Max
By; Sarah Cohen-ScaliLocation: FIC COH
Genre: Historical fiction with a twist
I loved All the Light We Cannot See and Werner in that story reminds me of Max in this one! Werner redeemed himself- but can and will Max?
Perhaps the most distressing novel I've ever read, this visceral, brutal and shocking account of one aspect of of Nazi racial ideology, the Lebensborn programme, movingingly shows how complex and desperate war is. It's the sort of book that leaves you undone and changed, and realising that you may have held your breath (or at least felt like you were doing so) for the entire heart-pummelling novel.
Breathtaking, heartbreaking, devastating. And equally astonishingly brilliant. ZOE
This is the story of a child born under the Nazi "Lebensborn" program, which was essentially a program to breed pure Ayran babies who would be the future leaders of the Third Reich. Max is born on April 20, 1936, making him the first baby to roll off the production line. He is also the narrator of this story which covers not just the Lebensborn program but also the abduction and "germanification" of suitably Ayran children from other countries and the lives of ordinary Germans as the war drew to a close. Real people and events are woven into the story.
Max is a lively narrator who is initially very euphoric about all things Nazi and who can't wait to grow up and fight for the Fatherland. While he never knows his mother, he understands that she was selected and rigorously examined to ensure that she was a perfect Ayran specimen. He is indoctrinated in all things Nazi from infancy and therefore is very matter of fact about the abduction of Polish children - in his eyes they are lucky to be receiving a German upbringing. However things become murkier when he befriends Lukas, a blonde and blue eyed Pole who is secretly Jewish. Gradually his enthusiasm will wane and his disenchantment will grow over the course of the war.- Julia Goodreads.com
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