The Broken House

Exquisitely written… haunting… Few books, I think, capture so well the sense of a life broken for ever by trauma and guilt – Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *
A masterpiece. An astonishing piece of literature. Complex, heartfelt, vibrant, intense, urgent. A must read. I read it straight through to the last page and then wanted to read it all over again – Thomas Harding, bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf
The major rediscovery of a forgotten treasure. No book has ever so honestly evoked the wretched terror of life in Nazi Germany – James Hawes, author of The Shortest History of Germany
I often think that the key to a successful memoir is to find the right place to stand, the effective distance. Writing in the sixties, Kruger had enough clarity to see where his story fitted into the big picture, but he can still make the reader feel the passion, danger and grief. It is an unsparing, honest and insightful memoir, that shows how private failure becomes national disaster. There is no mercy from the author and no false hope, but he fills a gap in the historical imagination – Hilary Mantel
A book of hard-won simplicity and quite beautiful precision * The Times *
The book that broke the silence… the writing glowers from the page - sorrowful, disbelieving, chastened and yet not without hope… The Broken House… magnificently delivers – Anthony Quinn * Observer *
A fascinating and spine-chilling book – Julia Franck
Extraordinary… a compelling…account – Craig Brown * Mail on Sunday *
It is precisely the ordinariness of Krüger’s life that makes this not just a book about Nazism and Germany but also a book for our own times… In an age when democracy is under threat everywhere…it’s salutary to learn how one family, one indvidual among many, could stand by while evil triumphed… Krüger’s limpid, almost poetic prose, well translated by Shaun Whiteside, conjures vivd, concrete images of the dullness of life in Eichkamp – Richard J Evans * Guardian *
The Broken House… stands out for Krüger’s unsparing perceptions of the past and the sharpness and eloquence of his prose… It is Krüger’s tone, stark and unforgiving, sometimes almost chillingly detached, that makes this memoir so interesting – Caroline Moorehead * Times Literary Supplement *

Horst Krüger (Author)

Horst Krüger (1919-99) was a German journalist, novelist and travel writer. Published in 1966, The Broken House was critically acclaimed as an exemplary portrait of youth in Nazi Germany.

Shaun Whiteside (Translator)

Shaun Whiteside is an award-winning translator from French, German, Italian and Dutch. His most recent translations from German include Aftermath by Harald Jähner, To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann, Swansong 1945 by Walter Kempowski, Berlin Finale by Heinz Rein and The Broken House by Horst Krüger.

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