Lights in a Black Forest Martena Warner Christine Hartelt Rebecca Wirfs 9781466344532 Books
Download As PDF : Lights in a Black Forest Martena Warner Christine Hartelt Rebecca Wirfs 9781466344532 Books
For fifty years, Heinrich Warner chose to forget his past. At night, he dreamed alive again the ghosts of his childhood. By day, he chose to forget them all. But, ghosts do not stay hidden forever, especially in the mind of an old man who can no longer remember what is real...
Lights in a Black Forest Martena Warner Christine Hartelt Rebecca Wirfs 9781466344532 Books
Beautiful tribute to a father who suffered loss of homeland under the Nazis - and no, not as a displaced Jew, but as a German civilian. When the Red Army invaded, millions of Silesians became homeless in an instant, unless they were gunned down first, or brutally gang-raped. But the novel isn't about the atrocity of war, per se; it's a daughter's search to understand her father, who migrated to Iowa after the war, and stopped at the town with the "Germans welcome" sign. Anti-German sentiment in the U.S. was bad enough after WWI, worse after WWII, but not in Warner's fictional Iowa town. This novel is rich with countless details that define Iowa, our diverse ethnicity, the traditions our pioneer settlers handed down - thrift, for example, persists in the gene pool, and Warner's anecdotes are sure to bring tears of laughter or winces of recognition from readers.The greatest part of the story is a boy who lost his little sister in the woods the day of the Red Army's invasion of Silesia. The novel opens in the point of view of an elderly, widowed Heinrich who's losing his memory to dementia. Some days he barely remembers his own name, but he never forgets his ghosts. While he grows old, they remain young, frozen in time at age 14, or whatever age he last knew them. The whole first chapter is riveting and powerful, especially when Heinrich regresses to the little boy who tells himself "I didn't do anything wrong," but he hasn't managed to convince himself of that even at the end of his days. Most of the novel is told from his daughter's viewpoint. Anna Maria is a young stepmother with an inattentive husband who leaves full-time care of his daughter to her, but her father becomes more of a handful than the toddler, and she faces that awful family crisis: the nursing home. She also searches for the real story behind her father's fear of the woods, his missing family members left behind in a land that ceased to be Germany and became Poland, and the meaning of that haunting refrain she's heard since childhood. It sounded like a nickname, Vo-iss Lucy. As an adult, she hears the correct German words but her need to make sense of them makes Lucy all the more tantalizing. To say more would be a plot spoiler. Let's just say that the answer to Ayn Rand's "Who is John Galt" had nowhere near the impact of Heinrich's Lucy.
Well researched, honestly and passionately told, this story should not be missed. It's an important addition to the scarce literature on how German civilians suffered the sins of their government, how they walked their own Trail of Tears as heart-rending as that of the Cherokees in our own land, and how, if not for the death of one person in time of war, and the survival of another, countless people we know and love today would not exist. I didn't say it right, but Warner does, and she brings the pain of war home to us a generation after the fact, on a new land. But as she quotes Faulkner at the outset, "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." And from page one, Heinrich's ghosts will haunt you too.
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Tags : Lights in a Black Forest [Martena Warner, Christine Hartelt, Rebecca Wirfs] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. For fifty years, Heinrich Warner chose to forget his past. At night, he dreamed alive again the ghosts of his childhood. By day,Martena Warner, Christine Hartelt, Rebecca Wirfs,Lights in a Black Forest,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1466344539,FICTION Mystery & Detective Historical
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Lights in a Black Forest Martena Warner Christine Hartelt Rebecca Wirfs 9781466344532 Books Reviews
This book will change you. Unless you witnessed first hand the mass hatred, torture, death, and displacement of ordinary human beings during WWII, you will be moved by this debut novel. The story centers around Heinrich Warner, a boy during the war, whose experiences still affected him and those around him 50 years after the war ended and 40 years after he emigrated to Iowa.
When I began reading the book, I read because of my acquaintance with the author and read 30 to 40 pages a night. By the end, the nightly page count was around 100 and I read because I was drawn into it. Beyond the book, I was motivated to spend hours reading about German, Polish, and Silesian history and geography.
The way the author smoothly eased into her disclaimer and explanation pages at the end was extremely clever.
