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The Vanishing Sky
Winner of the 2023 Eyelands International Book Award for a Novel
A New York Times Book Review Selection for Summer
For readers of Warlight and The Invisible Bridge, an intimate, harrowing story about a family of German citizens during World War II.
In 1945, as the war in Germany nears its violent end, the Huber family is not yet free of its dangers or its insidious demands. Etta, a mother from a small, rural town, has two sons serving their home country: her elder, Max, on the Eastern front, and her younger, Georg, at a school for Hitler Youth. When Max returns from the front, Etta quickly realizes that something is not right-he is thin, almost ghostly, and behaving very strangely. Etta strives to protect him from the Nazi rule, even as her husband, Josef, becomes more nationalistic and impervious to Max's condition. Meanwhile, miles away, her younger son Georg has taken his fate into his own hands, deserting his young class of battle-bound soldiers to set off on a long and perilous journey home.
The Vanishing Sky is a World War II novel as seen through a German lens, a story of the irreparable damage of war on the home front, and one family's participation-involuntary, unseen, or direct-in a dangerous regime. Drawing inspiration from her own father's time in the Hitler Youth, L. Annette Binder has crafted a spellbinding novel about the daring choices we make for country and for family.
A New York Times Book Review Selection for Summer
For readers of Warlight and The Invisible Bridge, an intimate, harrowing story about a family of German citizens during World War II.
In 1945, as the war in Germany nears its violent end, the Huber family is not yet free of its dangers or its insidious demands. Etta, a mother from a small, rural town, has two sons serving their home country: her elder, Max, on the Eastern front, and her younger, Georg, at a school for Hitler Youth. When Max returns from the front, Etta quickly realizes that something is not right-he is thin, almost ghostly, and behaving very strangely. Etta strives to protect him from the Nazi rule, even as her husband, Josef, becomes more nationalistic and impervious to Max's condition. Meanwhile, miles away, her younger son Georg has taken his fate into his own hands, deserting his young class of battle-bound soldiers to set off on a long and perilous journey home.
The Vanishing Sky is a World War II novel as seen through a German lens, a story of the irreparable damage of war on the home front, and one family's participation-involuntary, unseen, or direct-in a dangerous regime. Drawing inspiration from her own father's time in the Hitler Youth, L. Annette Binder has crafted a spellbinding novel about the daring choices we make for country and for family.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2020
286 people are currently reading
15651 people want to read
About the author
L. Annette Binder
7 books219 followersL. Annette Binder was born in Germany and grew up in Colorado Springs.
Her first novel The Vanishing Sky (Bloomsbury, July 2020) is inspired by events in her own family history.
Her story collection Rise came out in 2012. Her short stories have been included in the Pushcart Prize anthology and the PEN/O. Henry Prize anthology and have been performed on Public Radio's "Selected Shorts."
Her first novel The Vanishing Sky (Bloomsbury, July 2020) is inspired by events in her own family history.
Her story collection Rise came out in 2012. Her short stories have been included in the Pushcart Prize anthology and the PEN/O. Henry Prize anthology and have been performed on Public Radio's "Selected Shorts."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
December 9, 2020
This is a beautiful, heart-wrenching work about a German family in the waning days of World War II--a worried mother, a distant and preoccupied father, and two sons, one of whom has just returned shattered from war and the other, as yet too young but pulled into the conflict's votex nonetheless as the Americans and British close in. There's a certain helplessness to these characters as they try to navigate a world not of their making, a world that is being systematically destroyed, and that's part of the point: how the machinery of war swallows up so many ordinary people. Told in spare, precise prose, I found myself moved by their plight and often unable to put the book down. It's a terrific achievement.
March 11, 2020
Based on the author’s family, this is the story of an average German family trying to survive the last savage days of WWII. There are no heroics here. Instead, a father with what appears to be the onset of dementia becomes nationalistic and distant from his family. A mother tries to save her shell-shocked son who also appears to be suffering from a form of schizophrenia or, at least, a break from reality. The youngest son with an intellectual bent is a member of the Hitler Youth. Needless to say, a solider he is not. In short, this is an ordinary family trying to live through brutally extraordinary times.
