We Germans

"We Germans" is a novel that was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and was shortlisted for the Prix Femina 2022 and the Prix Médicis 2022. It is a profoundly realistic portrayal of German soldiers on the Eastern Front and explores the themes of guilt, shame, and responsibility. The book is based on a letter that a German grandfather wrote to his grandson after his death, describing his experiences during the war.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 08 July 2021
Publisher: John Murray Press

Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Shortlisted for the Prix Femina 2022, and Shortlisted for the Prix Médicis 2022, "We Germans" is an impressively realistic novel of German soldiers on the Eastern Front. Written by Antony Beevor, Starritt's daring work challenges us to lay bare our histories, seek answers from the past, and be open to perspectives starkly different from our own.

When a young British man asks his German grandfather what it was like to fight on the wrong side of the war, the question is initially met with irritation and silence. But after the old man's death, a long letter to his grandson is found among his things.

That letter is this book. In it, he relates the experiences of an unlikely few days on the Eastern Front - at a moment when he knows not only that Germany is going to lose the war, but that it deserves to. He writes about his everyday experience amid horror, confusion, and great bravery, and he asks himself what responsibility he bears for the circumstances he found himself in. As he tries to find an answer he can live with, we hear from his grandson what kind of man he became in the seventy years after the war.

"We Germans" is a fundamentally human novel that grapples with the most profound of questions about guilt, shame, and responsibility - questions that remain as live today as they have always been.

Weight: 152g
Dimension: 128 x 198 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529317251