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Another Green World
A coming-of-age and falling-in-love story that turns into a war a tour de force that reaches from the last golden summer before the Great Depression into the darkest precincts of the twentieth century.
In 1929, at an international youth summit in the Weimar Republic, four young Americans meet various German counterparts on a lovely, remote mountaintop; here they talk earnestly late into the night, quarrel, fall in love and find themselves drawn into political ideals and intrigues that will soon engulf Europe and plunge the world into mayhem. And the fates forged then envelop them again in 1944, when Ingo Miller is running a failing German restaurant in Washington, D.C., and Marty Panich is pushing pencils for the Roosevelt administration. Childhood friends now estranged, they are suddenly reunited when their old friend Isaac Tadziewski--a runaway from Brooklyn back then, and now caught up in the bloody Polish resistance--obtains incendiary information about the Final Solution. The fourth, Sammy Butler, a left-wing journalist riding into the Reich with the Red Army, also learns of Issac’s discovery and embarks on a shadowy quest of his own.
So begins a journey from the confusions of youth into the chaos of for Sammy, the horrors of the Eastern Front; for Ingo and Marty, a hastily organized mission that lands them in liberated Yugoslavia and pushes on into Silesia, not far from a place that featured in their Weimar adventures, where Isaac has miraculously survived the Nazi occupation and now faces another destiny altogether.
With masterly command of history, language, politics and warfare, Richard Grant brings to life previously unimagined aspects of this period, as well as characters whose experiences and dreams, hopes and fears are constantly searing, surprising and utterly transformative. With Another Green World, he has created a World War II novel unlike any other.
In 1929, at an international youth summit in the Weimar Republic, four young Americans meet various German counterparts on a lovely, remote mountaintop; here they talk earnestly late into the night, quarrel, fall in love and find themselves drawn into political ideals and intrigues that will soon engulf Europe and plunge the world into mayhem. And the fates forged then envelop them again in 1944, when Ingo Miller is running a failing German restaurant in Washington, D.C., and Marty Panich is pushing pencils for the Roosevelt administration. Childhood friends now estranged, they are suddenly reunited when their old friend Isaac Tadziewski--a runaway from Brooklyn back then, and now caught up in the bloody Polish resistance--obtains incendiary information about the Final Solution. The fourth, Sammy Butler, a left-wing journalist riding into the Reich with the Red Army, also learns of Issac’s discovery and embarks on a shadowy quest of his own.
So begins a journey from the confusions of youth into the chaos of for Sammy, the horrors of the Eastern Front; for Ingo and Marty, a hastily organized mission that lands them in liberated Yugoslavia and pushes on into Silesia, not far from a place that featured in their Weimar adventures, where Isaac has miraculously survived the Nazi occupation and now faces another destiny altogether.
With masterly command of history, language, politics and warfare, Richard Grant brings to life previously unimagined aspects of this period, as well as characters whose experiences and dreams, hopes and fears are constantly searing, surprising and utterly transformative. With Another Green World, he has created a World War II novel unlike any other.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
42 people want to read
About the author
Richard Grant
105 books24 followersRICHARD GRANT was born in Norfolk in 1952, attended the University of Virginia, and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He lives in Rockport, Maine, where he has been a contributing editor of Down East magazine, chaired the literature panel of the Maine Arts Commission, and won a New England Journalism Award for his column in the Camden Herald.
After a 20-year career writing science fiction and fantasy, he turned to historical fiction.
After a 20-year career writing science fiction and fantasy, he turned to historical fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 20, 2018
I will say up front this isn't my kind of book normally, and I read it to fill a slot in a reading challenge. It's an odd kind of novel. It's one of those "coming of age" books that jumps between two different eras and oh, by the way, is during World War II in one of those.
A small group of Americans go to Germany in 1929 as Nazis are on the rise. They meet some friends and see some of what is going on before they get home, establishing relationships that will change their lives. Then, the other era is 1944 as the World War starts to tick down. Most of those same Americans get sent on a secret mission to retrieve paperwork proving the Nazis are exterminating Jews (and others). At that point in history, this was not widely known, and many of those who came to know it pretended not to.
Young love, combat training, espionage, and self discovery fill the book. It's a very literary work, and a few of the major plot points I found a bit hard to follow, I admit. I prefer my plots to be a bit more straightforward. But it was very well written.
One error- the author shows some good knowledge of the Washington DC area, but screws up a bit of local geography. In the story, he places the George Washington Memorial Masonic Temple in Arlington, VA. It's in Alexandria, and a major feature of the city.
