I read the book in English translation, and translator Anthea Bell seems to have made an excellent job of that.Īt the opening of the novel the von Globigs – who are minor aristocrats – lead a fairly self-contained life in a crumbling mansion and its grounds. It’s a moving tale of the last days of East Prussia in 1945, told through the story of the fictional von Globig family and those they come into contact with. This 2006 novel is the first I’ve read by Walter Kempowski, though it was the last he wrote before his death in 2007. ’All for Nothing’, is the perfect title for a novel in which all is lost and everything is for nothing. She went from there to the police, Heil Hitler, but they were no use either.” When the reader is introduced to a new character, the epithet serves to announce that person’s political inclinations. In the latter part of the story the author frequently inserts the words ‘Heil Hitler’ into sentences: ”Auntie went to see the mayor of the town – Heil Hitler! – but his office was closed. All for nothing! All their endeavours turned to ruin, whether at an individual level or at national level. Everything they had, they had done, they had thought, they had loved was gone. Even those who are at first reasonably respectable show their true selves as their situation deteriorates, and an act of kindness (albeit unwillingly executed) ends in disaster.Īs everything turns awry it becomes a case of ‘all for nothing’ for everyone. It’s pretty much every person for himself/herself. Some are smugly self-righteous, others lie and/or indulge in petty thievery or are simply mean in one way or another.
”Maybe the curtains should be washed before they left, and the whole place thoroughly cleaned?”īy and large the characters are all awful but the characterisation is good and regardless of awful characters the novel is excellent.
Finally, with the Russians almost on the doorstep, the von Globigs and their servants also have to pack their belongings and leave (reluctantly).
During this period various German refugees shelter at the Georgenhof, including a violinist, a one-armed pianist and a baron who arrogantly insists on telling his hosts where items of their furniture should go and how to relandscape their park. This novel focuses on these last days of the Reich, the moment when the proverbial penny dropped for the von Globigs, and their attempted flight from the Russians. However, by the end of April the enemies were in Berlin. In January 1945, as far as the von Globig family of the Georgenhof estate was concerned, it was inconceivable that Germany could lose the war and that enemy forces could ever be on German soil.
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