July 9, 2020
The Vanishing Sky is the story of one German family, the Hubers, in the waning months of WWII: mother Etta, father Joseph who appears to be sinking into the dementia that overwhelmed his father, older son Max serving on the Eastern front, and younger son Georg, 15 years old and off training with the Hitler Youth. Their home is in the countryside somewhat buffered for the moment. This debut novel is partially based on journals from relatives of the author.
As the novel begins, signs increase that the war is going poorly for Germany and Max returns home from the war a changed man with obvious emotional problems, unable to function. Food is becoming more scarce even in an area where people farm. Old men and younger boys are being called up.
But this is the story of one family, how they are living through these days, together and apart. And how the parents live in their community. It’s a difficult story, one that I took a break from a couple of times, especially toward the end, given the sadness of everyday life in the world lately. But it is very effectively written and from a perspective that I haven’t had much experience reading. There is at times an ethereal quality to some of the descriptions, offsetting the much too real activity happening.
I do recommend this book to those interested in historical fiction, WWII, and Germany. It’s a difficult book to rate, between 3 and 3.5 for me which results with the 3 rating.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
As the novel begins, signs increase that the war is going poorly for Germany and Max returns home from the war a changed man with obvious emotional problems, unable to function. Food is becoming more scarce even in an area where people farm. Old men and younger boys are being called up.
But this is the story of one family, how they are living through these days, together and apart. And how the parents live in their community. It’s a difficult story, one that I took a break from a couple of times, especially toward the end, given the sadness of everyday life in the world lately. But it is very effectively written and from a perspective that I haven’t had much experience reading. There is at times an ethereal quality to some of the descriptions, offsetting the much too real activity happening.
I do recommend this book to those interested in historical fiction, WWII, and Germany. It’s a difficult book to rate, between 3 and 3.5 for me which results with the 3 rating.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
July 22, 2022
Real Rating: 3.25* of five, rounded down because a fascinating viewpoint got hidden behind slow pacing
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First, read this:
The Stockholm Syndrome of an entire nation, an entire class of people, is the shocking subject of this novel based on the facts as the author knows them surrounding her own family's WWII experience.
Etta Huber is frantic, as what wife of a dementia-suffering husband (Josef) trying to get into the war wouldn't be; as what mother of a returned soldier (Max) suffering from what we would call PTSD wouldn't be; as what loving, protective mother of a young teenager (Georg) caught up in a vision of glamour obfuscating the war's reality wouldn't be. The situation with Max is, of course, the one she's got the most emotional room for. No sane recruiter would take her retired-schoolteacher husband whose grasp of reality is deficient to wield a weapon, surely? Max, the bright and shining boy who left, is gone forever and here in his place is...a burden, frankly. In a time when the food-growing region the Hubers live in is getting less and less well-fed, another mouth isn't a joy...then Georg is sent to the Eastern front, which destroyed his brother Max, to dig defenses in what everyone knows is a vain effort to stop Allied tanks attacking German troops.
Etta isn't coping well with any of this. What she doesn't know is that she's got a stronger boy in Georg than she thought. He's been unable to believe the nonsense he's been fed in the Hitler Youth. He's fallen in love with one of the other boys, which (since this is simply unthinkable and impossible for Hitler Youths) has formed a strong resistant core in him. He ends up deserting before the boys get to the front, and walks home. Through war-torn Germany. On his own.
Max's horrors are always with him, and his behaviors worry his Mutti. Of course, he was always the odd kid:
Much like Max himself disappears, vanishes from his loving mother's ability to care for him...forever. It's one of many heartbreaks in Etta's world.
What a world it was. She, and her other bog-standard German neighbors, have noticed there are people disappearing. Most of them simply note this fact without a lot of interest, but note it they do. The rare German whose instinct is to help in whatever small way she can the disappearing ones, is fighting a losing battle as we-the-readers know. But the fact is no one, inside or outside Germany, knew what was going on in the camps where the disappeared went. It wasn't good...but it was factually unknown until after the war. This novel is set *during* the war, and the author presents the unease of the people with the ever-increasing evidence of their leadership's lies and obfuscations.
