A Meal in Winter

by Hubert Mingarelli, Sam Taylor (Translator)

One morning, in the dead of winter, three German soldiers are dispatched into the frozen Polish countryside. They have been charged by their commanders to track down and bring back for execution 'one of them' - a Jew. Having flushed out the young man hiding in the woods, they decide to rest in an abandoned house before continuing their journey back to the camp. As they prepare food, they are joined by a passing Pole whose outspoken anti-Semitism adds tension to an already charged atmosphere. Before long, the group's sympathies have splintered as they consider the moral implications of their murderous mission and confront their own consciences to ask themselves: should the Jew be offered food? And, having shared their meal, should he be taken back, or set free?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Holocaust, World War II, France, Novella

138 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2012

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sparse, shocking and depressing story of three German soldiers in WW II whose “job” it is to shoot Jews who arrive at their camp in Poland. It disgusts them so they bargain with their superior officer to give them a couple of days to go out into the villages to “find one” and bring him back.

The three soldiers set off in bitter cold across the snow-filled landscape. They indeed “find one” living in a cave. They start taking him back. They meet up with a Polish solider who obviously hates Jews. The Germans can only communicate with the Jew and the Pole by gestures, often obscene. But all are starving and the focus of the book becomes a meal that they prepare in an abandoned cabin.



We have good writing, such as this referring to their ski-masks: “It seemed as if [the cold] entered through your eyes and spread through your whole body, like icy water pouring through two holes.”

“I didn’t tell Emmerich and Bauer about my dream. I worried that they would start telling me about theirs.”

“Already, we could smell the salami tickling us between the tops of our jaws and our ears, making us drool.”

Symbolic things are important, such as a knitted snowflake on the Jewish man’s hat (he’s a boy, really) because it reminds the narrator of the Jewish mother’s love.

The small-format book is short and its 135 pages can be read at a sitting. Almost all the short, terse sentences are less than 10 words. Indeed, a shocking book.

Photo from wildpoland.com

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

On one level this is an exquisitely understated, very compelling novella, which tells a simple story, resonant with complex moral dilemmas, of a day in the life of three German soldiers, members of a SS death squad. It could almost be a two act play in its economy of action. The novella is narrated by one of these men and we are told they are all sick of killing and have nightmares every night. To get out of execution duty they leave the barracks early one morning to hunt for hiding Jews with no expectation of finding any in the freezing snow-clad forests. However they do find a solitary young boy hiding in a hole. They then find an abandoned home and set about cooking a meal.

The novella deploys a few well-executed connecting motifs and literary devices to reveal traces of humanity in these banal monsters. It also deploys irony to muster up its moral conflicts: to create an atmosphere of home they destroy a home, using every piece of wooden furniture as firewood; a virulent anti-semite Pole who arrives at the house rages at the Jewish prisoner they themselves have ignored with studied indifference.

On another level, however, it can seem a huge conceit on the part of the author that he pertains to bring to fictional life these men with any level of understanding. This is the banality of evil at its most banal but also at its most evil. These were the men at the front line of Nazi insanity. We’ve all seen images of naked men, women and children being shot in pits and I’m sure we’ve all wondered how those men with the guns did what they did and how they lived with themselves. Were they psychopaths or were they pathetic sheep “merely following orders”? But perhaps because we’ve all seen those images this novel isn’t as self-contained as a novel should be. We bring those images into our reading of the story. And on this level the author’s motifs and literary devices can seem trite. Conscience is depicted as refrigerated, reflected by the ice and packed high drifts of snow of the landscape. It’s revealed by the narrator that it’s only possible to kill if the victims are denied any vestige of humanity. Again he makes this point with a nice motif: the narrator imagines the snowflake embroidered on the Jew’s hat was an act of love on the part of the boy’s mother. But aren’t we just prettily skimming the surface here? Nightmares, conscience in deep freeze, nostalgia for home, dehumanising to facilitate murder. No matter how subtly these motifs are dramatised aren’t they, at bottom, hollow clichés?

