A wealthy family tries—and fails—to seal themselves off from the chaos of post–World War II life surrounding them in this stunning novel by one of Germany’s most important postwar writers.
In East Prussia, January 1945, the German forces are in retreat and the Red Army is approaching. The von Globig family’s manor house, the Georgenhof, is falling into disrepair. Auntie runs the estate as best she can since Eberhard von Globig, a special officer in the German army, went to war, leaving behind his beautiful but vague wife, Katharina, and her bookish twelve-year-old son, Peter. As the road fills with Germans fleeing the occupied territories, the Georgenhof begins to receive strange visitors—a Nazi violinist, a dissident painter, a Baltic baron, even a Jewish refugee. Yet in the main, life continues as banal, wondrous, and complicit as ever for the family, until their caution, their hedged bets, and their denial are answered by the wholly expected events they haven’t allowed themselves to imagine.
All for Nothing, published in 2006, was the last novel by Walter Kempowski, one of postwar Germany’s most acclaimed and popular writers.
GenreHistorical Fiction, General Fiction, Action and Adventure
Length11 hrs 19 mins
Narrated byGrover Gardner
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 25, 2018
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1#1
14#14
2#2
15#15
3#3
16#16
4#4
17#17
5#5
18#18
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6#6
19#19
7#7
20#20
8#8
21#21
9#9
22#22
10#10
23#23
11#11
24#24
12#12
25#25
13#13
About the author
Walter Kempowski
Walter Kempowski (1929–2007) was born in Hamburg, Germany. During World War II, he was made to serve in a penalty unit of the Hitler Youth due to his association with the rebellious movement of jazz lovers. After the war, he settled in West Germany, but during a 1948 visit to East Germany, he was arrested and served eight years at the notorious “Yellow Misery” prison in Bautzen. His first success as an author was an autobiographical novel, Tadellöser & Wolff.View all by Walter Kempowski
