Books by Svenja O'Donnell
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What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history? But when Svenja impulsively visits this windswept Baltic city, something unlocks in Inge and, finally, she begins to tell her story.
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'A lyrical, engrossing and essential read' - Sathnam Sanghera 'A superbly nuanced reclamation of history and family secrets' - Brian Van Reet, author of Spoils What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history? Svenja O'Donnell's beautiful, aloof grandmother Inge never spoke a...bout the past.
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What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history? But when Svenja impulsively visits this windswept Baltic city, something unlocks in Inge and, finally, she begins to tell her story.
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An extraordinary saga. --David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon The mesmerizing account of a granddaughter's search for a World War II family history hidden for sixty years Growing up in Paris as the daughter of a German mother and an Irish f...ather, Svenja O'Donnell knew little of her family's German past. All she knew was that her great-grandparents, grandmother, and mother had fled their home city of Koenigsberg near the end of World War II, never to return. But everything changed when O'Donnell traveled to the city--now known as Kaliningrad, and a part of Russia--and called her grandmother, who uncharacteristically burst into tears. I have so much to tell you, Inge said. In this transporting and illuminating book, the award-winning journalist vividly reconstructs the story of Inge's life from the rise of the Nazis through the brutal postwar years, from falling in love with a man who was sent to the Eastern Front just after she became pregnant with his child, to spearheading her family's flight as the Red Army closed in, her young daughter in tow. Ultimately, O'Donnell uncovers the act of violence that separated Inge from the man she loved; a terrible secret hidden for more than six decades. A captivating World War II saga, Inge's War is also a powerful reckoning with the meaning of German identity and inherited trauma. In retracing her grandmother's footsteps, O'Donnell not only discovers the remarkable story of a woman caught in the gears of history, but also comes face-to-face with her family's legacy of neutrality and inaction--and offers a rare glimpse into a reality too long buried by silence and shame.
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A riveting account of a German woman's experiences during World War II--a story not of heroism or evil, but of ordinary people caught in the gears of history--and a granddaughter's quest to uncover a family history kept hidden for seventy years Growing up in France, Svenja O'Donn...ell knew little of her German grandmother's past, except that she had been raised in Koenigsburg, a place that no longer existed on any map. But when O'Donnell's reporting brought her near the windswept city--now known as Kaliningrad, and a part of Russia--a spur-of-the-moment phone call to her grandmother Inge opened the floodgates to a family story she could not have imagined. Over the course of nearly ten years of conversations, as well as archival research and travel across Europe, she would soon learn that behind her grandmother's facade of dull respectability lay a troubled past of passion, displacement, and betrayal. In this transporting and illuminating book, the award-winning journalist vividly reconstructs the story of Inge's life from the rise of the Nazis through the brutal postwar years: from falling in love in Berlin's underground jazz bars with a sensitive young man who was soon sent to the Eastern Front to returning to her provincial home pregnant with his child to spearheading her family's flight to Denmark as the Red Army closed in, her not-yet-two-year-old daughter--O'Donnell's mother--in tow. By walking in her grandmother's footsteps and ultimately uncovering the act of violence that finally parted Inge from the man she loved, O'Donnell tells a part of the World War II story that is less often heard: that of ordinary German women, whose stories will soon disappear from living memory.
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