Although this book is 8 years old, I just picked it up at the beginning of May. I’ve read several books about WWII and the Holocaust. Among my favorites are The Book Thief, The Nightingale, All the Light We Cannot See, Sarah’s Key and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet . Although this was an horrendous time in our history, I am fascinated by the stories of survival and learning about the good amidst evil. Skeletons at the Feast was told from a different perspective than all of the books I’ve read in this genre.
The story takes place near the very end of WWII and tells of a group traversing across the remnants of the Third Reich in an attempt to make it to the safety of the Brits or Americans. Among the group is eighteen-year-old Anna Emmerich, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats, her lover, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war and a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, who the pair know as Manfred-who is, in reality, Uri Singer, a Jew from Germany who managed to escape a train bound for Auschwitz.
It’s romantic and heart breaking and full of history. This is another one of those books that I switched often between my Kindle and Audible so I could listen while driving and cooking and not have to stop the story! I rated it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Friend me on Goodreads!
2 thoughts on “Book of the Week: Skeletons at the Feast”
I think I told you that I read this book and saw Chris Bohjalian at a book signing for the book (I went to high school with his brother). This is based on a true story (actually a few true stories) that he first heard about from another dad while waiting to pick up their kids from pre-school. He ended up meeting the other dad’s mother or neighbor (can’t remember which) who told him many stories of her life which were incorporated into his fictionalized story.
Hey there
You mentioned in The Aha! Connection today about reading WWII fiction.
Since you are Methodist like I am (SImpsonwood UMC), you may enjoy inspirational fiction set in WWII that I have read:
“The Butterfly and the Violin” and “A Sparrow in Terezin”, both by Kristy Cambron, and “Shadowed by Grace: a story of Monuments Men” by Cara Putman.
All three have been written since 2014.
Blessings. Thanks for the service you perform in networking in our area!
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. Although this was an horrendous time in our history, I am fascinated by the stories of survival and learning about the good amidst evil. Skeletons at the Feast was told from a different perspective than all of the books I’ve read in this genre.
I think I told you that I read this book and saw Chris Bohjalian at a book signing for the book (I went to high school with his brother). This is based on a true story (actually a few true stories) that he first heard about from another dad while waiting to pick up their kids from pre-school. He ended up meeting the other dad’s mother or neighbor (can’t remember which) who told him many stories of her life which were incorporated into his fictionalized story.
Hey there
You mentioned in The Aha! Connection today about reading WWII fiction.
Since you are Methodist like I am (SImpsonwood UMC), you may enjoy inspirational fiction set in WWII that I have read:
“The Butterfly and the Violin” and “A Sparrow in Terezin”, both by Kristy Cambron, and “Shadowed by Grace: a story of Monuments Men” by Cara Putman.
All three have been written since 2014.
Blessings. Thanks for the service you perform in networking in our area!
Zanese Duncan
Peachtree Corners