Children and Fire
Ursula Hegi
May 2011
288 nook pages
Published by Simon and Schuster
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This was the first Hegi I’ve read, and I understand that it’s part of a series (not really the right word…it’s known as the Burgdorf Cycle). The books are all set in a fictionalBurgdorf,Germany, and may share some characters, but Children and Fire certainly stands alone. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything by not having read any of her other books.
Children and Fire is another day in the life story. I seem to reading a lot of these lately, although they’ve all been quite different. But like Beat the Reaper (hah…bet you never thought you’d see those two books compared) the story also goes back in time to fill in some of the personal history of our main character.
Thekla Jansen is a schoolteacher. It’s 1934, and Hitler is beginning to come in to power overGermany. The Third Reich is slowly starting to affect the lives of ordinary people. Children are joining the Hitler-Jugend, because there are fun activities and nifty uniforms (it’s easy to condemn in retrospect, but at the time, you can see how appealing these things would be to children). Teachers are burning books that have been banned by the government and making lesson plans that reinforce Hitler’s dictates. And Thekla herself makes decisions that may not be right, but which she rationalizes in order to preserve a sense of normalcy in a world that is no longer quite normal.
Children and Fire shows the very beginnings of Hitler’s rise, and it’s easy to see how it all went so wrong, how the average German could get sucked into the propaganda and hatred, either because it looked and sounded appealing, or because they feared the repercussions.
I like to read books from the German perspective because it’s rarer-definitely gives a new perspective, even if it seems hard to comprehend.
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This sounds like a fasinating historical fiction. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve never read Hegi but this one looks good. I do like stories that show the perspective of the Germans during the Hitler era.
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Sounds interesting and like it would pair perfectly with the book I just finished reading: The Book Thief.
Ooooh, this sounds interesting!
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That cover is beautiful. I definitely like books set in this era. I think I would like to check this one out.
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I didn’t know about this one, but I’m adding it to my to-read list. I really enjoyed Floating in My Mother’s Palm, which took place after the war but I know mentions characters featured in her other books. I have Stones from the River; I think that’s part of the series, too. I’ll link to your review on War Through the Generations.
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I have read Hegi before, and really enjoy her style, but it seems like a lot of her books are based around the same subjects. Maybe it is just that I am reading all the ones in the Burgdorf Cycle. Who knows? I do have a few of her others on my shelf, and should try to get to them sometime soon. I also think you would like Stones From the River by Hegi.
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I like books that look at the Holocaust from some different angle. Especially from inside Germany — thinking The Book Thief, the picture book Rose Blanche. Definitely putting this one on “the list.”
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Ok… this one does sound good and I have not read this author before either…
And I have NEWS!
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