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Book reviews

The page looks at historical novels, how and why they have made their way to the top of the best seller lists to enter the realms of ‘classic’ literature and reviewed here as ‘books to transport you to another place’.

This is Jeanette Winterson’s second novel, published by Penguin in 1987. It is a rich, inventive tale set during the Napoleonic Wars where two lives become intertwined and set on their path to resolution and a final, solitary destiny.

Henri, a young Frenchman from a simple rural life follows Napoleon, his moods and madness and his hunger. From the decadence of Paris to the wild freezing plains of Russia, Henri sacrifices his freedom in the search of his one true passion. Villanelle is the web-footed, red-haired daughter of a Venetian boatman. She grows up in Venice, finding her way secretly through its carnivals, canals and casinos, where her heart is gambled away at the turn of a card.

Winterson blends history, dream and fantasy with illuminating reality to create a stunning tale that floats on the tips of webbed toes and binds you in the darkness of the Venetian underworld.

‘A story about history and hero-worship, the plight of women, the pains of soldiering, the violence of youth, and about the sadness of the unfulfillable condition of humanity….a book of great imaginative audacity and assurance…brilliantly physical (and funny) in detail’. Times Literary Supplement

Written in two months, from September to November 1946, Hans Fallada tells the story of a working class couple, Otto and Anna Quangle and their resistance to the Nazi regime. Based on the true case of Elise and Otto Hampel who wrote and secretly distributed postcards warning of Nazi atrocities and the dangers posed by Hitler’s rule. In September 1942 the Hampels were tried and executed, and later, after the war Fallada was given access to the Gestapo files, on which he based Alone in Berlin.

The story is told from behind the curtains of working class Berlin where suspicion, terror and instability forced a nation to bolt their doors against a rising tide of tyranny and paranoia. The Quangle’s quiet, yet determined actions lead them to isolation and their eventual end, though their story remains a testimony to the power of one against the might and misrule of Nazi Germany.

‘To read Fallada’s testament to the darkest years of the 20th century is to be accompanied by a wise, somber ghost who grips your shoulder and whispers into your ear: “This is how it was. This is what happened”‘ – The New York Times