The Undertaking by Audrey Magee - 3 stars (BWF)

[Joy D]

The Undertaking by Audrey Magee - 3* - My Review

I picked this book up on the strength of Audrey Magee’s The Colony, which I loved. The Undertaking is her debut novel. It provides a different perspective than the typical WWII story. The protagonists, Katharina and Peter Faber, are Germans who marry under unusual circumstances. They come together at the beginning and spend most of the book apart. The narrative shifts between the two characters – Katharina in Berlin, and Peter fighting on the Russian front. As the war progresses, the outlook of the characters changes from the initial presumption of an easy and quick victory to one of hopelessness as they suffer escalating deprivations. It is very well written, but rather bleak and it focuses on people who have bought into the Nazi agenda. It depicts the horrors of war for both soldiers and civilians, which I guess is to be expected in an anti-war novel. It is hard to say I enjoyed this book, but I admire the author’s writing style.

Content warnings: (view spoiler)[graphic war violence, starvation, rape, deaths of children (hide spoiler)]

PBT June BWF Extra U and tagged "europe" x10:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...