In the end, what earned this book a mere shade over three stars was its overly slow pace. Many things were dwelt on that could've been done away with or been less of a focus. The voices of the Germans are, on the other hand, exactly how the German folk I knew in my life sounded: Formal, deliberate, and slightly obscured behind any words they did say. This doesn't mean it was always fun to read their ponderous utterances. But it was the purpose of the author to tell a family story. I expected it to have more of that feel to it. Instead it became a deeply personal historical account of the agonies of your way of life's death.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: First, read this:
“You’ve got to do the right thing. You’ve got to use your mind,” she said. “That’s what the real God wants. People should do the right thing but they never do.”
–and–
They should have hung their heads, but people didn’t feel shame anymore. They lied and after a while they believed the lies they told, and this is how it went.
–and–
“He’s not coming back,” Ushi pushed her cup aside. “People leave and they don’t come back. My Jens is gone and my Jürgen, too.” Her voice quavered. “They’ve wrecked the world, these men, and still they’re not done. They’d take the sky if they could. They’d take the air we breathe, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
The Stockholm Syndrome of an entire nation, an entire class of people, is the shocking subject of this novel based on the facts as the author knows them surrounding her own family's WWII experience.
Etta Huber is frantic, as what wife of a dementia-suffering husband (Josef) trying to get into the war wouldn't be; as what mother of a returned soldier (Max) suffering from what we would call PTSD wouldn't be; as what loving, protective mother of a young teenager (Georg) caught up in a vision of glamour obfuscating the war's reality wouldn't be. The situation with Max is, of course, the one she's got the most emotional room for. No sane recruiter would take her retired-schoolteacher husband whose grasp of reality is deficient to wield a weapon, surely? Max, the bright and shining boy who left, is gone forever and here in his place is...a burden, frankly. In a time when the food-growing region the Hubers live in is getting less and less well-fed, another mouth isn't a joy...then Georg is sent to the Eastern front, which destroyed his brother Max, to dig defenses in what everyone knows is a vain effort to stop Allied tanks attacking German troops.
Etta isn't coping well with any of this. What she doesn't know is that she's got a stronger boy in Georg than she thought. He's been unable to believe the nonsense he's been fed in the Hitler Youth. He's fallen in love with one of the other boys, which (since this is simply unthinkable and impossible for Hitler Youths) has formed a strong resistant core in him. He ends up deserting before the boys get to the front, and walks home. Through war-torn Germany. On his own.
Max's horrors are always with him, and his behaviors worry his Mutti. Of course, he was always the odd kid:
Even when he was little Max had a way of fixing his eyes on her and asking questions that had no easy answers or no answers at all. "Mutti?" he'd asked her once when he was only six, "where do birds go to die? I see birds every day and never a dead one. Where do they go then?" and Etta could only shake her head at her boy, who thought of such things.
"They go someplace nice," she told him, "where it's quiet and the cats won't find them and the wolves and foxes neither. That's why we don't see them. They go to bird heaven." He looked at her a long while and then he nodded, satisfied with her response. It made sense that birds could find their way to heaven. They flew beneath it every day. It would only take a breeze to bear them up and through the gates, only a breeze and they were gone.
Much like Max himself disappears, vanishes from his loving mother's ability to care for him...forever. It's one of many heartbreaks in Etta's world.
What a world it was. She, and her other bog-standard German neighbors, have noticed there are people disappearing. Most of them simply note this fact without a lot of interest, but note it they do. The rare German whose instinct is to help in whatever small way she can the disappearing ones, is fighting a losing battle as we-the-readers know. But the fact is no one, inside or outside Germany, knew what was going on in the camps where the disappeared went. It wasn't good...but it was factually unknown until after the war. This novel is set *during* the war, and the author presents the unease of the people with the ever-increasing evidence of their leadership's lies and obfuscations.
