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Skeletons at the Feast

by Chris Bohjalian (Goodreads Author)

3.90 · rating details · 5,463 ratings · 1,196 reviews

A masterful love story set against a backdrop of epic history and unforgettable courage

In the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives.

At the center is eighteen-year-old Anna, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats, and her first love, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war named Callum. With his boyish good looks an...more

Paperback, 363 pages

Published February 10th 2009 by Three Rivers Press (first published January 1st 2008)

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Aug 11, 2009

Allison (The Allure of Books) rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, war_ww1-ww2-vietnam, 2009

I can handle reading a lot of fantasy violence and torture, because, no matter how connected to the characters I am-I know on some level as I’m reading that it did NOT happen. So, when I picked up Skeletons I knew that would be different, and I was right. Even the smallest acts of cruelty in this book twisted my guts because I know that what the Jews went through during the Holocaust is absolute reality. Just thinking about it makes me feel sick. So, in a way, this book was the opposite of fanta...more

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Dec 24, 2008

Lucy rated it

· review of another edition

Skeletons at the Feast took me to a dark place - the Holocaust. If there weren't so many great books written about this black mark of the world's history, I would ban myself from reading any books on this topic in the future. I hate that such a horrific occurrence is repeatedly used as bait for novelists.

Bohjalian is a good author, though, and does a good job developing his characters, giving them interesting conflict, all the while threading bits of real history into his story that ...moreSkeletons at the Feast took me to a dark place - the Holocaust. If there weren't so many great books written about this black mark of the world's history, I would ban myself from reading any books on this topic in the future. I hate that such a horrific occurrence is repeatedly used as bait for novelists.

Bohjalian is a good author, though, and does a good job developing his characters, giving them interesting conflict, all the while threading bits of real history into his story that he obtained through diligent research. I'll give him credit for all of the above.

However, part of me felt like Bohjalian decided this was going to be his one and only time to write about the Holocaust so he was going to put it all in one book. The details he gives about the atrocities committed by the German soldiers, the Russian soldiers and the desperate and destroyed left in their wake is so graphic, so skin-crawling brutal that it borders on gratuitous. Including as much as he does has the opposite effect from the one I imagine the author intended and his book almost becomes a WWII caricature. I'm not saying the things he describes didn't happen. No, he seems to have read enough journals and letters to give each horror story credibility, but to include them all -- in the same book, witnessed by the same characters in the space of about a year -- it made these disturbing acts of cruelty seem made-up. I feel it was a disservice to take someone's real life nightmare and diminish it by setting it alongside so many other nightmares so that they all seem somehow....less. Because that is what happens. The first description was like a punch in the stomach, the next a slap on the face and all the rest...swats on an already numb backside.

As much as I wanted to, I didn't dislike this book. Bojahlian creates a complicated story about the fallout from ignorance, naivety, and privilege found among the rural aristocrats of Poland and Germany near the end of the war. Not forced to witness the daily disappearance of Jews and other minorities, the Emmerilich family was living in relative peace and prosperity, along with their polite relationships with the POWs helping out on their beet farm, until the ugly consequnces of their fuhrer's decisions found their way to the family's country manor, Kamenheim. Anna, The Emmerlich's teenage daughter, falls in love with Callum, a scottish POW, and convinces her parents to allow him to remain with their family instead of sending him back to the prison camps. As Callum and the Emmerlichs flee the approaching Russian troops, the blinders of this family's eyes are removed and they finally see first hand the destruction throughout their land. Along their west-bound journey, they meet and become dependent upon Uri, a young, vigilante Jew posing as a German soldier in order to survive. There is an additional, competely separate story involving a french, Jewish girl named Cecile who is trying to keep herself and her friend, Jeanne, alive while prisoners in a concentration camp that does eventually intersect with Uri and the Emmerlichs but not soon enough to be satisfying

There are plenty of lessons to learn within the pages of this book, but I can't say that it is one I recommend. The author tries to write too many stories at once-- a romance, a look at Nazi sympathizers, stereotypes the Polish people had of Russians, allied prisoners of war, a coming of age story, the gore and sadism of war, Jewish resistance, Jewish survival and an unnecessary epilogue, to make this novel truly great.(less)

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Jun 10, 2008

Jen rated it

· review of another edition

Based on real diaries, this is a fascinating subject, but mishandled. Bohjalian seemed to be trying to hit readers over the head with the horrors of WWII.

