My Own Dear Brother

September 1, 2016

This powerful coming-of-age story tells of 13-year-old Ursula, who lives with her family in the small Austrian town of Felddorf in 1944. After her father's death on the Russian front, the family is thrown into turmoil, and Anton, the older brother Ursula idolizes, begins to display a cruelty that she can't understand. There are multiple hardships the family must endure; Russian prisoners escape from the local concentration camp and are brutally hunted down; Ursula's mother begins an affair with a married man; and Ursula's close friend, who is considered by some in the town to be "mentally deficient," is sent to a Nazi-run mental institution. Ursula then goes on a brave quest to rescue her friend from certain death. Muller's writing is lyrical and haunting, and she allows readers to delve deeply into the universal themes of loyalty, morality, and courage in the face of extreme adversity. VERDICT This well-researched and stark first novel paints an unflinching portrait of daily life in Austria under the Nazis and later Soviet occupation. Its adolescent protagonist may appeal to readers of Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief.--Lyndsie Robinson, SUNY Oneonta Lib.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 29, 2016
In her debut novel, Müller explores Austria near the end of WWII through the eyes of a young girl whose coming-of-age is fraught with the dangers of the times. In 1944 Austria, Ursula Hildesheim is 13 years old and facing the dangers of Nazi occupation, hunger, and fear as her father has been missing since the Battle of Stalingrad. Ursula worries about her brother, Anton, who is now a member of the Hitler Youth. A friendship develops between Ursula’s mother, who is having an affair with a married man, and Frau Hillier, mother of Schosi, a boy with mental disabilities. This relationship will help the women bond through the changes at the end of the war, including the brutality of the Russian occupation. Ursula’s reaction to the changes to the world around her as she is forced to grow up too quickly provides an eye-opening view of the suffering of the innocents of war. Yet what resonates most about Müller’s intense, moving novel is the revelation that some of those who helped end Nazi rule may have treated the women and children worse than the previous Nazi occupiers.

Muller, who lives in Wales, adds to the recent spate of novels written about the German experience of World War II with her debut about a young Austrian girl forced to face the moral ambiguities war presents.In a rural Austrian village in 1944, 13-year-old Ursula lives with her 14-year-old brother, Anton, her 16-year-old sister, Dorli, and their army-widow mother, Mali, who came from a larger town and has never been accepted by the locals. Anton is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth who gladly kills an escaped prisoner from the local POW camp. Despite her devotion to Anton, Ursula finds herself attracted to independent-minded Sepp, whom her brother considers "a bad type," and also befriends her gentle, mentally challenged neighbor, Schosi. Schosi's widowed, compassionately Christian mother, Frau Hillier, shields him from the attention of the local Nazi hierarchy as much as possible, and instead of attending school, he works for local farmer Herr Esterbauer, who feels deep affection for both mother and son. When Mali is shunned at church after beginning an affair with family friend Siegfried, Frau Hillier sits beside her in support. Anton's behavior becomes increasingly vicious against Schosi; Mali, who has become pregnant; and Siegfried, with terrible consequences for each. The villagers' lives, barely sustainable as the war winds down, plummet into degradation and depravity once the Russians arrive. Muller explores difficult questions concerning what defines personal morality during a period of collective malevolence. Is Anton, who enjoys drowning cats, evil or merely a troubled child infected by fascism? What to make of a man like Herr Esterbauer, who supports Nazi principles but shows genuine decency (and tenderness) in his protection of Schosi? In Ursula's coming-of-moral-age story, she learns where she owes loyalty, what she can forgive, and how much she is willing to risk for principles or for love. Despite a soft landing at the end, this tough, unflinching novel illuminates the cost of war on those most closely affected. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2016
Mller, who lives in Wales, adds to the recent spate of novels written about the German experience of World War II with her debut about a young Austrian girl forced to face the moral ambiguities war presents.In a rural Austrian village in 1944, 13-year-old Ursula lives with her 14-year-old brother, Anton, her 16-year-old sister, Dorli, and their army-widow mother, Mali, who came from a larger town and has never been accepted by the locals. Anton is an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth who gladly kills an escaped prisoner from the local POW camp. Despite her devotion to Anton, Ursula finds herself attracted to independent-minded Sepp, whom her brother considers a bad type, and also befriends her gentle, mentally challenged neighbor, Schosi. Schosis widowed, compassionately Christian mother, Frau Hillier, shields him from the attention of the local Nazi hierarchy as much as possible, and instead of attending school, he works for local farmer Herr Esterbauer, who feels deep affection for both mother and son. When Mali is shunned at church after beginning an affair with family friend Siegfried, Frau Hillier sits beside her in support. Antons behavior becomes increasingly vicious against Schosi; Mali, who has become pregnant; and Siegfried, with terrible consequences for each. The villagers lives, barely sustainable as the war winds down, plummet into degradation and depravity once the Russians arrive. Mller explores difficult questions concerning what defines personal morality during a period of collective malevolence. Is Anton, who enjoys drowning cats, evil or merely a troubled child infected by fascism? What to make of a man like Herr Esterbauer, who supports Nazi principles but shows genuine decency (and tenderness) in his protection of Schosi? In Ursulas coming-of-moral-age story, she learns where she owes loyalty, what she can forgive, and how much she is willing to risk for principles or for love. Despite a soft landing at the end, this tough, unflinching novel illuminates the cost of war on those most closely affected.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.