In the end, what earned this book a mere shade over three stars was its overly slow pace. Many things were dwelt on that could've been done away with or been less of a focus. The voices of the Germans are, on the other hand, exactly how the German folk I knew in my life sounded: Formal, deliberate, and slightly obscured behind any words they did say. This doesn't mean it was always fun to read their ponderous utterances. But it was the purpose of the author to tell a family story. I expected it to have more of that feel to it. Instead it became a deeply personal historical account of the agonies of your way of life's death.
April 2, 2020
I downloaded this novel because the of the catchy title and the beautiful but a bit depressing cover. The novel is about the story of survival of a German family, the Huber family, towards the end of World War II. Etta, a mother of two sons is the main protagonist of the novel. Her husband Josef is desperate to fight the war and tries to mix up with the young soldiers when he rejoins the army. Her elder son, Max, returns from the war at Stalingrad with severe PTSD. Her younger son ,Georg ,is in the Hitler's Youth.
Positives:
1.The story is descriptive.
2.This means that it is successful in delivering the pain to the readers.
3. The story is cinematic which reminds me a lot of Jojo Rabbit.
Negatives:
1.The story is depressing. Only strong people could read this stuff as terrible things happen in almost every page.
2. The story is flat and confusing. I had to go back several pages to understand what was happening at a particular scene.
3.I am not able to classify it as historical fiction.
Recommendation: I recommend it to strong-hearted history enthusiasts.
Positives:
1.The story is descriptive.
2.This means that it is successful in delivering the pain to the readers.
3. The story is cinematic which reminds me a lot of Jojo Rabbit.
Negatives:
1.The story is depressing. Only strong people could read this stuff as terrible things happen in almost every page.
2. The story is flat and confusing. I had to go back several pages to understand what was happening at a particular scene.
3.I am not able to classify it as historical fiction.
Recommendation: I recommend it to strong-hearted history enthusiasts.
April 13, 2020
The Vanishing Sky is an ambitious book. How else can you describe a book written about WWII about a German family where both sons and the father are fighting for the Third Reich? Binder works hard to give the characters depth and stir empathy for them, but all of them are pitiful creatures in their own rights. I find the idea of writing a story about Germany during WWII and only alluding to the Nazi atrocities to be insulting, at best. Yes, Mutti and Josef and Georg and Max refer to people who are taken away, but not acknowledging where they were going--and continuing the facade that the German people didn't know what was going on--is a slap in the face to the 6 million people who died during the Holocaust.
I think the book had potential. I understand Binder's goal was to write about an average German family just trying to survive WWII, but basically ignoring the overarching issues around WWII is ridiculous. The writing was lovely, and Binder was able to really flesh out the characters and the misery of living in a war-torn country with great detail. While I enjoyed Binder's prose, I can't give it more stars because the lack of discussion about the social, political, economic, issues that were overwhelmingly prevalent at the time, and continue to be relevant today.
I received an early copy from Net Galley.
I think the book had potential. I understand Binder's goal was to write about an average German family just trying to survive WWII, but basically ignoring the overarching issues around WWII is ridiculous. The writing was lovely, and Binder was able to really flesh out the characters and the misery of living in a war-torn country with great detail. While I enjoyed Binder's prose, I can't give it more stars because the lack of discussion about the social, political, economic, issues that were overwhelmingly prevalent at the time, and continue to be relevant today.
I received an early copy from Net Galley.
June 10, 2020
I read this as an ARC from Netgalley.com and I appreciate the opportunity to do so. The book was awful. Let me be clear: this ordinary German family trying to “survive” the hardships of WWII managed to have coffee “klatches” even if they could have only one cake while essentially ignoring and, at the end of the story, denying the Holocaust. The story jumps from character to character and setting to setting. It is an incredibly upsetting story because the author seems to be grabbing at validation for the actions of the Nazis.