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Jun 01, 2009

Sandy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ww2, europe-the-known-world, audio, refugee-experience, hist-fiction

this audio book has me running back to the car to take a drive... anywhere, anytime, just any opportunity to listen to more. It is a saga about a handful of people trying to get west from the ever encroaching Russians on the Eastern Front in Poland/Prussia at the end of WWII. You have the aristocratic Prussian family, sans menfolk, the Scottish POW who has worked for them as slave labor, the jew disguised as a German Officer in order to escape arrest and inevitable death, and you have the women ...more

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Aug 06, 2010

Dav'ne rated it

· review of another edition

One of the few WWII books I've read that is told from the German viewpoint. The brutality is frightening even after all these years. I remember my German Oma had nothing but bad to say about Adolph Hitler. She still had family in Germany in the 50s and they didn't have anything good to say about him. I also had a friend in WI who was in her 70s and had been a Hitler youth. It was interesting to talk with her about how they never questioned and how the whole "Jewish situation" was not b...more

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Apr 14, 2010

Virginia rated it

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Recommended to Virginia by: Jennifer Entwistle

Bohjalian got me with this one, as he has in the two other books of his I've read. It took me about 1/4 of the way into it to get hooked, but I stayed up until 1 am last night reading it. His writing is really quite nice, possibly underrated. His storytelling is incredibly compelling.

There are several stories woven together in this book, the main being the plight of an aristocratic Prussian family forced to march west in the waning months of WWII. The horrors and atrocities of the ...more

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Jan 12, 2009

Megan rated it

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Right now, Chris Bohjalian is my favorite author (even if I can't pronounce his last name). This is not one of his strongest books, but neither is this his weakest--by far.

Clearly, when you look at his entire body of work, Bohjalian enjoys creating suspense by presenting a single (in many ways ancillary) question to the reader early on in the tale. What did Connie's mom know? (Midwives) Why is the main character so damned well-adjusted after a brutal rape? (The Double Bind) What hap...more

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Mar 13, 2011

Christina rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2009-reads, library-book

Skeletons at the Feast explored an area of Nazi Germany few books I’ve read have explored — the people living in Germany, or those who considered themselves Germans, who were not intimately involved in the Nazi’s crimes against humanity.

“When this war was over, he and his family — all Germans — were going to have to live with the black mark of this (whatever this was) for a long, long time.” {pg. 192}

Anna, Mutti, and Theo are well-to-do Prussian beet farmers — who have al...moreSkeletons at the Feast explored an area of Nazi Germany few books I’ve read have explored — the people living in Germany, or those who considered themselves Germans, who were not intimately involved in the Nazi’s crimes against humanity.

“When this war was over, he and his family — all Germans — were going to have to live with the black mark of this (whatever this was) for a long, long time.” {pg. 192}

Anna, Mutti, and Theo are well-to-do Prussian beet farmers — who have always considered themselves German, and celebrated the return of their estate in Poland to Germany — fleeing the onslaught of Russian soldiers as World War II comes to a close. None of them had anything to do with the Holocaust, although Anna’s twin, Helmut, and older brother, Werner, all serve in Germany’s army. In fact, Anna, much to the amusement of Callum, had no idea what the Nazis were really doing to the Jews when they “relocated” them.

“The Jews were being herded into the first three cars — far too many for each one, it was clear; dozens and dozens were going to be forced to stand — and their luggage was being loaded onto the fourth car. A freight car. And then, as Uri watched, that fourth car was uncoupled, and the fist three pulled away. The luggage, he saw, wasn’t going with them. Luggage, he realized, never went with them.” {pg. 16}

In their trip across Poland and Germany to the western side and, therefore, the safety of the Brits and Americans, the family is accompanied by Callum — a Scottish POW who falls in love with Anna and a character so stilted, it’s unbearable — and, occasionally, Uri — a Jew who escaped a train bound for Auschwitz and posses as a German military officer to escape capture by the very people he pretends to be. Uri is a interesting character, but I had a hard time believing he could have gotten away with possing as a German officer and, later, Russian for so long.

