A masterful love story set against a backdrop of epic history and unforgettable courage
In the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives.
At the center is eighteen-year-old Anna, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats, and her first love, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war named Callum. With his boyish good looks and his dedication to her family, he has captured Anna’s heart. But he is the enemy, and their love must remain a closely guarded secret. Only Manfred, a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, knows the truth. And Manfred, who is not what he seems to be, is reluctantly taken with Anna, just as she finds herself drawn uncomfortably to him.
As these unlikely allies work their way west, their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–and will forever bind the young trio together.
Includes special bonus material: Chris Bohjalian responds to questions from book groups and readers
In ice cold January of 1945, Germans living near the Polish border know the Russians are coming and expect a brutal retaliatory occupation; they also assume the western allies led by America will be less harsh on them. Most know the war is lost even if Hitler and his Third Reich insist they are winning. Thus there is a mass exodus heading west just in front of the Russian army marching through Poland.
Not all can escape. For instance, aristocrat Prussian Rolf Emmerich, who neither the war nor the Nazis had touched his family's upper class lifestyle until now, and his two oldest sons are conscripted and sent to fight; his wife takes their other children and accompanied by a Scottish POW flee for France. They meet Jew Uri Singer, who escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz. Jewish women also head west having escaped a death camp only most die on the death march to France. All know the Russians match the Nazis in brutality and none want to be caught in between either force.
Apparently based on a Prussian woman's 1945 diary, SKELETONS AT THE FEAST is an excellent character driven historical thriller. The story line is loaded with people trying to survive on a desperate trek in which the death of faith in Europe is a by-product of the horrors of war. Readers will feel the hopelessness of all and yet like a tiny glimmer of light in a totally darkened universe, the spirit remains strong not to give in to this despondency. Chris Bohjalian provides an incredible vivid look at a horrific journey to avoid the ruthless Russians in which hope is almost as dead as faith, but little things like love and caring sustain those fleeing, who are fortunate that at that time they remained ignorant of the atrocities the Nazis did to the Russians and the death camps; that knowledge might have snuffed out their last iota of compassion for one another in a world otherwise gone mad.
Harriet Klausner
writes,
The great title, Skeletons at the Feast, is what caused me to pick up this book at my local bookstore and that is how I discovered Chris Bohjalian. This novel is a hypnotic tale set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany revoling around a wealthy Prussian family and an assortment of other characters, thrown together, while fleeing the invading Russian army. The thing that makes this book so great is that it is based on the real life diary of a Prussian woman. This novel is so rich and so vivid that it will stay with you for a long time after you have finished reading it. This is a book that should not be missed. This was the first novel by Chris Bojalian that I read and now I know I will read everything he writes..an amazing and talented writer..
writes,
The reading journey thru Skeletons At The Feast is as unrelenting and brutal as the journey fictionalized in this book. Based on a diary from that time of what actually happened in Germany in the winter/spring of 1945.
We come to know all the characters very well and as in all absorbing books we think of them as friends.
There is no soft selling of details here. Gruesome as they are I am sure they are based on true facts drived from intense research.
The author does not spare our feelings in the what happens to some of the main characters we come to like and admire. He is as cruel in his treatment of them as real life is.
I am a huge fan of both real and historical fiction from the Nazi era.
This novel is one of best I have read.
I also recommend Those Who Save us by Jenna Blum.