August 25, 2020
This was for me, a new take on a WWII novel. The novel centers around a German family in the last year of the war. The oldest boy has come home from the front rather unexpectedly, obviously badly damaged by PTSD. The youngest boy has been pulled into the Hitler Youth and after much drilling and exercise, they are sent to the Eastern Front to dig ditches to stop the tanks of the American and British troops. The third central character is the mother of the two boys, who is also coping with a husband with dementia. This is a grim novel that shows that every story has many sides.
July 20, 2020
Did you ever force yourself to finish a book and then try to figure out what you just read ? That was this book for me. And I have to say anything bad about a book, but I just did not like it. And I really do not understand what the point was supposed to be.
July 19, 2025
DNF 30%.
Such a boring book! It meandered through history dump after history dump, and I found myself skimming and not really connecting to any of the characters even when I slowed down and read a few pages in a row. Homosexuality also came into play—disgusting.
Content: graphic war violence, expletives, alcohol, tobacco, homosexuality
Such a boring book! It meandered through history dump after history dump, and I found myself skimming and not really connecting to any of the characters even when I slowed down and read a few pages in a row. Homosexuality also came into play—disgusting.
Content: graphic war violence, expletives, alcohol, tobacco, homosexuality
June 18, 2020
The Huber family lives in a German village, as the end of World War II approaches. When the story begins, parents Etta and Josef are alone in their home. Their older son, Max, is away fighting in the east. Their younger son, 15-year-old Georg, is at a Hitler Youth camp, drilling, working, and preparing to be called up into active service.
Josef, a former schoolteacher, is in denial about his memory loss, and retreats. He’s always at the beer hall, in his woodshop, or sitting in his chair, glued to the radio and adamant that Germany will crush the Allies encroaching from all sides. Etta cooks with the meager food available, cleans, and worries about her boys.
Max is sent home because of a nervous breakdown as a result of his experiences in the east. Georg hates the Hitler Youth, except for the boy he falls in love with. As conditions deteriorate, he is able to escape and strike out on a long walk home.
Despite the subject matter, there’s a dreamlike quality to Binder’s writing. There is much description of the natural settings, and also of the characters’ secret thoughts, which have to remain secret because they are not publicly acceptable in the Third Reich.
This is a view of war, family and community through the experiences of one ordinary family. It’s an impressive debut novel.
Josef, a former schoolteacher, is in denial about his memory loss, and retreats. He’s always at the beer hall, in his woodshop, or sitting in his chair, glued to the radio and adamant that Germany will crush the Allies encroaching from all sides. Etta cooks with the meager food available, cleans, and worries about her boys.
Max is sent home because of a nervous breakdown as a result of his experiences in the east. Georg hates the Hitler Youth, except for the boy he falls in love with. As conditions deteriorate, he is able to escape and strike out on a long walk home.
Despite the subject matter, there’s a dreamlike quality to Binder’s writing. There is much description of the natural settings, and also of the characters’ secret thoughts, which have to remain secret because they are not publicly acceptable in the Third Reich.
This is a view of war, family and community through the experiences of one ordinary family. It’s an impressive debut novel.
August 7, 2023
There’s a lot of very ambitious plots for books, and this was certainly one of them. But I don’t think you’ll ever be able to convince me to be sympathetic towards any characters that fought for the Nazis in WWII. It was well written so I’ll round up to 2 stars, but even though the message is not every German knew what was going on, I don’t think it was handled in the right way.
July 31, 2021
This book was a 2.5 for me. I am a huge fan of historical fiction, particularly of books written about WWII, so when I won this book on a goodreads giveaway I was very excited. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction novels focusing on WWII but non written from the perspective of the German experience, so this book really intrigued me. Unfortunately this book really fell flat for me. I felt the writing was significantly lacking and the book just had a poor flow to it. I felt like the book covered many topics that could have been better developed such as PTSD, homosexuality, loss, the struggle and sacrifice of living in a war torn country, the perspective of parents watching their children being ripped from them and sent to war, there was just so much that could have been developed into a deep story line, but unfortunately was not. The last few chapters did draw me in and I finally felt like a story was forming but then the book just ended. There was no conclusion for any of the characters, no wrapping up of the story line, it just ended. While I appreciated seeing a brief glimpse of the German perspective during the war, I really felt like more could have been done to truly reflect what German citizens experienced during this time.