“But there was still a part of him that craved the specifics: where and when and who was responsible. Who held the angry, barking dogs on their leashes? Who raised high the truncheons, who march them into the pits? Who fired the machine guns? Or, perhaps, switched on the gas? These were Germans and Poles and Ukrainians with faces and names, men adn women who before the war had had families and ran streetcares and bars and butcher shops — people he and his sister and his parents migh have seen on any sidewalk and hardly given a second look.” {pg. 330}

The other character, who in the beginning doesn’t seem to make sense, is Cecile — a Jewish woman being marched from a concentration camp on the east side of German to the heart of the Third Reich. Cecile’s account is heartwrenching, but very little attention is given to her throughout the book.

“Hours later they heard explosions that were louder than the distant rumbling they’d bee aware of for days, and Cecile told everyone that she wouldn’t be surprised if their rckety wooden barracks now were gone, if the piles of smoldering ashes — as well as the blackened but not obliterated bones that lay among the cinders at the perimeter of the camp — were buried beneath the churned-up dirt from the center commons. The idea gave her pause, and she wasn’t precisely sure how she felt about this: Though she didn’t want such unmbiguous testiony to cruelty and babarism to remain on the planet, she wondered if people would ever believe what she’d seen if there wasn’t concrete proof.” {pg. 104}

One of the things I disliked about Skeletons at the Feast was the placement of the prologue. The prologue actually occurs in the middle portion of the book and would have just been better served if it was correctly placed chronologically. Putting it at the beginning as a prologue gave the story absolutely nothing, and frustrated me when the story jumped backwards a few years with the first chapter.

On that note, my greatest frustration stemmed from the abundance of holes in this novel; it could have used at least 100 more pages of narrative to cover the big chunks of time that went missing with each chapter. I find it incredibly frustrating to read a good book, and then read the last couple and pages and suddenly weeks and months worth of time are passed over in an effort to keep the book at a certain length.(less)

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Jan 14, 2009

Jody rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Jody by: Chris Bohjalian

I learned that Chris Bohjalian does not need to stick to just Vermont books.

I have to say that I was a little nervous. I love Chris Bohjalian because he writes about Vermont. He understands Vermonters. If you are not from Vermont and you think that it is a tiny little state and do not understand the type of people who live there, then you should read one of his other books, like Water Witches. It captures what it is like to be from small town Vermont. That being said I was a l...more

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Sep 06, 2008

Candice rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Ellen, readers of Holocaust literature

This was a fantastic book - another look at World War II and the Holocaust. This time frame is toward the end of the war, when it has become obvious that Germany will lose, and as the Soviet forces are moving westward.

There are basically three stories that come together. A family of well-to-do German farmers, the Emmerichs, living in what was then the western part of Poland, leaves their comfortable farm just ahead of the Soviet tanks and seeks refuge with the Allies. With them is...moreThis was a fantastic book - another look at World War II and the Holocaust. This time frame is toward the end of the war, when it has become obvious that Germany will lose, and as the Soviet forces are moving westward.

There are basically three stories that come together. A family of well-to-do German farmers, the Emmerichs, living in what was then the western part of Poland, leaves their comfortable farm just ahead of the Soviet tanks and seeks refuge with the Allies. With them is a Scottish prisoner of war, Callum Finella, whom the Germans allowed to work on the Emmerichs' farm.

Uri Singer, a Jew known by various aliases, has escaped from a train heading to Auschwitz and lives by his wits, doing things he never would have thought he would ever do.

A group of female concentration camp inmates is herded on a forced march from the camp toward the west to work in factories that will aid the Reich. It is a horrible trek with cruelty and privation.

Some parts of the book are unbearably cruel. When I came to the first passage that illustrated the inhumanity of the human race, I asked myself, "Why did he have to put that in?" And then I said, "You idiot! Because things like this happened!" No matter how many books, fiction and non-fiction, that I read about the Holocaust, I continue to be saddened by how cruel and hateful people are capable of becoming. When I read the part about the women in the concentration camp, I was reminded of Gerda Weissmann Klein's book All But My Life. Then I got to the acknowledgements at the end and I found that the author had read and been moved by that book. I hope that Mr. Bohjalian has had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Klein and to hear her speak. I was lucky enough to meet her and was impressed with her message of hope in the human race, despite what she endured during the War.

