Traitor

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 Book Review:

 

In Traitor, YA author Gudrun Pausewang gives us a chance to imagine the tensions, upheaval, and horrible cost of WWII from another perspective, the everyday German citizen’s perspective. The protagonist in the novel is Anna, a teenage girl living in Sudetenland near the end of the war. Her family is sharply divided in their attitudes toward Hitler and the glories of the Third Reich, and as Russian forces press relentlessly into the area Anna finds herself in an unimaginably perilous predicament. If you’re curious to know more, you’ll have to read the book.

Pausewang employs a straightforward voice in Traitor, which helps one get caught up authentically in Anna’s teenage world. Having said that, her struggles are far from trite or simplistic, and the mounting tension throughout leaves one practically breathless by the explosively crushing ending. This story shows just how completely war twists the everyday world of ordinary people into a senseless, catastrophic hell; a good thing to think about now and then.

Recommendation: a superb Remembrance Day read - grim without gore.


Mr. Wedel

 

Author – Gudrun Pauswang / English translation – Rachel Ward

Publishing – Andersen Press, London, 2004

Genre – Historical Fiction/War

Pages - 218



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