Alternate histories allows readers to ponder what really happened as well as what could have happened. If you have watched the TV show or read the book, The Man in the High Castle is a look at World War II. The good German does something similar with equally haunting consequences and a world we do not know at all. Set in Canada, I loved how this book made me think about this country that I have called home for over 6 years now. Before I present my thoughts, take a look at the book blurb below.
In November 1939, a German anti-fascist named Georg Elser came as close to assassinating Adolf Hitler as anyone ever had. In this gripping novel of alternate history, he doesn’t just come close—he succeeds. But he could never have imagined the terrible consequences that would follow from this act of heroism.
Hermann Göring, masterful strategist, assumes the Chancellery and quickly signs a non-aggression treaty with the isolationist president Joseph Kennedy that will keep America out of the war that is about to engulf Europe. Göring rushes the German scientific community into developing the atomic bomb, and in August 1944, this devastating new weapon is tested on the English capital.
London lies in ruins. The war is over, fascism prevails in Europe, and Canada, the Commonwealth holdout in the Americas, suffers as a client state of the Soviet Union. Georg Elser, blinded in the A-bombing of London, is shipped to Canada and quarantined in a hospice near Toronto called Mercy House. Here we meet William Teufel, a German-Canadian boy who in the summer of 1960 devises a plan that he hopes will distance himself from his German heritage and, unwittingly, brings him face to face with the man whose astonishing act of heroism twenty-one years earlier set the world on its terrifying new path.
Content Notes: Depictions of racism, death, violence, bullying, suicide.
Themes for Thought
I was excited to read this book because it offers a great opportunity to learn about the alliances in the Second World War as well as the key players. The book blurb above presents a number of independent what if scenarios:
– If Hitler had been successfully assassinated
– If Germany had built the bomb
– If Kennedy had not been assassinated
How would the world have played out?
On an Unrecognizable World
A man, dissatisfied with the direction in which German is going in the early 1940s, sets in motion a plan to free his country of Hitler. At a major celebration, a bomb is set off and he succeeds in getting rid of Hitler, but that does not end the suffering. The beliefs of the Nazis were deeply rooted in the people and went beyond one leader. That is something that Georg Elser had not counted on. The world continues on a destructive path and Elser, after escaping from a camp, finds himself in London, helping out with the rubble and devastation of the atomic bomb. The radiation slowly takes away his eyesight. He is sent to a care facility in Port Elizabeth, Ontario, Canada, and that is where we meet our second protagonist – a young boy named William.
Part German, William was born after the Second World War. He is curious about the world around him – why teachers and people treat him and his family differently? Why do people come to their house on remembrance day while they hide inside? There is a house on the outskirts of the town where Russian soldiers with protective gear for radiation and a Geiger Counter visit every couple months. It is said that the house is for the blind, affected by the radiation of the bomb. William wants to know more about it.
Through WIlliam, I learned what school would have been like in a society that hated Germans. A society that made German women spend a couple years in penance “years of atonement” for being German. A country where German houses are marked by numbers so that everyone knows who they are.
On Freedom
There are a number of political decisions in this book. As the reader, we are not privy to why they were taken – all we see are their consequences. When the US creates an alliance with Germany and in the late 1970s, starts to deport Jews out of the country, how is Canada affected? The safest places for Germans, whether they believe in the politics and ideals or not, are countries aligned with Germany. Canada, as a commonwealth nation, is affected by the British-Russian alliance.
“A German was a German, no matter how long they lived among us, no matter how many generations removed from the Fatherland they were.”
Excerpt from The Good German
The hatred portrayed by the people in Port Elizabeth towards the Germans made me wonder if we had a similar period of time when Germans around the world were looked at with suspicion. At the same time, since it was the US that bombed Japan, did the Japanese have such hard feelings towards the Americans too? Today, decades after the war, we seemed to have good relationships.
On The Inventions of War
Necessity is the mother of invention. While The Good German does not elaborate on the inventions during the war, it does hint towards medical advances when it comes to Elser and his blindness. I did a quick search on the Internet about inventions and learned about a couple major inventions from War History Online.
Notes on The Writing in The Good German
The writing in this book is highly descriptive and visual. It is also very dark. Like Fahrenheit 491, I felt that I was watching a film in sepia. I don’t think I have come across any scenario where Germany winning the war was a good thing, and the writing in this book set up the atmosphere so well! Told in alternating perspectives and timeline by William and Elser, The Good German kept me curious about the world. It made me wonder about mine. And most importantly, through the perspective of a little boy who goes to school, it made me thankful that Canada did not become this.
Overall, the story was engaging and thought provoking. What I found fascinating (and sometimes hard to wrap my head around) is inspite of Germany winning WW2 in this story, the point of view is that of the oppressed Germans in Canada. Maybe that’s the beauty of speculative fiction – it doesn’t always have to be about the outcomes of the main event. It can be about the common people who are affected by them. And those effects are not always in the same vicinity as where the event happened.
** The Good German is now out in stores. Find it at your local library, bookstores or Amazon. Share your thoughts in the comment! Would you pick up this book? **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Many thanks to the publisher, Harper Collins Canada, for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
If you are interested memoirs set in World War II, check out my reviews to Quest for Eternal Sunshine and When the toy dog became a wolf and the moon broke curfew.
Cover image: Photo by David McCumskay on Unsplash
That really sounds like a fascinating book, almost scary to think about.
It’s scary but not spooky. 🙂 Quite thought provoking!