This novella made me question the limits of fiction. You could say this novel is both a triumph and a failure of imagination. As if imagination can only take us so far. Perhaps one of the reasons the Ralph Fiennes character in Schindler’s List is so abominably powerful is because there’s no attempt to understand him, to see his point of view. I’m not sure what there is to be gained from making these men in any way comprehensible. Isn’t that the beginning of exonerating them? Isn’t it better to simply carry on loathing them and everything they stood for?

[Vicki Herbert - Vacation until Jan 2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shootings...
Gave Them Bad Dreams

A MEAL IN WINTER: A Novel of WWII
by Hubert Mingarelli

No spoilers. 5 stars. On a frosty afternoon, Lt. Graaf clanged his assembly bell to call his men to muster...

The soldiers were used to the randomness of the assemblies, but still, they came as a shock...

This gathering was to announce more Jewish arrivals later that day and that their company would be taking care of them...

Afterward...

The soldiers didn't talk about the work that awaited them the next day, but the pressure was building...

Three men approached their commander and told him that they preferred the hunting to the shooting...

The shooting gave them bad dreams...

Their commander, who had been a school teacher in his previous life, acquiesced to their request and put them on hunting detail, sparing them from the shooting...

Next morning,
while it was still dark out...

Everything was frozen. The road was like stone. The men set off on their hunt, leaving before breakfast rations...

The Sun rose as they walked...

They messed about, mostly trying to keep from freezing, biding their time until they could return to their camp...

They talked about repaying the kindness of their commander by finding him a Jew, but it was only a half-hearted idea...

At the edge of the woods...

One of the soldiers spotted a chimney pipe sticking up out of the snow, which led to a tunnel in which a Jewish teen was hiding...

They had caught one...

As snow began falling, the three men and their Jew sought shelter in a vacant Polish hovel where they built a fire. One of the men dug stolen rations out from his pockets...

By now, they were starving...

They decided to make a stew from their meager pilfered rations, which led to food for thought among the soldiers...

This was a riveting WWII story, which once I started reading, I couldn't put down. It brought back memories of that particular war that were best left forgotten: man's inhumanity to man.

Very good story. Not long, but packs a powerful punch. It's not necessarily a happy ending.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 A short and simply written book that has a very complex moral situation. Three German soldiers in the woods, find a Jewish young man and take him prisoner. They find a house and have a most unusual dinner, a dinner a Pole soon joins, filled with hate for the Jewish man.

That's the gist of it but it is well written, the cold in the woods, the snow and the German soldiers musings, all create tension. What will happen? What will be decided? How will the men cope with what they have done in the past? There is as much meaning in what is unsaid as what is said. This was not at all graphic, not violent but the implications are there. Sometimes people are not able to choose their lives and that is certainly the case here.