A small group of Americans go to Germany in 1929 as Nazis are on the rise. They meet some friends and see some of what is going on before they get home, establishing relationships that will change their lives. Then, the other era is 1944 as the World War starts to tick down. Most of those same Americans get sent on a secret mission to retrieve paperwork proving the Nazis are exterminating Jews (and others). At that point in history, this was not widely known, and many of those who came to know it pretended not to.
Young love, combat training, espionage, and self discovery fill the book. It's a very literary work, and a few of the major plot points I found a bit hard to follow, I admit. I prefer my plots to be a bit more straightforward. But it was very well written.
One error- the author shows some good knowledge of the Washington DC area, but screws up a bit of local geography. In the story, he places the George Washington Memorial Masonic Temple in Arlington, VA. It's in Alexandria, and a major feature of the city.
July 17, 2024
When I picked up this book up, I thought it was a novel by Richard Grant, whose travel books I have really enjoyed, but unfortunately this was another Richard Grant. I didn't enjoy this book very much. It takes with the same group of people both in war-torn Europe in 1944 and at an international camp in Germany in 1929. The two different time periods did not really connect well in the plot, the characters were not fully developed, and I felt the writing was quite pretentious. A disappointing book. I'll stick with the other Richard Grant.
July 23, 2010
Miserable read. Absolutely miserable. I want the last few hours of my life back. The setting is wonderful; the story stinks.
This book has some promising new angles on the WWII novel: prominent treatment of Europe's Eastern Front, the hopeless complexity of "The Resistance," and a frank look at the permeability of any and all political boundaries between ancient foes and allies.
I think I stuck with the book till the bitter end because I kept hoping I could pull some larger satisfaction out of the enterprise than the plot was providing. But the story was just so darn bad that my first emotion upon finishing the book was one of abject anger. And not at the atrocities of war, either.
I would diagnose the problem as this: Grant set out to explore how the ideological fads of the post-WWI era were created by and then politicized Europe's youth in contradictory, often violent ways. This is interesting. But then he superimposed a completely BS action-thriller on top of it that prevented any meaningful exploration of his topic.
Steer clear.
This book has some promising new angles on the WWII novel: prominent treatment of Europe's Eastern Front, the hopeless complexity of "The Resistance," and a frank look at the permeability of any and all political boundaries between ancient foes and allies.
I think I stuck with the book till the bitter end because I kept hoping I could pull some larger satisfaction out of the enterprise than the plot was providing. But the story was just so darn bad that my first emotion upon finishing the book was one of abject anger. And not at the atrocities of war, either.
I would diagnose the problem as this: Grant set out to explore how the ideological fads of the post-WWI era were created by and then politicized Europe's youth in contradictory, often violent ways. This is interesting. But then he superimposed a completely BS action-thriller on top of it that prevented any meaningful exploration of his topic.
Steer clear.
October 6, 2017
I wasn't in the right place to read this when it was first published - I was annoyed that Grant decided to write a "WWII book," and not another of his Maine or post-apocalyptic books. I remember very little from that first read.
Re-reading it now, a few months after his latest "WWII book," I can admire the many things that this book is. Firstly, humans at war - Ingo's story is an interesting one compared with Furst's serial male WWII protagonists. His mission and the Furst characters' missions are very similar: a daring sortie behind enemy lines for a crucial item that can really make the difference.
Secondly, a story about youth and discovery, rewinding to 1929 when the horrors of the 30s and 40s had not yet been written.
The two eras are connected well, but there are still issues: Ingo's story remains the strongest, and too often I felt annoyed that I had to pause it to look at other characters' progress. Even so, a very good read, filled with Grant's excellent turns of phrase.
Re-reading it now, a few months after his latest "WWII book," I can admire the many things that this book is. Firstly, humans at war - Ingo's story is an interesting one compared with Furst's serial male WWII protagonists. His mission and the Furst characters' missions are very similar: a daring sortie behind enemy lines for a crucial item that can really make the difference.
Secondly, a story about youth and discovery, rewinding to 1929 when the horrors of the 30s and 40s had not yet been written.
The two eras are connected well, but there are still issues: Ingo's story remains the strongest, and too often I felt annoyed that I had to pause it to look at other characters' progress. Even so, a very good read, filled with Grant's excellent turns of phrase.
February 16, 2013
For as much as I enjoyed reading this book, the ending left a sour taste in my mouth. I loved how he intertwined the two stories (1929 and 1944) together so expertly. Letting you know just enough about the history of the group at just the right times. However, the ending felt a little thrown together to me. It just seemed like he got tired of writing and wanted to wrap it up quick one day. Oh, well...
May 27, 2007
Actually, I couldn't get past the first few chapters, so I haven't technically read this one. I really like his writing style, but I just couldn't get into these characters.
December 12, 2008
An unexpected view of WWII--really interesting.
January 21, 2024
Read everything this man writes
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews