All for Nothing

Overview: Winter, January 1945. It is cold and dark, and the German army is retreating from the Russian advance. Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in their thousands, in cars and carts and on foot. But in a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family tries to seal itself off from the world. "The last novel by one of Germany's most important postwar writers, All for Nothing was published in Germany in 2006, just before Walter Kempowski's death. It describes with matter-of-fact clarity and acuity, and a roving point of view, the atmosphere in East Prussia during the winter of 1944-1945 as the German forces are in retreat and the Red Army approaches. The von Globig family's manor house, the Georgenhof, is falling into a state of disrepair. Auntie runs the estate as best she can since Eberhard von Globig, a special officer in the German army, went to war, leaving behind his beautiful but vague wife, Katharina, and her bookish twelve-yearold son, Peter. As the road beside the house fills with Germans fleeing the occupied territories, the Georgenhof receives strange visitors--a Nazi violinist, a dissident painter, a Baltic baron, even a Jewish refugee--but life continues in the main as banal, wondrous, and complicit as ever for the main characters, until their caution, their hedged bets and provisions, their wondering, and their denial are answered by the wholly expected events they haven't allowed themselves to imagine"-- Winter, January 1945. It Is Cold And Dark, And The German Army Is Retreating From The Russian Advance. Germans Are Fleeing The Occupied Territories In Their Thousands, In Cars And Carts And On Foot. But In A Rural East Prussian Manor House, The Wealthy Von Globig Family Tries To Seal Itself Off From The World. Peter Von Globig Is Twelve, And Feigns A Cough To Get Out Of His Hitler Youth Duties, Preferring To Sledge Behind The House And Look At Snowflakes Through His Microscope. His Father Eberhard Is Stationed In Italy - A Desk Job Safe From The Front - And His Bookish And Musical Mother Katharina Has Withdrawn Into Herself. Instead The House Is Run By A Conservative, Frugal Aunt, Helped By Two Ukrainian Maids And An Energetic Pole. Protected By Their Privileged Lifestyle From The Deprivation And Chaos Around Them, And Caught In The Grip Of Indecision, They Make No Preparations To Leave, Until Katharina's Decision To Harbour A Stranger For The Night Begins Their Undoing. Walter Kempowski ; Translated From The German By Anthea Bell. In January 1945, the German army is retreating from the Russian advance. Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in their thousands, in cars and carts and on foot. But in a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family seals itself off from the world. Protected from the deprivation and chaos around them, they make no preparations to leave until a decision to harbour a stranger for the night begins their undoing. Finally joining the great trek west, the remaining members of the family face at last the catastrophic consequences of the war. Profoundly evocative of the period, sympathetic yet painfully honest about the motivations of its characters, All for Nothing is a devastating portrait of the complicities and denials of the German people as the Third Reich comes to an end. A brilliantly evocative, atmospheric novel about the delusion and indecision of a wealthy family in the last days of the Third Reich as the Russians advance from the east.