ARC from Publisher.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars
A brief novella set in Poland in World War 2. It’s a pretty straightforward story, but has a certain moral complexity. It concerns three German soldiers: two named and an unnamed narrator. It is winter with snow on the ground and very cold. The three soldiers are part of a unit which hunts for Jews and then executes them. The men don’t enjoy the executions and have managed to get out of execution duty by going out to hunt for more Jews. They do find a young Jewish man and take him prisoner. They take refuge in an old and abandoned cottage. They have some basic food, frozen bread, an onion, cornmeal and a little salami. They manage to light the old stove and burn many of the wooden fixtures and fittings of the cottage to heat the stove and make soup. A polish hunter arrives and after some negotiation joins the group and adds some potato alcohol to the soup. Relationships are strained but they eventually share a meal together. Then comes a decision for the three men. Do they now take the Jewish prisoner back to be shot now that they have shared a meal together?
It is written simply and the language is spare: there are no chapters or headings, but a depth of feeling is communicated:
“We came down from the hill where we had smoked. Bauer whined like a dog that he should never have sat down in the snow, that he felt cold all over now. Emmerich told him to stop, though he said it lightly, not really meaning it. Bauer yelled at us that he’d decided to whine until dark. We found another road and stayed on it for a while. It was a relief not to sink into snow at every step. On the whole, we preferred the frozen potholes, even if they were dangerous.
I was beginning to feel hungry, but I didn’t dare bring the subject up yet. None of us had dared mention it since we left that morning. My stomach ached. Sometimes, when I turned my head too quickly, I felt dizzy. It must have been the same for Emmerich and Bauer”
The descriptions surrounding the meal are also very evocative:
“The soup looked good and smelled good. The slices of salami floated on the surface, carried there by the cornmeal, now cooked. The melted lard was still boiling. We turned away from the stove, and the heat caressed our backs. We watched steam rise from the soup. My head was spinning. We looked at the slices of bread. The soup was continuing to simmer. The edges of the bread were toasted, reminding us of things past.”
There are passages where the difficulties of what they were tasked to do were stark and Mingarelli shows the way the three men struggled within themselves:
“Because if you want to know what it is that tormented me, and that torments me to this day, it’s seeing that kind of thing on the clothes of the Jews we’re going to kill: a piece of embroidery, coloured buttons, a ribbon in the hair. I was always pierced by those thoughtful maternal displays of tenderness.”
This is fairly slight but a powerful perspective on the atrocities related to the holocaust and it poses some very human dilemmas.

[Stacey B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am one of the very few who gave this book a lower rating of 3.0.
It's one of the most depressing books I have read in the last few years.
Three soldiers during the Nazi regime have a problem. Their orders are to shoot all jews who are captured and held at the base located in a rural area.
Evidently, this issue is causing them sleepless nights and depression. They ask their empathetic commander if they can switch to "being the hunters"- while the others seem to have no issue to shoot them. It is here, this story takes us inside the minds of the three soldiers that happens to written with deep thought- we think, we learn their character.
During the day which leads to night, they come upon an abandoned house in hope of warming up
before continuing on. Inside the house is a stockroom where they find a jewish man hiding. If the "hunters" come back empty handed, they will be made to revert back to use their rifles.
As it is time for them to return to their base, these three men will now take a vote to free their jewish prisoner.
Moral dilemma?- Hopefully.

[Kushagri · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I finished A Meal in Winter, I closed the book and sat staring at the wall, wordless.

For most of its brief length, I had been composing a mental review—something along the lines of: a brilliant, affecting novel, but perhaps not one that would linger for long. And then I reached the final twenty or thirty pages, and everything shifted. The closing scenes pierced me like fine needles to the heart—quietly, but with precision and pain. What I had taken for restraint earlier now revealed itself as emotional economy, the kind that makes the final blow land with devastating clarity.

This is not a war novel in the conventional sense. There are no trenches, no graphic carnage, no sweeping battlefield panoramas. Instead, it captures something different: the war as it unfolds in the moral and psychological interiors of men. It’s not a tale of trauma recollected in peace, but one of trauma lived—war experienced in real time, cold and raw. Set far from the frontlines yet steeped in the moral terror of wartime, it exposes the quiet horror of complicity, the violence of choice, and the human cost of survival.

A Meal in Winter lingers not through spectacle, but through its haunting intimacy.

[John Purcell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a novella. You can read it in a night. But it punches well above its weight. A Meal in Winter, I am told, will be published as a gorgeous little hardcover but I read the proof, a very drab looking proof is was too, and for some reason, even before I read a page, I had the notion that this was a rediscovered work, much like the work of Irène Némirovsky. To further compound my assumption, as I read, I was reminded of Primo Levi, of Beckett, of Camus.

But this is not a rediscovered work. Though it is set in WWII and reads like it was written during or shortly after the war, A Meal in Winter was written in the last few years and is now available in English having been translated from the French. And this fact alone would make it an astonishing work. But this is just the start. In 144 pages, author Hubert Mingarelli strips the Second World War down so that it stands before us shivering in its underwear. And what is surprising, even though he has reduced something so unimaginably huge and complicated into something so small and finely wrought, he manages to avoid trivialising the horrors of that awful period by his reduction.