The ending of the book was satisfying. Rather than give anything away, I will say that books about the Holocaust rarely give "happy" endings. But like in real life, we learned what became of some of the characters, but not all. While some might find that frustrating, remember that in war there are people that disappear and we never know what happened.

I have read almost all of Chris Bohjalian's books now, and I am never disappointed. His characters are believable, his story lines interesting, his descriptions vivid, and his research thorough. Another excellent book from this author!(less)

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Sep 22, 2008

Emilie rated it

· review of another edition

Blech. I have heard such good things about Chris Bohjalian, but I must say I was deeply disappointed. This book was based loosely on an actual journal kept by a German woman who fled the Russians as they swept into Germany at the end of World War II. The plot had such great potential! So many issues though.
1. The character development was stale. The characters didn't change over the course of the novel, even in the face of life-changing circumstances (loss of loved ones; leaving one's hom...moreBlech. I have heard such good things about Chris Bohjalian, but I must say I was deeply disappointed. This book was based loosely on an actual journal kept by a German woman who fled the Russians as they swept into Germany at the end of World War II. The plot had such great potential! So many issues though.
1. The character development was stale. The characters didn't change over the course of the novel, even in the face of life-changing circumstances (loss of loved ones; leaving one's home behind never to see it again; a difficult, dangerous journey over several months, political upheaval...). These are all things that change a person, but somehow the characters here seemed to arrive at the end of the novel in exactly the same way that they started. Why did we not see more evidence of the guilt that Anna and Mutti MUST have been feeling? Why was there less exploration of Uri's search for his family and the way that changed him? What about Callum, didn't HE feel guilty? He did basically desert his unit, and he did manage to escape actually having to engage in conflict.
2. Unecessarily graphic violence much? I think we all get that the Holocaust was a terrible time in history- people endured horrible, horrible things. Do we have to hear the intricate details of brains being spilled out or inhuman brutality? The details were a little over the top and didn't seem to add to the story enough to make them useful.
3. Weird sex scenes. So they've been marching for months, Anna is exhausted beyond words. She finally gets to sleep in a bed with blankets for the first time in recent memory. You could almost feel how warm and comforted she felt. Then Callum wakes her up in the middle of the night so they can see the Northern Lights, when they (naturally!) have sex. Outside in the frigid cold. When she is recovering from pneumonia or whatever it was she had. When he is an enemy soldier that could be shot if caught out in the open. Sounds plausible to me! And comfortable.

Don't bother with this one. I hear Bohjalian's other books are good. Hopefully they are better than this one.

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Jun 06, 2008

Renee rated it

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Chris Bohjalian is becomming one of my new favorite authors. This book was outstanding.
Outlining the brutal landscape of Nazi Germany as German refugees struggle westward ahead of the advancing Russian army.the novel exhumes the ruin of spirit, flesh and faith that accompanied thousands of such desperate journeys. Prussian aristocrat Rolf Emmerich and his two elder sons are sent into battle, while his wife flees with their other children and a Scottish POW who has been working on their es...more

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Jul 28, 2008

Pamela rated it

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Was unsure what to rate this book, as it's kind of hard to say that you enjoyed reading a story about the Holocaust. And to tell the truth, there was a lot of this book that I didn't enjoy. It's evident that Bohjalian thoroughly researches all his topics before writing on them - the depth of knowledge for each of his books is astonishing - but at times this book was too graphic for me. The details were too gory and disturbing, and sometimes I felt as though he was just restating some of the hor...more

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Feb 22, 2009

Kim rated it

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I have loved every book that I've read by Mr Bohjalian & I'm just about to begin page 1 ....
Once again - Chris Bohjalian doesn't disappoint. I wasn't sure that I was going to love this book as it took me out of New England & off to wartime Europe. However, Mr Bohjalian did (once again) give the characters the primary role & the time & place served only as support for the inter-relationships that grip the reader. I found myself riveted by each character in this story. They came into my ...more

