Kingdom of Twilight

by Steven Uhly

"POWERFUL AND ORIGINAL." -- THE TIMES
"REWARDING AND WHOLLY ENGAGING." --HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY
"ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND POWERFUL NOVELS OF RECENT GERMAN LITERATURE." --DEUTSCHLANDRADIO KULTUR

Hypnotically lyrical and intensely moving, Steven Uhly's epic novel set in the wake of World War II is a finely nuanced yet shattering exploration of universal love, hatred, doubt, survival, guilt, humanity, and redemption.
One night in autumn 1944, a gunshot echoes through the alleyways of a small town in occupied Poland. An SS officer is shot dead by a young Polish Jew, Margarita Ejzenstain. In retaliation, his commander orders the execution of thirty-seven Poles--one for every year of the dead man's life. First hidden by a sympathetic German couple, Margarita must then flee the brutal advance of the Soviet army with her newborn baby.

So begins a thrilling panorama of intermingled destinies and events that reverberate from that single act of defiance. Kingdom of Twilight follows the lives of Jewish refugees and a German family resettled from Bukovina, as well as a former SS officer, chronicling the geographical and psychological dislocation generated by war. A quest for identity and truth takes them from refugee camps to Lübeck, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and New York, as they try to make sense of a changed world, and of their place in it.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Germany

592 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2014

About the author

Steven Uhly was born in 1964 in Cologne and is of German-Bengali descent, and partially rooted in Spanish culture. He has studied literature, served as the head of an institute in Brazil, and translated poetry and prose from Spanish, Portuguese, and English. He lives in Munich with his family. His book Adams Fuge was granted the "Tukan Preis" of the city of Munich in 2011. His novel Glückskind (2012) was filmed as a primetime production by director Michael Verhoeven for ARTE and the 1st German Channel ARD.

From https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/books/...

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a vast book which impressed me with its historical research and breadth of material, but it's so panoramic in its shifts between Poland, its sweep across Europe and into Israel, and so broad in its timescale from about 1943 to 1980 that the characters got lost, submerged beneath the weight of so much pressure of story. As a result, this records events very well but the book feels emotionally detached: people are there to represent the story, rather than the story evolving organically from the characters. I was left interested in what happens but unmoved - and I wanted to be made to feel.

The book is structured to start in Nazi-occupied Poland in the second half of the war as the Red Army advances and here we get to know a small group of characters fairly well. Then as they're displaced, the story launches into a jagged timeline so that in one chapter we're still in the war, in the next we're with different characters in 1955, then back to 1944 with a different character again, and forward to 1980, back to 1967 in Israel and so on. It's awkward and unsettling and in the leaps continuity of character is lost.

The sections concerned with the mass emigration to Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel are interesting but the subject gets a bit lost in all the backwards and forwards movements and what turns into a family saga of convoluted identities and relationships.

So this is a hugely ambitious book but it feels like the documentary side overwhelms the novel: a closer, clearer focus on the characters would have carried the story better and made it more impactful for me.

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley

[House of Cadmus · Rating 4 out of 5]

My full, spoiler free review: http://madisonsinkwell.com/kingdom-of...

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lungo e complesso affresco che accompagna per molti anni le vite dei protagonisti, in particolare Anna e Lisa. La prima, "schiava" ebrea al servizio di un ufficiale delle SS, sopravvissuta, ma come un relitto scartato dalla marea, al ritiro del suo "padrone" a causa dell'avanzata dell'Armata Rossa, dopo essere stata più volte violentata; la seconda, a sua volta sopravvissuta, ancora infante, alla morte della madre, a sua volta ebrea, ma tratta in salvo da una famiglia di tedeschi, che l'alleverà come una nipote, ma nascondendole per molti anni la sua vera identità. Il destino delle due donne si intreccia, nella vita e nei ricordi, tornando più volte sui suoi passi, facendo e ripetendo errori, perché a sua volta Anna nasconderà, per molti anni, la verità al figlio Shimon, che non saprà fino all'età adulta di essere figlio di uno stupro, e per questo, per il peso della sensazione di una qualche verità negata, cercherà di perdere se stesso nella droga, fino a quando incontrerà proprio Lisa.
Una miriade di altri personaggi intrecciano la loro storia con quella di queste due donne, tutti in qualche modo vittime di una bugia (i figli dell'aguzzino di Anna, l'uomo che ha salvato e sposato Anna, amici, conoscenti e, per esteso, l'intero popolo tedesco). Tra tutti emerge, per statura morale, Frau Kramer, sola e unica personificazione del bene.
Forse un po' troppo ambizioso, e a volte discontinuo nello stile, è in ogni caso un ottimo romanzo che riesce a bilanciare abbastanza bene gli avvenimenti storici e l'animo dei protagonisti.
Ringrazio Quercus Books e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.