We accompany three German soldiers as they journey out into the sub-zero Polish winter in search of fugitive Jews. We are privy to their conversation. We take part in their attempts to remain alive, and sane. We are forced to accept their humanity. And because of this, when they do manage to capture a hiding Jew, we are brought uncomfortably close to a truth we all try hard to avoid.

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freeze and Thaw

Three German soldiers, Emmerich, Bauer, and the unnamed narrator, are members of an Einsatzgruppe in Poland during the Second World War. As a respite from the daily task of shooting the people they have rounded up, they get permission to go out into the countryside the next day to search for more Jews in hiding. And they do find one: a very young man, who has a snowflake embroidered on his cap. On their way back to the camp, they break into an abandoned hut, get a fire going with some difficulty, and prepare themselves a makeshift meal. This is almost the entire subject of this brief but powerful novella.

Because if you want to know what it is that tormented me, and that torments me to this day, it's seeing that kind of thing on the clothes of the Jews we're going to kill: a piece of embroidery, coloured buttons, a ribbon in the hair. I was always pierced by those thoughtful maternal displays of tenderness. Afterwards I forgot about them, but in that moment they pierced me and I suffered for the mothers who had, once, gone to so much effort. And then, because of the suffering they caused me, I hated them too. And the more I suffered for them, the more I hated them. [tr. Sam Taylor]

Not since David Albahari's Götz and Meyer have I read a novel that so effectively gets inside the minds of ordinary German soldiers charged with the extermination of Jews. The strength of Albahari's book lay in his ability to show the banality of ordinary men carrying out their routine tasks. Mingharelli, though, goes further, looking into the hearts of the three men. Their task may be routine, but it is by no means banal. All three suffer the ravages of conscience; the only issue is whether they give in to it. Emmerich worries constantly about his son, who is as yet too young to be called up; Bauer gets his own back by stealing food (it is he who provides the makings of the meal); the narrator dreams. As can be seen from the excerpt above, compassion can be a dangerous thing, serving only to exacerbate hatred.

There is a catalyst in this little scene. While the men are breaking up furniture to feed the fire, a Polish hunter comes to the door, offering potato alcohol for a share in their meal. Once he sees the Jew, however, his affable demeanor changes to detestation. Looking at him, the three men see an animal, a rabid dog mocking their own humanity—but they also know they are looking at themselves in a mirror. There is very little overt discussion—most of the novel is devoted to the preparation and eating of the meal—the moral questions shadow everything. And Hubert Mingharelli, in this novella that is perfectly conceived for its length, knows that the answers are never easy.

[Mari Carmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Da gusto encontrarse de vez en cuando estas joyitas, en este caso, pese al poco número de páginas que tiene esta historia, el autor consigue que en nuestras mentes se despliegue el escenario, la situación, el carácter de los personajes y es a través de unas pocas horas donde se condensan de manera magistral los demonios que conlleva la guerra, la maldad de las personas, el miedo, el egoísmo y la aceptación de la horrible situación en la que te encuentras si estás en el lado equivocado.
Muy recomendable.

[Javir11 · Rating 4 out of 5]

7,5/10

Novela corta con una ambientación genial, sentí frío mientras la leía, y mira que estas Navidades están siendo calurosas, así como hambre y sobre todo desdicha y pena por la situación.

La guerra por mucho que se haya querido idealizar, es algo duro, sucio y del que nadie que haya participado en una de ellas, vuelve al completo, ya que una parte de su persona siempre morirá en el campo de batalla.

Lectura interesante la verdad y que al tener 100 páginas, se lee de un tirón.

[Repix Pix · Rating 5 out of 5]

En la guerra no hay buenos ni malos, solo supervivientes y mucho dolor.
Una obra de arte.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

French novelist Hubert Mingarelli’s English debut recalls European folk tales with its account of soldiers re-examining their prejudices during the Holocaust.