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Aug 03, 2008

Carol Hunter rated it

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This is the second book I've read by this author and I love his work. I got very little sleep last night because I had to keep reading. This is a masterfully done work that explores a group of people crossing Germany at the end of WWII and trying to escape the advancing Russian army. They are a Prussian family, a Scottish prisoner of war and a Jew from Germany who has disguised himself as a German soldier. We also follow young Jewish women who are getting moved from their concentration camp ...more

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Jan 20, 2010

Melissa rated it

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I didn't think I'd actually read this one once I found out the topic (WWII, Russians, Jews, Nazis). But I'm about 1/3 of the way through and enjoying it very much. I'm a bit surprised at the level of graphics the author goes to in explaining certain things - however, I recognize and appreciate that the graphic parts are truth and as such must be told.

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Mar 15, 2009

Debbie rated it

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I was intrugued by his sensitive and captivating story of one family's journy as they attempt to cross from Poland to Germany to reach the British and American lines during World War !.

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Jan 22, 2010

Erika S. rated it

A German family must flee their home and head west to try to outrun the Russian army. A young French Jewish girl is living through the atrocities of a concentration camp and death marches. This story is told from a variety of viewpoints (Cecile, the French girl; Anna, the German daughter; Theo, the German son; Callum, the Scottish POW; Uri, the vigilante Jew living a double life) which makes for a very interesting story. It is moving, deeply disturbing, and shows the horror of war. Recommended i...more

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Apr 02, 2009

Jill rated it

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Wow, best Bohjalian I have read. In my previous review of his work I said he has a tendency to go on for too long...his books can drag a little at times. Not this book!

The story is set in the waning days of WWII in Germany. The Russians are pouring in from the east; raping, pillaging, and seeking revenge for the many atrocities the German soldiers had been inflicting upon Russian citizens earlier in the war. German citizens are packing whatever they can and fleeing to the west,...more

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Mar 12, 2009

Audra rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 11, 2009

Kathy rated it

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Chris Bohjalian is a good storyteller - he knows how to draw readers in, keep them interested, and finish a book. So many other authors start out well, but can't seem to find a way to end it.

Skeletons at the Feast is a WWII story of a German farming family (and Scottish POW assigned to work on their farm) who retreat to the west during the collapse of the Third Reich. To save their lives, they have to avoid the advancing Russians and hope for the best from the Allies. They are joi...more

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Feb 03, 2012

Becky Rose rated it

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I loved this book. I listened on 10 CD's. Set in winter and spring of 1945, just before the war ends. An aristocratic family in Poland are some of the main characters, who consider themselves Germans need to leave their farm and most of their beloved animals, because the Russians are coming. They join the long line of people doing the same- children, the old, etc. The older son is off fighting and instead of going with his wife, small boy and pretty 18 year old daughter, he and the daughters...moreI loved this book. I listened on 10 CD's. Set in winter and spring of 1945, just before the war ends. An aristocratic family in Poland are some of the main characters, who consider themselves Germans need to leave their farm and most of their beloved animals, because the Russians are coming. They join the long line of people doing the same- children, the old, etc. The older son is off fighting and instead of going with his wife, small boy and pretty 18 year old daughter, he and the daughters twin brother go to save a bridge. With them is the girls lover, a prisoner of war that is from Scotland who was captured on his first parachute jump. He is spared and sent to the farms to help families. This family hides him and takes him with.

Along the journey they meet a supposed SS officer, who is really a Jew who has survived by jumping off the train on the way to the camps. He mascarades as Russian soldiers, as SS and who ever he kills so he can take their clothes and papers. He becomes a part of the family while skill keeping his secret from them.

Also in the story is a few women in the camps. Stories or survival, of helping one another, of almost giving up, of torture, of long walks while starving, all the while hoping that the Americans, British or Russians will come and save them.

While the family travels from town to deserted towns, they stay with a few families, mostly family who has not left. What is shown through these experiences is the opinions and beliefs of the Germans. Some naive at to why this is happening to them, some who believe that the Jews were just sent somewhere else to live and don't believe the stories about the camps. Others who think the Jews are dumb, others who try and save them. Some who truly believe that German's heads are better shaped of all races making them better. The others are more like monkeys. Some who are stupid enough who think they will not be found or they can walk up to the Russians, shake their hands and because they fought in the first war together all will be well. In the end some Germans realize what their country has done, is ashamed, and does not want to come back and realizes the consequences of what their country has done and how the world will feel about them.