Long and complex fresco that accompanies for many years the lives of the protagonists, in particular Anna and Lisa. The first Jewish "slave" in the service of an SS officer, who survived, but as a wreck discarded by the tide, to the retirement of his "master" because of the advancement of the Red Army after having been repeatedly raped; the second, in turn, survived, still infant, at the death of her mother, Jewish too, rescued from a German family who would nurture her as a grandson, but for many years hiding her true identity. The fate of the two women intertwines in life and memories, returning several times on her footsteps, making and repeating mistakes, because in turn Anna will hide for many years the truth to her son Shimon, who will not know until adulthood to be the child of a rape, and for this reason, for the weight of the sensation of some denied truth, will try to lose himself in the drug, until he meets Lisa.
A myriad of other characters weave their story with that of these two women, all somehow victims of a lie (the children of Anna's persecutor, the man who saved and married Anna, friends, acquaintances and, in full, the entire German people). Among all of them, Frau Kramer emerges, by moral stature, as the only personification of the good.
Perhaps a little bit too ambitious, and sometimes discontinuous in style, it's in any case an excellent novel that manages to balance fairly well the historical events and the soul of the protagonists.
I thank Quercus Books and Netgalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5...
Update!

This is a vast, historical novel telling the story of a wide range of characters throughout World War II, and its aftermath. The story begins with the murder of a ranking S.S. officer by a Jewish woman in Poland. The lens of the story then widens to include the murderess (Martina), the Jewish maid of the head of the S.S. in that town (Anna), and her boss. As the story continues we follow these characters as they escape the clutches of the Nazis and attempt to find freedom in Poland, and then Germany. We then begin to follow the children of all of these characters, as well as some of their husbands/wives. As the story goes on and on, the lives of all of these characters eventually intersect. This makes for some interesting encounters, but I felt that the novel took too long to get to these meetings. I think maybe the novel could have been shortened by 200 pages and maintained the same depth, in characterization, storytelling and historical details. Some of the minor characters could have even been cut out entirely, or at least had their sections greatly shortened.

Another main complaint of this novel is that the timeline was very hard for me to follow. Some chapters begin to have dates about halfway through the novel, and I was very surprised to see that only two years had passed, rather than a longer period of time. Even if one was very knowledgeable of post-WWII history, I don't think the historical markers in this book would have helped too much in placing when the story takes place. There are so many jumps between timelines and characters in each chapter that it is hard to figure out the duration of any part of the story.

However, I must commend Uhly for his great historical knowledge and the feat of this book. I have never read a WWII novel that tells the story of such a varied cast of characters in such a believable way. The way that their story intersects is also interesting, and each character really epitomizes some of the horrors of the war, and how that affects people, even generations later. I also learned a lot about the beginnings of Israel, and I am glad Uhly focused a lot on Israel. While lengthy and at times, confusing, Kingdom of Twilight offers a really interesting perspective on World War II and its aftermath.

Thank you to Edelweiss and MacLehose Press for providing me with a digital review copy of this book.
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full review coming soon but overall, I thought this book dragged on, and some characters had a little too much space dedicated to them. Still an interesting read, and I learned a lot about the struggle of the first wave of Jews to reach Israel.

[Jule · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brutal and emotionally charged novel spanning decades starts with the shooting of a Nazi officer in a Polish town. From that moment on, the lives of four core characters (and a few more connected to them) are told through the war, after the war and all the way up to the fight for an independent Israeli state. There is the - at that moment unborn - daughter of the shooter (a Jew), the commander of the shooting's victim (a Nazi), the woman who hides the shooter (a German civilian) and the maid / secretary of the commander (a Polish Jew).

It begins in Poland, goes to Germany and ends in Israel with an open ending worthy of this story. As someone says: "This war is still ending." - the peace treaty and truce does not mean the people have forgotten. Neither do all Nazis forget they were Nazis, nor do all civilians stop feeling guilty for crimes their people committed, nor do the Jews and Poles suddenly forgive and heal. Naturally, there is thoughts of vengeance on the Germans, there is a wish to bury the past and for others a wish to bring forth the truth, there is remaining stereotypes by all parties.