It is a bitter winter at an unnamed Polish concentration camp. Three German guards have been granted a day off executions; instead, today, they are tasked with hunting down escapees in the countryside. Emmerich frets over his wayward teenaged son; Bauer is an impish thief; and the narrator, who is never named, alternates between his individual perspective and a first-person plural voice. As in Jim Crace’s Harvest, this approach allows for an intriguing mixture of the personal and the universal, adding to the novel’s fable-like quality. The three find a young Jew and march him to an abandoned dwelling where they chop furniture into firewood and cook soup with their meagre rations. When a menacing Pole joins their peculiar meal, the men must strike a difficult balance between hatred and hospitality.

Sam Taylor, who previously translated Laurent Binet’s excellent postmodern Holocaust novel, HHhH, once again offers a flawless English rendering. The novella is easily read in one sitting – in its limited time and place, it resembles a one-act play – but its profound questions linger. War and mercy fight for pre-eminence in a story with the spare timelessness of folk tale “Stone Soup” or Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife. When fighting for basic survival, it is all too easy to ignore glints of humanity in the Other and remain mired in cycles of violence instead.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant surprise. It reminded of those European films that you discover during a film festival - a hidden pearl that defies convention and whose true beauty lies in being presented, unadorned and uncomplicated.

[Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella written over a short time period during the German occupation of Poland, different in its approach as it is from the viewpoint of a German soldier. Thought provoking in its sometime sympathetic approach to individuals who were part of the machine that killed millions, particularly given that I have just returned from a trip to the area portrayed myself.

[Lavinia · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4,5*) What a surprise! Most likely underrated given that its author is a YA writer.
Short, but vivid.
Simple, yet morally complex.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three German soldiers set off early one morning through the frozen Polish country side to search for Jews. If they are successful they will be able to do it again, if not they will have to go back to their job as executioners. Having found a man hiding in the woods they settle in an old abandoned house to warm up and share a meal. Tensions increase when an outspoken Polish man joins them to escape the cold. A Meal in Winter is a highly emotional French novella that is worth checking out.

It is hard to talk about this book, it is a very emotional book. It is the type of book that will rip out your heart, punch you a few times in the face and then end abruptly. Leaving you emotionally and physically drained and having to think about all the themes. I love A Meal in Winter because it really explores so many interesting ideas and themes and leaves you thinking well after finishing it.

This is such a quick read and explores the idea of following orders and issues of mortality. The Jewish man has done nothing wrong and these Nazi soldiers know this, but if they take him back as a prisoner then they might be able to go out searching again. Is it better to hunt or kill, both will end the same for the Jew, but which one would make you feel better about your actions?

I truly love what Hubert Mingarelli did with such a small book like A Meal in Winter. I have not been able to stop thinking about the book since I finished it. I love when a piece of literature leaves me contemplating about life and philosophical questions that I had not considered before. A Meal in Winter did just that and I think this short hundred page novella will stick with me for many years to come.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-rev...

[Kris McCracken · Rating 5 out of 5]

My candidate for book of the year, this is a masterpiece in distilling an immense, overwhelming and incomprehensible theme into a brief, succinct and beautifully constructed work that somehow manages to avoid minimising the horrors of the Holocaust.

I'm not going to give the story away, but could not recommend it more highly. Tremendously moving.

[Dem · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read. Review to follow.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hubert Mingarelli’s A Meal in Winter is heralded as ‘a miniature masterpiece’ in its blurb, and tells ‘the story of three soldiers who capture a Jewish prisoner and face a chilling choice.’ It was first published in France in 2012, and has been translated from its original French by Sam Taylor, recent translator of Laurent Binet’s excellent novel HHhH. It is Mingarelli’s first work to appear in English.

A Meal in Winter is set during the Second World War in the depths of the Polish countryside. It begins in the following way: ‘They had rung the iron gong outside and it was still echoing, at first for real in the courtyard, and then, for a longer time, inside our heads’. The entirety of the novella is told from the first person perspective of an unnamed German narrator.

