the Wannsee, and am not sure that would have been right for the period…I think olive oil was only used medicinally and not for culinary purposes in those days and the other, attending a parade of the Freikorps at the Brandenburg Gate the parents, Wolfgang and Frieda have their little babies in a buggy. A commotion starts and Wolfgang commands that they remove the babies from the buggy for fear of being trampled underfoot, and raise the babies above their heads and run (nah, you wouldn’t do that, you would cradle them to your chest to protect them). Forget my nit picking, though, it’s a truly top read!
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