It is a brutal novel because it is real: it is violent and bloody and at times disgusting. But that is realistic, considering it deals with a war, the Holocaust and the violent fight for Israel's nationhood. But one thing this book does well is to show the complexity. Even though we believe that it is a clear-cut black and white issue, this novel masterfully shows that things are more complicated. What about the children of Nazis - are they "bad"? What about Germans who hid Jews - they can't be bad! What about Polish who shoot Germans in an ambush - are they "good"? As the title suggests, this book is about the twilight, the in-between, the grey areas.

One minor detail cost this book a star off the rating and muddled the middle a bit. There were different formats and changes in tone, which is fine. However, the time lines changed, too, as did the speed. This caused some characters to be years ahead of others in a following chapter. This would have been okay, had not flashbacks made things more complicated. Without any years indicated, I was often not sure at all where I was in the timeline and which year it is - which would have been crucial. Yes, they all stay connected, but had these connections been told chronologically instead of through flashbacks for a bigger plot twist, it would have aided the ability to understand the plot better.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the beginning, in Poland, an SS commander had a subordinate called Karl Treitz who was lured to his death by a Pole named Piotr with the excuse that he, Piotr, knew where some Jews were hiding. After Treitz was killed, the commander identified and killed 37 Jews: one for every year of Treitz's life. The commander was named Joseph Ranzer, but later Joseph Kruze. His housekeeper was called Anna Stirnweiss, later Sarfati.

The over-hundred-and-fifty chapters shift focus from place to place and from time to time. WWII to modern-day Palestine; ghettos to high rises; Romania to Munich to Jerusalem to Paris to Auschwitz to New York to West Berlin. We follow a grown man to his infancy to his grandmother and back again.

But then, reading this incredible novel is like working a jigsaw puzzle. Oh, here is a piece marked "Maria", but which Maria? Otto Kruse/Otto Deckert. Here's some blue sky which might be TelAviv. Or maybe Jerusalem. But never Germany which is always depicted as gray and cold. Here's the Star of David, but the image seems to fade when I try to put it in the Germany section. Here's a piece that looks like a Jew, but is hidden under floorboards. Hidden diaries, hidden addictions. What or who is in the American area? A father, who does not know his son, and is also a son who didn't know his father.

The writing is absolutely masterful. the story will sink its claws into you and never let go.

I read this EARC courtesy of Edelweiss and Quercus Publ pub date 08/07/18

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dieses Buch entspricht gar nicht meinem Geschmack. Ich habe es gekauft, weil ich Kriegsliteratur sehr interessant finde, allerdings hat es mich nicht so gepackt, wie ich es mit erhofft hatte. Schlussendlich saß ich jetzt mehr als ein Jahr daran und hoffte, dass es spannender werden würde... Leider ist dieser Fall nicht eingetreten. Somit ist dies mein erstes Buch, was ich nach dem ersten hundert Seiten zurück in den Schrank stellen muss, ohne es beendet zu haben.

[Stan Lanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful investigation of the lasting effects of WWII upon Germans and Europeans and the founding of Israel.

[Studvet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book. Engrossing and with an emotional depth rarely seen. Great story.

[Justin Sarginson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too long, with timelines and plots just coming into place as the author chooses. Intriguing ideas which get lost as the plot stomps and trips along. An ending would have been welcomed too.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5; 9.5/10. In words...I liked it a lot. Plot, excellent. Structure, very good. Imagery...average. Characterizations...wow! The subtlety and depth of the characters and the mode of expression was fabulous. And this is a very wide, diverse, array of characters. I also appreciated the history, Germans and Jews (German, Polish,... including several with little or no Jewish identity for all or large parts of the arc of story), etc. Each was drawn finely, carefully, meaningfully.
The Nakhba ("The Disaster"), the establishment of Israel from the point of view of the Palestinian Arabs, is given little space but at least it is dealt with honestly and with impact.
The bottom line; I feel somewhat more fully human, in it's wonderfulness and awfulness, after reading this.

[Zeba Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A huge sprawling novel which looks at the last days of WW2 and then the impact of the choices and decisions of three people - Josef Ranzner, an SS official, Anna Stirnweiss, his Jewish servant/slave, and Mrs Kramer, wife of a farmer, who has taken in a pregnant Jewish woman and raises the resulting baby as her own grand-daughter. The story spans 1944-1974, and follows the families of these three figures as they intertwine. The narrative skips although there is an underlying chronology that is preserved, and the translation was mostly very effective, although there are moments when the dialogue is painfully banal and poetic impressionistic chapters that don't quite come off. However, it is a compelling page-turner.