I was immediately engrossed in this book - a documentary, mystery and love story combined. It explores the kind of love that spans time and space. It opens with the two main characters, Heinrich who is losing his memory and problem-solving ability to Alzheimer's Disease, and Anna Maria - the youngest of his children and his only daughter, who must now attend to his care, his posessions and then sell her childhood home in a small Iowa town. The author does a remarkable job portaying Heinrich's thoughts as he listened to a familiar but puzzling sound - the ringing of his telephone. Even when his daughter asks him if he was going to answer it, he can't connect the dots. Yet his long term memory remains - and these memories are filled with grief and regret. Just WHAT he regrets is a mystery that keeps you reading. In the second half of the book, Heinrich is again a young boy in World War II Germany. His story is based on the author's father's life. While fictionalized to a degree, it is historically accurate. A must-read for any midwesterner of German descent - you'll recognize aspects of German culture that persist today, and the small town flavor of the Midwest. And you'll come to love the characters all the more, knowing that they are not entirely fictional.
This story weaves through past and present seemlessly. I was enthralled by the details of Anna Maria's courage and tenacity to learn about her father's illness and German roots. Martena's ability to entice the reader into forming an emotional connection with the characters and story is astonishing.
Lights in a Black Forest is a book that truly illuminates the dark of the war in Germany and the effect it had on the people in a very poignant and personal way. The story is gripping and draws the reader into the world of Heinrich and his family from page one. I have passed the book on to several friends and family members who have all found it as spellbinding as I. You won't want to put it down!
Lights in a Black Forest
This book is a must for history and mystery buffs. It is fast-paced and I could not put it down because of the suspense. It was easy to identify with the main character and her roller coaster emotions in dealing with her family's secret past! What a heroine to deal with her father's illness in such a kind and thoughtful way and keep her sanity. Although the book is fiction, it is so well written that it seems to relate to all of us in the hear and now! This is a book that I am recommending to all my friends!
This book was good in numerous ways. The story of Heinrich's upbringing in war-torn Germany opened a window into a world for me. The mystery behind her father's sorrow kept me reading. Plus I identified with the characters in ways that surprised me due to my own heritage.
The stories of these characters will live on in me as they have made an impact on me. Other good books have done the same.
Great book!
Beautiful tribute to a father who suffered loss of homeland under the Nazis - and no, not as a displaced Jew, but as a German civilian. When the Red Army invaded, millions of Silesians became homeless in an instant, unless they were gunned down first, or brutally gang-raped. But the novel isn't about the atrocity of war, per se; it's a daughter's search to understand her father, who migrated to Iowa after the war, and stopped at the town with the "Germans welcome" sign. Anti-German sentiment in the U.S. was bad enough after WWI, worse after WWII, but not in Warner's fictional Iowa town. This novel is rich with countless details that define Iowa, our diverse ethnicity, the traditions our pioneer settlers handed down - thrift, for example, persists in the gene pool, and Warner's anecdotes are sure to bring tears of laughter or winces of recognition from readers.
The greatest part of the story is a boy who lost his little sister in the woods the day of the Red Army's invasion of Silesia. The novel opens in the point of view of an elderly, widowed Heinrich who's losing his memory to dementia. Some days he barely remembers his own name, but he never forgets his ghosts. While he grows old, they remain young, frozen in time at age 14, or whatever age he last knew them. The whole first chapter is riveting and powerful, especially when Heinrich regresses to the little boy who tells himself "I didn't do anything wrong," but he hasn't managed to convince himself of that even at the end of his days. Most of the novel is told from his daughter's viewpoint. Anna Maria is a young stepmother with an inattentive husband who leaves full-time care of his daughter to her, but her father becomes more of a handful than the toddler, and she faces that awful family crisis the nursing home. She also searches for the real story behind her father's fear of the woods, his missing family members left behind in a land that ceased to be Germany and became Poland, and the meaning of that haunting refrain she's heard since childhood. It sounded like a nickname, Vo-iss Lucy. As an adult, she hears the correct German words but her need to make sense of them makes Lucy all the more tantalizing. To say more would be a plot spoiler. Let's just say that the answer to Ayn Rand's "Who is John Galt" had nowhere near the impact of Heinrich's Lucy.
Well researched, honestly and passionately told, this story should not be missed. It's an important addition to the scarce literature on how German civilians suffered the sins of their government, how they walked their own Trail of Tears as heart-rending as that of the Cherokees in our own land, and how, if not for the death of one person in time of war, and the survival of another, countless people we know and love today would not exist. I didn't say it right, but Warner does, and she brings the pain of war home to us a generation after the fact, on a new land. But as she quotes Faulkner at the outset, "The past is not dead. It isn't even past." And from page one, Heinrich's ghosts will haunt you too.
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