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Title: Eva's Cousin
Author: Sibylle Knauss
Narrator: Kim Edwards-Fukei
Format: Unabridged
Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
Language: English
Release date: 08-25-08
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 9 votes
Genres: Fiction, Historical
Publisher's Summary:
The two women sneak off and skinny-dip in a nearby lake, watch films in the Fuhrer's private cinema, and flirt with the SS officers at the dinner table - one of whom will become Marlene's first lover.
But soon a clandestine mission of mercy forces Marlene to question her allegiance to both her cousin and her country - and to face the chilling reality that exists outside her sheltered world.
Translated by Anthea Bell.
Critic Reviews:
"Knauss' first novel to be translated into English is based on her interviews with Gertrude Weisker, the cousin of Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun....Both passively complicit and helpless, Marlene is nonetheless a character who commands the reader's sympathy and interest." (Booklist)
Members Reviews:
Two Stars
This book was ok, I just couldn't get into it.
Good reading.
although this was a work of fiction, i believe some of the incidents and characters were based on fact. I read a lot of WWII book, and i based it on that. Good reading.
Different aspect on WW 11
I've read a lot about World War II but this was an aspect that had never been covered in anything I had ever read. Eva Braun's cousin - how could I pass that up. I read about this book in BOOKMARKS magazine and after finding it in Amazon ' s used books I snapped it up. I have passed on to one friend who passed it on to another . . . It is a unique perspective on THE war. It's a pretty amazing book.
5 stars
Great WWII book told from a German perspective.
An Eye-Opening Novel About "The Banality Of Evil!"
Eva's Cousin" is a work of fiction. Sibylle Knauss had always been interested in matters of German history and how they could be transformed into literature. Before beginning her novel, the author, had the opportunity to interview Gertrude Weisker, Eva Braun's real cousin and the model for her central character, Marlene. Eva Braun had indeed invited Ms. Weisker, 20 years-old at the time, to stay with her at Berchtesgaden in the spring of 1944, a year before WWII would end with Germany's unconditional surrender to Allied Forces, her cities, country and people laid waste. Hitler was away in east Prussia, waging war, and Eva was lonely - she needed to be amused. Although based on fact, many of the folks who people these pages are fictional, as are their stories. Essentially, however, Ms. Knauss captures the true characters of Eva, her cousin, and those who surrounded them, as well as the very ambiance of the Berghof itself, and the period, which represent, as Hannah Arendt worded it, "the banality of evil."
This is beautifully written, nuanced fiction, not an action-packed thriller, but I was riveted to the page even so. More dramatic and disturbing than the image of Nero fiddling while Rome burned, is one of the New Year Eve Ball, (1944-45), at the Platerhof Hotel in Obersalzberg, near Adolph Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat. It was not a party for ascetics. Featured on the menu were: goose liver pate, larded saddle of venison, eels in aspic, Parma ham and overflowing bottles of champagne - all one could drink, and more. However, the hungry were not to be fed at this feast. The hungry and starving were in Auschwitz and Dachau. They were slave laborers in German factories. They were women and children throughout Europe. They were soldiers at the front.
