´Who is right? And who is wrong?´
Set in the turbulent times that witnesses the Nazi´s raise to power, People Like Us - published in the US under the title Daughter of the Reich - by Louise Fein is in addition to the forbidden love story, an account of acknowledging the poison of the ideology of antisemitism.
Inspired by Fein´s own family story, the book features Hetty´s unhappy love story with Walter, a German Jew from Leipzig. Careless, Hetty lives a priviledged life, particularly once her father is getting up on the social ladder, But all is a treachery: the big house they are living belonged to a rich Jewish family and the whole narrative Hetty naively surrounded herself is a lie. And through her dear Walter she will experience a different Germany with a different type of Germans.
Slowly, extended on over 500 pages, the book shows how education of hate operates at a very young age. Hetty´s evolution and even involvement with resistance groups, coincides with her own growing up, as she is getting freed from the cultish Hitlerist ideology.
The story is told from Hetty´s perspective, starting from the 1930s, when she was 7, young and careless and saved from drowing by Walter, until our current times, when now an old adult, Hetty´s about to meet the son she had to send away.
There is no black-and-white take, and I am very happy with that, as one of the reasons I avoided for a long time fiction books on such topics was exactly the non-creative simplistic take. The characters and situations in People Like Us leave a lot of space to personal decision and change of perspective.
The historical context is throughout researched and well tempered. The slow pace allows some unexpected turns to happen which creates a welcomed tension within the story.
This book encouraged me to pay more attention to historical novels set during WWII, in Germany and elsewhere. It gave me hope that there is still so much to understand about human behavior and unheard voices and perspectives.
Rating: 4 stars
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