I loved this book because my father fought in WWII. I have been to Berlin and Nuremberg and wish my father was a live to talk to about it, but I buried him 6 days before I got on a plane and headed to Europe. I would also talk to my dad about this book! (less)

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Jan 19, 2012

Nikki Handros rated it

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In the months before the fall of Hitler's regime, many Germans living in the east fled west to escape the Soviets. The novel's leading characters: a Prussian mother of considerable means, her daughter Anna, her young son and a Scottish prisoner of war travel this miserable journey together never giving up hope that they will survive the brutal winter trek to be reunited with absent family members.
Their struggle is juxtaposed with the death march of a group of Jewish female prisoners headi...more

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Nov 08, 2011

Allison rated it

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Don’t be fooled by the cover design (at least the paperback version), which makes this novel look like a war romance. While there is some romance this is totally not a romance novel. The back cover and other descriptions call this a “love story.” Actually, this is an epic novel that tells the story of a German family in 1945 Prussia that has to flee their sugar beet farm because the Russians are defeating the Germans and killing civilians as they take over their lands. At the same time, another ...moreDon’t be fooled by the cover design (at least the paperback version), which makes this novel look like a war romance. While there is some romance this is totally not a romance novel. The back cover and other descriptions call this a “love story.” Actually, this is an epic novel that tells the story of a German family in 1945 Prussia that has to flee their sugar beet farm because the Russians are defeating the Germans and killing civilians as they take over their lands. At the same time, another story in the novel is about Uri, a young Jewish man who had two years earlier jumped and escaped from a cattle car that was carrying Jews to Auschwitz. His journey is in search of his family, which he had gotten separated from when the Nazis were rounding people up in his village.

It’s a complicated story with deep character development of Anna, the 18-year-old German girl who is fleeing with her family, her mother and little brother, Theo (who I just fell I love with – he’s an amazing little boy). Anna’s mother is a strong, caring German mother who is enamored by Hitler, as was apparently many German women during his reign. She had Jewish friends – even helped some who came to her door when they were fleeing the Nazis, and she had her picture of Hitler hanging on the wall. Anna and her family had lived basically in ignorance of the Holocaust, actually, in denial of anything like that happening to people. When the Germans brought some British POWs to the farm to lend them out as hired hands, the family took a shining to one young man named Callum. So they kept him on at the farm when the Germans came back for the POWs. This is where a love story appears in the novel – Anna and Callum, of course, fall in love. But again, the entire novel is about this journey of the family fleeing the Russians and the journal of Uri searching for his family – and the eventual crossing of their paths.

Uri is heroic character – he spends the two years up until he meets up with Anna’s family disguised as different German soldiers. He takes on different German names and he does what he can as one person to sabotage the Nazi effort.

I could not put this book down – this novel draws all kinds of emotions from you – anger, shock, sadness, joy… And it is the first novel in many years that I found heart wrenching in parts. I was caught off guard on one part and found myself crying on the train on my morning commute. I would have missed out on this book had I gone by the title and the cover design. They don’t give this great novel justice.
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Aug 21, 2011

Ann rated it

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Recommends it for: those interested in The Holocaust,

Recommended to Ann by: I follow this author's book releases

Shelves: wwii-books

I have read many books about The Holocast but none has touched me the way "Skeletons At The Feast" did. Author Chris Bohjalian writes about a family from Prussia who could not believe that all the stories told were true...they were wealthy and thought they somehow would be spared. Their land was not German but suddenly was declared German so they were thrown in a war they never even imagined they would be in and for a cause they did not believe in. They find themselves fleeing and gat...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Suze rated it

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What an incredible book! In Skeletons at the Feast, Chris Bohjalian takes on a challenging subject: the experiences of an aristocratic family fleeing their family home to avoid the approaching Russian army in the waning days of World War II. Unaccustomed to deprivation, this family, already missing some of its members who have been pressed into service with the doomed German army, nevertheless bravely treks through the winter and early spring, hoping to be saved by the American and British armie...more