Three soldiers, including the narrator, are sent out on a mission at dawn, ‘before the first shootings’. Their mission is to capture a Jew and take him back to their base, where he or she will be dealt with. The narrator’s fellow soldiers are named Bauer and Emmerich, the only two protagonists in the novella to have been given names. The entire novella has been split into quite short chapters, and is quite simple in its prose style, which contrasts rather chillingly at times with the futility which it presents. It is tinged throughout with memories from the pre-war past of the soldiers, as well as strange foreshadowings of the future.

In the story, the soldiers find a tiny hidden dwelling in the countryside, spotting a ‘chimney which was barely raised above the ground’. A man emerges from the depths: ‘We didn’t see anything in his eyes either – no fear, no despair… All we could see of his face were his eyes… They were ringed with dirt and fatigue, but not enough to hide his youth. Despite the tiredness they showed, they still shone with life’. This man is referred to from this point onwards as ‘the Jew’. This, and other elements within the novella, are harrowing in terms of the impersonal way in which Jews were viewed by the German soldiers: ‘We were no longer allowed to kill them when we found them, unless an officer was present to vouch for the fact. These days, we had to bring them back’. The narrator goes on to say, ‘We’d only caught one, but he smelt bad enough for ten’.

Whilst walking in the countryside with the Jew in tow, the men find a closed-up house and break in. They begin to burn the furniture in order to warm up and cook a meal – a soup which is savoured. Mingarelli’s setting has been developed well, and some of the scenes which he has crafted are incredibly vivid. It feels as though he has broken the constraints of the narrowed view that all German soldiers viewed Jews with scorn, and has included some shreds of compassion for the prisoner, however small. In this way, Mingarelli demonstrates both the good and evil which wartime situations can produce. A Meal in Winter is most interesting with respect to the ways in which the language barrier causes them to communicate using different methods. Mingarelli has crafted a novella which is very dark in places, and is quite unsettling in the foreboding which it builds.

[Niall Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this gem up last week. It's a small one, but pure 24 carat. Simplicity is its driving power that thrusts one into the situation, cutting away the intervening years. Would be even more powerful to read it in winter when it is cold. Told with breathtaking description and yet leaving the reader to work at constructing the picture it has the power of Solhenitsyn's Ivan Denisovitch, and yet the underlying hatred of Koestler's Scum of the Earth, coupled with a beauty of prose and story akin to Remarque's All quiet on the Western Front. Drawn into the WWII frozen forests of Poland on hunting mission the morals and ethics of three soldiers are brought into question. Beautifully paced, slow, like the winter scenery, and yet a page turner of incredible force. It is a place of morbid romance, camaraderie, fellowship, hatred, evil, fraternity, humanity and a horrendous fate of circumstance. How joyous it is to be able to read it separated by history or simply leading another life. Probes deep and asks questions that are impossible to answer - thankfully. Check it out, a little masterpiece, must be even better in its native French, even though this is a finely crafted translation.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little book that has more going on in it than would appear. Set during World War II in a freezing Polish winter, it begins with three German soldiers volunteering to go out to capture any remaining Jews they can find in the harsh, snowbound forest located near to their camp. Their reason for doing so is that it would prevent them from having to take part in the shooting of the next trainload of 'arrivals' that will be delivered that morning.

One of the soldiers is more concerned with his son stopping smoking than he is with the work they are undertaking, and it is here that the story begins to really emerge. This book is more about what people do to prevent themselves from having to deal with hideous situations they find themselves in, and how to equate what they know is right with the wrongs they are doing. The narrator of the book has learned not to share his dreams with his fellow soldiers, especially if they concern situations away from the war, because it is a reminder of the control they have lost over their own lives and actions. During the preparation and consumption of a meal they have during their time away from the camp they begin to question their conduct and the outcome of their mission.

