Eva's Cousin

July 1, 2002
In the sweltering summer of 1944, Germany's citizens were trapped between the Allied bombing raids and the fear-driven virulence of Hitler's faltering government. But for 20-year-old Marlene, invited by her cousin, Eva Braun, to stay at Hitler's mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden, the summer was one of sexual and social awakening. Marlene is initially blinded by the unaccustomed luxury, but she turns out to be both sensible and sensitive. While she has an affair with an SS officer, she also hides a young Russian boy who has escaped the work camps. Based on interviews with Braun's real cousin, the novel is a sympathetic portrait of an innocent girl who, while she seems ensconced in the heart of the Nazi empire, is actually a resistance force of one. An older, disenchanted Marlene looks back on these events and says that the entire country was steeped in guilt and shame: "We remember gray-faced people whom we saw passing by, and we remember that we saw them in the knowledge that they were lost." When Knauss implies that Marlene's experience can explain mass support for the Nazi regime, the moral center of the book falters, but her sparely poetic and intense portrait of a young girl caught between her own ethical code and the promise of power is unrelentingly powerful. A bestseller in Germany, the narrative is adeptly translated by prize-winning Anthea Bell, who has also rendered W.G. Sebald's works into English; it may well make Knauss's international reputation.
Readers must judge for themselves whether the protagonist's description of her family as outspoken anti-Nazis is revisionist history, but her memories of Hitler and his entourage are bound to excite interest. (Sept.)FYI:Prohibited by her husband to speak about her past, the real-life protagonist of this novel, Gertraud Weisker, waited until after his death to tell her story to veteran German novelist Knauss.

May 1, 2002
Silent for 50 years, Eva Braun's cousin finally shared her memories with German novelist Knauss, who used them as the basis for this novela best seller in Germany and Knauss's first English translation.

Copyright 2002 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2002
Adult/High School-In the stifling summer of 1944, Marlene, 20, is invited by her older and more worldly cousin to join her at a mountain retreat. The cousin is Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress, and the retreat is the Berghof, his villa in the Bavarian Alps. At first, she is awestruck by the luxury and pristine setting of her surroundings. As she tries to understand Eva, who changes her clothes several times a day and thinks nothing of having baskets of shoes, she becomes disillusioned, seeing her as shallow, self-absorbed, and detached from reality. Marlene battles boredom, studies physics, and commits two acts of defiance that open her eyes to chilling events taking place not far from their idyllic refuge. As she listens to the BBC and saves a young Ukrainian boy who has run away from a work camp, she realizes that her sheltered world on the mountain is an illusion. This novel is based on the memories of Gertrude Weisker, Braun's cousin, as told to the author. Though Weisker is fictionalized as Marlene, the Nazis are referred to by their real names. Knauss raises important and compelling questions about complicity. Even though the writing occasionally jumps back and forth in time, the story is engaging and helps make this period of history accessible to readers. YAs will find Marlene's tale intriguing as it unfolds against the backdrop of sinister events.-Susanne Bardelson, Arvada Public Library, CO

Copyright 2002 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2002
Knauss' first novel to be translated into English is based on her interviews with Gertrude Weisker, the cousin of Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun. Gertrude, called Marlene in the novel, tells the story of her days with Eva at the Bergof, Hitler's mansion in the Bavarian mountains, toward the end of World War II. In 1944, Marlene travels to the Berghof to keep Eva company while Hitler makes his final stand. She becomes caught up in Eva's luxurious world, and the ease with which she can turn a blind eye to the horrors of the war. But when Marlene moves into Hitler's teahouse and discovers a Ukrainian boy named Mikhail who has just escaped from a brutal work camp, she can no longer hide from the realities that are rapidly closing in on her. Elegantly told, Knauss' thought-provoking novel explores Marlene's conflicted thoughts about her cousin, the war, and the SS officer who becomes her lover. Both passively complicit and helpless, Marlene is nonetheless a character who commands the reader's sympathy and interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)