by Nora Waln ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1939
This is a book that needed to be written. The extremists wont like it, perhaps, for they want nothing good to be said of Nazi Germany. But the intelligent reader, who is willing to recognize the good -- and at the same time to see the rottenness on which it is built and the very dangers in the superficial impressions, will find it a convincing picture, and a challenge to destroy the evil while preserving the good. In the last part of the book, a young German visitor to England pleads belief that all Germans are not pro-Nazi, and that there is working an underground group determined to rescue Germany from the beasts that prey upon her... The book is a chronicle of four years spent in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia; an intimate picture of one woman's determination to see all there was to be seen through Nazi eyes, to share with Germans of all types the experiences and the understanding that was theirs, to be with them in their homes and to bring them into hers. She was fortunate, perhaps, in living in those parts of Germany least dominated by the Prussian principle -- but she saw enough and too much for her peace of mind, she shared tragedy, she sensed undercurrents of fear, she dared to speak while others were silent. She had left before the September betrayal and its aftermath -- but she had not cut her contacts, and -- from England -- she shared the experiences of the German friends across the Channel. Her Quaker upbringing explains the tempered viewpoint, the optimism. But to those who read her fascinating book, the true picture emerges, truer perhaps for its very contrasts in lights and shadows. Nora Waln's first book, House of Exile, the story of her years in China, was a best seller. The sections of Reaching For The Stars that have appeared in the Atlantic have evidenced sure popularity for the book. The publishers justifiably have tremendous faith in this book, are backing it with a large advertising appropriation and sales promotion aids for the trade.
Pub Date: March 1, 1939
ISBN: 0548442398
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: N/A
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1939
Categories: NONFICTION
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