'The Invention Of Curried Sausage'

Germany during World War II from the point of view of a German intellectual.

Granted, our intellectual, Uwe Timm, was only four years old when the Russians and British fought their way to the German border and Hamburg, when the story is set.

Still, it's not the author telling the story. It's from the point of view of a single mother, her husband and son lost in the battle lines -- dead or captured. Mere days before the Allies take over. Before justice is levied on the Nazis and years before things are considered "normal."

She starts shacking up with a AWOL naval officer. She delays telling him that the war is over in order to keep him with her. Sort of wrong. Yet, it showed this vulnerability when life for a lonely woman, just trying to live, was impossible.

Timm was too young to fight in World War II, even if he wanted. Timm would actually get active with a number of leftist parties and organizations in 1960s. He would not become the friend of any Nazi as he came of age.

Timm's brother and father did fight. The former died. I think there was probably quite a bit of guilt for a war and a party that he would not have supported and probably died trying to defy. I also think Timm was quick to defend Germany. Not Nazi Germany. But Germany: this collection of vulnerable and sad people swept up in this wave, many drowned and we are apt to blame all of them for building the beach.

It's not a fair assumption. Timm probably understands this as much as anyone. He didn't see the full impact of the war on his family and home. He did have a front-row seat to how it would rebuild the next 25 years. You don't need to see the destruction to understand the rebuilding.