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Jul 28, 2011

Sara rated it

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In the last waning days of World War II, Germany was in chaos. Besieged on western front by the Americans and the British and on the eastern front by the Russians, the German people were forced to flee their homes. Cold, hungry, and pushed beyond exhaustion they struggled to keep ahead of the Russian front though and endless winter. What they faced if caught by the Russians, no matter that most were women and young children, was enough for many to craft suicide plans while others would just g...moreIn the last waning days of World War II, Germany was in chaos. Besieged on western front by the Americans and the British and on the eastern front by the Russians, the German people were forced to flee their homes. Cold, hungry, and pushed beyond exhaustion they struggled to keep ahead of the Russian front though and endless winter. What they faced if caught by the Russians, no matter that most were women and young children, was enough for many to craft suicide plans while others would just give up, long beyond caring.

Skeletons at the Feast weaves together four disparate stories during this tragic and violent time in history; the Emmerich family, a prosperous Prussian family forced to abandon their home; Callum, a Scottish POW who had been sent to help work the Emmerich's sugar-beat farm and apple orchards; Uri Singer, a Jewish man who through courage and daring escaped a train headed towards certain death and for two years successfully disguised himself as a Nazi; and Cecile a French Jewess struggling to survive German work camps and forced marches.

This is a bleak and unrelenting portrayal of the Holocaust told through a completely unique perspective. Most of the story is viewed through the eyes of Anna Emmerich, eighteen years old and having lived her whole life in a remote corner of Germany that had for most of her life been ceded to Poland. It is unusual that Bohjalian chose to tell the story through the eyes of a German girl as so often novels regarding this horrific time in history are told through those who suffered the most. Yet the Jews, the Gypsies, and their fellow Nazi victims were not the only people to suffer. The privatizations suffered by Germany's own people as they fled in advance of the Russian advance is an often overlooked piece of history. Their treatment was brutal and no quarter was given for being a civilian, a woman, or a child. The author does not hold back; there are many violent and bloody depictions of rape and murder throughout the novel. It was often difficult to read. Yet none of these scenes felt gratuitous. It was an honest account of what really happened. It serves as a reminder of the cruelty that we humans are capable of, no matter on which side we fight. The epilogue was the single bright source of hope at the end of the novel, a welcome relief after the bleakness of the previous 350 pages. This novel is not for the faint of heart, but it is a must read for any World War II buff. (less)

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Apr 30, 2011

Gina rated it

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Chris Bohjalian has written his finest novel to date, set against the brutal, waning days of World War II in Eastern Germany. The Soviet Army is advancing through Poland, and ahead of it a small, thrown-together group of refugees, begin a long, arduous trek ahead of the Russians, trudging across the devastation of the smoldering Third Reich. Concentration camps, death marches, brutal Nazis, POWs, broken families, rampaging Russian soldiers, and terrified refugees. Ordinary people doing extraordi...more

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Feb 16, 2011

Losososdiane rated it

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Excellent depiction of what a singular, intolerant self-involved vision of the world leads to. The characters seemed real to me and I cared about them. The trek westward by those fleeing the advancing and vengeful Russians mirrored the experience of two people I knew who went through something very similar. In one case, a family of four with Nazi passes for only three fled to western Germany with their young son hidden in the wagon pulled by horses. The German soldiers checked IDs at checkpo...more

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Feb 14, 2011

Ann Freeman rated it

very moving story set in the waning months of WWII in Nazi Germany. It follows the stories of three groups/individuals: a well-to-do German/Prussian farm family as they evacuate their estate and become refugees fleeing west ahead of the Russians along with a Scottish POW originally conscripted as farm labor, but who since has fallen in love with the 18-year-old daughter of the family and she with him; a Jewish young man who escaped from a train to Auschwitz and his means of survival afterward; a...more

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About Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian is the author of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers, Secrets of Eden, Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, Before You Know Kindness, The Law of Similars, and Midwives.

His new novel, The Night Strangers, arrives on October 4, 2011. It's a ghost story inspired by a door in his basement and Sully Sullenberger's successful ditching of an Airbus in ...more

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