Wave flight

When everything is lost, what remains of family traditions, love and people?

When her son Heinrich is born in 1881, Anna Reichenheim has high hopes for this firstborn. But Heinrich does not care about the conventions of his upper-class Jewish family. He succumbs to the temptations of Berlin nightlife and falls in love with the very ordinary Marie, whom his mother cannot accept. Together Heinrich and Marie seek their fortune in the USA until the First World War brings them back to Germany. They remain excluded from the family, even as the shadows of the Great Depression and the rise of National Socialism settle over the country. Anna dies unreconciled to Heinrich in 1932, unaware of what was in store for her family. While his siblings flee or are expelled, Heinrich remains behind in Germany. Again it is Marie who gives him support as they struggle to survive.
A sensitive novel about two very different women, about two lives rich in love and loss in a century full of extremes - stirringly read by Vera Teltz.