Interesting and thought provoking.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed this novel based during ww2 in Poland where 3 German soliders capture a Jewish man and end up in a small Polish house where it is split what to do with their captive. Tense with their final decision

[Pablo Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story that is sparsely and efficiently narrated, though I found it too meager to leave a lasting impact.

[Andrew H · Rating 5 out of 5]

The exact historical context for this novella is not clear. Einsatzgruppen were death squads established by Himmler to murder Poland's intelligentsia and Jews. Often the military were required to give support and that seems to be the start for Mingarelli's dark tale: three German soldiers, having expressed their disgust at brutal shootings, are dispatched into the wintry countryside to seek for Jews in hiding. Throughout the novella, Mingarelli writes sparsely but with accuracy and detail. As in his later novella, Four Soldiers, the author's incessant focus on sensation creates an hallucinatory effect. The novella builds inevitably towards a terrible moral choice, an existential decision that is linked to mental as well as physical survival.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a relatively short book it took me all day to read as there was only so much 'bleakness' I could take in a sitting - and there was also a lot to ponder over, what would I have done? The descriptions of a bleak Polish landscape were amplified by the snow covering my back garden. This cold chilly landscape runs through the story. As if that wasn't bad enough the three main characters are in an unenviable position - as if anyone in WW2 has in a good place. Man's inhumanity to man came through but there were brief moments of something better in these brutalized men. Don't expect Sunday roast with all the trimmings. Well worth the read.

[Paloma orejuda (Pevima) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pues... se agradece que de vez en cuando existan libros como este. Cortos, directos (aunque la gracia de este son los pensamientos y las divagaciones de los personajes). No necesitan alargarse eternamente y te cuentan lo que tienen que contar en un puñado de páginas. Aunque... hay que ver lo que da de sí una sopa XD

1-La Historia. Tres soldados alemanes que prefieren ir a la caza de Judíos antes de participar en los fusilamientos, aunque ello implique enfrentarse a lo más crudo del invierno polaco. Se nos cuenta una de esas salidas y una cena. Una historia sencilla, cruda y real, que con algo tan banal como una comida, toca la fibra.

2-Los personajes. Los soldados: Emmerich, Bauer y el narrador (uno de los tres soldados cuyo nombre no se revela nunca). Cada uno enfrentándose a su manera a la crueldad del momento. A través de un hijo o con la necesidad de dejar a "uno" libre para poder vivir en un futuro.
El Judio y el cazador Polaco. Que sirven de apoyo para conocer un poco más la forma de ser y de sobrellevar el peso que llevan sobre los hombros los tres soldados. Su participación es casi testimonial pero necesaria.

3-La narración y demás. Primera persona. Narrador protagonista. La pluma es sencilla. Entremezcla el presente con el futuro y el pasado, y tiene la habilidad de hacer que un acto trivial y cotidiano de mucho de sí y permita al lector divagar sobre asuntos espinosos, éticos y morales. Sin contar nada del otro mundo, consiguió engancharme o al menos, hacer que la lectura no me resultara pesada.
No tiene capítulos las escenas se separan por un cambio de página o doble espacio y tiene una extensión de tan solo 120 páginas.

4-El final. Crudo y real. Es una bofetada que te hace enfrentar el "bien" o lo "correcto" con las necesidades del momento y la realidad.

En fin, 3 estrellas sobre 5 porque es corto, no se alarga como un persiana, y porque ahonda de una forma sencilla y sutil asuntos mucho más serios.

*Popsugar 2020 categoría 40: Un libro de tu categoría favorita de los anteriores PopSugar Reading Challenge : 2019 categoría-47: Un libro ambientado en la misma estación en que lo estás leyendo (Invierno)

*Boleto 1 club de lectura cafetería de Audrey (temporada invierno 2019-2020)

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘We explained to him that we would rather do the hunting than the shootings.’

Poland, World War II. Three German soldiers, Bauer, Emmerich and the unnamed narrator are members of an Einsatzgruppe. One day, instead of killing the Jewish people already rounded up, they have permission to track down and bring back more Jews in hiding.

