In My Brother's Shadow

Uwe Timm

Good piece, short but good exploration of German "coming to terms with the past" (that is "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung" as they call it) and some introspection on the narrator's part regarding that. I liked how the narrator/author (the book is autobiographical) uses the death of his older brother in the war as the point of departure for the novel. The brother's diary had been recovered and returned to the family after his death, and the narrator uses it to consider both his and his parents' response to the war. It's a fresh take on a topic that gets a little worn out in my opinion. Well done.