Surviving the Fatherland Audiobook By Annette Oppenlander cover art

Surviving the Fatherland

A True Coming of Age Love Story Set in WWII Germany

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Surviving the Fatherland

By: Annette Oppenlander
Narrated by: Naomi Jacobson
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Winner 2017 National Indie Excellence Award

Winner Chill with a Book Readers' Award

Winner Readers' Favorite Book Award

Indie B.R.A.G.Award Honoree

Finalist 2017 Kindle Book Awards

An IWIC Hall of Fame Novel

Surviving the Fatherland tells the true and heart-wrenching stories of Lilly and Günter struggling with the terror-filled reality of life in the Third Reich, each embarking on their own dangerous path toward survival, freedom, and ultimately each other. Based on the author's own family and anchored in historical facts, this story celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the strength of war children.

When her father goes off to war, seven-year-old Lilly is left with an unkind mother who favors her brother and chooses to ignore the lecherous pedophile next door. A few blocks away, 12-year-old Günter also loses his father to the draft and quickly takes charge of supplementing his family's ever-dwindling rations by any means necessary.

As the war escalates and bombs begin to rain, Lilly and Günter's lives spiral out of control. Every day is a fight for survival. On a quest for firewood, Lilly encounters a dying soldier and steals her father's last suit to help the man escape. Barely 16, Günter ignores his draft call and embarks as a fugitive on a harrowing 47-day ordeal - always just one step away from execution.

When at last the war ends, Günter grapples with his brother's severe PTSD and the fact that none of his classmates survived. Welcoming denazification, Lilly takes a desperate step to rid herself once and for all of her disgusting neighbor's grip. When Lilly and Günter meet in 1949, their love affair is like any other. Or so it seems. But old wounds and secrets have a way of rising to the surface once more.

©2017 Annette Oppenlander (P)2017 Annette Oppenlander Coming of Age Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Tearjerking Inspiring

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A great story line, however I do not think it necessary to detail sexuality in such a erotic way....I will delete the book and not finish it.

A great book if it had not been for....

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This book gives the history of them during the war and after.It describes their first feelings of love pangs.

Very good love story

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So to call this a coming of age love story is a bit of a stretch. It is a compelling narrative on the conditions of war and unseen consequences. It is a compelling character study. It is a heartfelt examination of family life and relationships. The storytelling is amazing and the authors work is tremendous.

The narrator is inconsistent. At times she is mesmerizing and other times stiff and monotone. If you can get through that it is a tremendous story well worth the listen.

Interesting perspective of WWII

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Love love love this book! A perspective by German citizens who were caught up in Hitlers reign! Makes you think! Hopefully, it will speak to others who are caught up with a dictator to not stand for evilness! This book explains in great detail how the German people, along with children were terribly affected by this evil dictator! Nothing compared to the Jews, but still a perspective that sheds light on both the struggle and survival of mankind along with the love of strangers! A must read!

Breathtaking

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I think the storyline would have been captivating but I couldn't get past the narrator.

Narrator

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amazing deep love and survival describing the war from the view of the German civilians.
toped off by an amazing narrator.
highly recommend!

Most moving book I ever red

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I am a trauma survivor and this book may be a good historical read for another reader. I couldn't just return the book, I forgot why I didn't finish it until tonight. Again, realities are what they are especially in war. I do not censor the author. It was just not for me.

This book was not a good choice 4 me

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This book could be written today. Somewhere in Iran or Iraq lives a child living this life. It’s good to see the war from the eyes of people who had no choice during the war. It’s good to ask the question what would I do if this happened in my country. How does a person stop a mad man. If your poor and have no talent for organizing large groups of people how can you stay away from a war someone else puts you through. My people came from Germany in the 1920’s we were lucky.

The pain of WW2 children

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The fact that this was a true story kept me going onto chapter2 and beyond. I learned much about what life was like for non-Jewish Germans living in small towns. Many men were conscripted while others believed it was their duty to blindly follow the crazed orders of Hitler. The main characters were children when their fathers left. They and their families experienced years of starvation even after the war in Europe ended .Stalin continued to obliterate millions in Russia, including Germans stuck in the hundreds of different gulag death camps. The performance improved toward the end third of the novel. Thank goodness for small mercies. This book deserved a top notch performance.

The performance almost stopped me from moving to chapter 2

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I thought places were draggy and wordy so I fast forwarded.

I was repulsed by the details of explicit sexual acts including the rape. I felt it was not necessary for a reader to visualize the erotic behavior of lovers or that s grown man raped (fully penetrated) a young girl.)

I was needlessly traumatized due to my own childhood and a warning should be placed about these types of atrocities being so graphically described in this book. Readers do not need to be driving down the road and suddenly find themselves hearing every detail about every part of the attack.

I skipped great parts but learned just how dark and ugly war was described in this book was. Other places now are quite the same.

Thanks, JInn-A

War is ugly.

WARNING!!!! Sexual violence against a child w Explicit details

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