‘We were no longer allowed to kill them where we found them, unless an officer was present to vouch for the fact. These days, we had to bring them back.’

They find a young man hiding in the woods. A young man, with a snowflake embroidered on his cap. They then decide to rest in an abandoned hut, out of the bitterly cold winter, for a while before returning to the camp. They break into the hut, and then set out to prepare a meal. As they break wood for fuel, melt snow to cook the food they have, they are joined by a Pole who offers them potato alcohol in exchange for some of their meal. The Polish man’s obvious and outspoken antisemitism heightens the tension.

‘Thus began the strangest meal we ever had in Poland.’

The focus of the novella is the preparation of this meal, the difficulty in preparing it, the logistics of sharing it given that they only have three mugs and a saucepan. Will they share their food with the young Jewish man? Will they let him free, or take him back to the camp? The narrator is moved by the snowflake on the young man’s cap: he sees it as a thoughtful maternal display. He may be able to forget about these personal touches later, but as he sees them, he is reminded of human similarities, not differences.

I finished this novella profoundly moved. The contrast between the ordinary, mundane (albeit difficult in the circumstances) task of preparing a meal contrasted with the horrific hunting of a Jewish person for execution. Somehow, the mundane details (starting a cooking fire, the snowflake on the cap, sharing food) made the purpose of the mission even more horrific.

Powerful. A disturbing reminder of how we ‘other’.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterfully moving. A short story that will live long in your memory.
A group of German soldiers in the barren wastes of rural Poland during a harsh winter have slowly lost their will and struggle to face another day of numbing cold and soul destroying slaughter.
The more that are captured the more likely you'll be on shooting duty. Some feign illness our three soldiers who comprise this story avoid being part of the firing squad to go out on a mission to hunt for more to be collected.
At first you killed on sight; then were allowed to only if an officier were present and finally to prevent laziness and compassion any caught had to be taken back to the company HQ for processing.
The stark reality is that those they hunted for were Jews and soldiers trained to fight were in this story being broken by the killing of people who didn't carry guns and whose only was their race.
This sensitive account of three middle aged men in uniform of the german army brings the holocaust into a personal frame readers may more readily identify with; and for that reason alone it is a powerful piece of literature. Although written in French my translated copy still carried the reality of weather, cold, hunger, the need to smoke and the misplaced sense of duty. The language between the three soldiers is almost lyrical, in terms of what they share but also the darkness they do not reveal. It was interesting to see the exchanges about dreams; that these will find in some lost recesses of the mind while the daily horrors continued to fill their unspoken thoughts.
It is just one day within the life of three soldiers but the influence they can bring to bear on the two people they meet and end up sharing a meal with is a heavy as the smoked filled room they eat.
The story points to hope and personal responsibility but also highlights hatred and the void in humanity when empathy is allowed to die.
I think it would appeal to young readers and could work in a study group. The personal journey it takes you on is a necessary one. If you accept the capacity in all of us to be involved and influence others this brief story will show why few walk with integrity and fewer still swim against the tide.
The horrors of history are the events in today's newscasts, the common demoninator is humanity behaving inhumanly.
Few readers will identify with the serial killer or psychopath but when characters are so well written they could be people we know or reflect our own aspirations you know the author has found an ideal medium to tell their story. Few books succeed as well as this one.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella by the French author offers a story concerning three soldiers serving in a concentration camp during WWII in Poland, who want to be dismissed of the task of executing jews in the camp; in order to get that permission, they go and seek for fled jews, which … will be executed. In the midst of the Polish winter they find one. But having started in early morning without having breakfast, they get hungry, find a small cottage, heat the furnace and prepared some food. The moment they invite the jew to participate in their meal, their conscience gets addressed …
Mingarelli carefully takes care of a nice build up of the story. Although or because he uses short sentences, the message gets through clearly. The reader gets subtly invited to get in the minds of the three protagonists. JM