October 28, 2020
I could not put this book down. Binder is a masterful storyteller. Her prose is clear and sparse, her characters vivid and alive, her story captivating. This is the tenderly told tale of a family struggling to survive in Germany in the waning days of the Third Reich. I was pulled in from the first word, and the story will stay with with me now that I have closed the cover. Told through multiple points of view, Binder exposes the brutal effects of the war and the damage caused by the Reich on a family whose sole wish is to repair the fabric of family despite seemingly insurmountable odds. In this age of shallow and careless writing, this book is a fabulous find and a welcome escape from all the troubles of our current world.
February 25, 2020
A German family at the height of WWII. A mother trying to hold it together, her husband desperate to fight for the cause but his efforts are not wanted, a son back from the front but not the same man as he was when he left and another son, wanting to get away from it all but pulled back in, time and time again.
I struggled through this one. It was so wordy and it jumped around so much I found myself having to backtrack and reread things just so I could figure out what was going on and move forward.
I will say that it is an interesting point of view, a German family tangled up in the war. There were a few times when I was truly caught up in the story but was quickly lost again.
I struggled through this one. It was so wordy and it jumped around so much I found myself having to backtrack and reread things just so I could figure out what was going on and move forward.
I will say that it is an interesting point of view, a German family tangled up in the war. There were a few times when I was truly caught up in the story but was quickly lost again.
February 19, 2021
A really well-written and interesting book. It’s about life in Germany during WW2, for the ordinary people in a small town. The focus is on Etta, the mother of two young sons caught up in the war, Max in the army, Georg in HJ . The author, living in the US, has family sources from this time.
A close focus on the differing experiences of Etta’s two sons leads us into a variety of experiences, all pretty terrible. We see a glimpse of past times in the women’s coffee afternoons, domestic events making change and loss more tragic. War time , how very cruel we are.
It’s valuable reading, we get powerful insight into German home life during this time.
A close focus on the differing experiences of Etta’s two sons leads us into a variety of experiences, all pretty terrible. We see a glimpse of past times in the women’s coffee afternoons, domestic events making change and loss more tragic. War time , how very cruel we are.
It’s valuable reading, we get powerful insight into German home life during this time.
Read
August 19, 2020A different point of view but mothers are the same from any which way you look. Etta was so strong and lived for her boys. Beautifully written.
p. 155
“He’s not coming back,” Ushi pushed her cup aside. “People leave and they don’t come back. My Jens is gone and my Jurgen, too.” Her voice quavered. “They’ve wrecked the world, these men, and still they’re not done. They’d take the sky if they could. They’d take the air we breathe, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
Etta shook her head. “I’m bringing Max home. I’ll find him and bring him back.”
p. 155
“He’s not coming back,” Ushi pushed her cup aside. “People leave and they don’t come back. My Jens is gone and my Jurgen, too.” Her voice quavered. “They’ve wrecked the world, these men, and still they’re not done. They’d take the sky if they could. They’d take the air we breathe, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them.”
Etta shook her head. “I’m bringing Max home. I’ll find him and bring him back.”
November 28, 2023
I was disappointed with the ending of this. It follows the story of a German family of four living in the last days of WW2. I found it really interesting to read the perspective of the German side of things of WW2. I also became quite invested in the characters, which I think is partly why I was so disappointed in the ending because it didn’t really provide closure. In my opinion it ends rather abruptly and with things still left up in the air.
April 22, 2021
I would have given this 4 stars because it was beautifully written and an intriguing story from a different perspective than you usually read about WW2. However, I wanted an ending. I wanted to know what happened to each member of the family and so I ended it feeling let down. I hate getting so into a book and the characters and then not knowing their fate. :(
July 23, 2020
There are a ton of World War II historical fiction novels out there and I've read quite a few myself. The Vanishing Sky is another novel set during WWII except this one is told from the perspective of a German family, the Hubers. The family is comprised of Etta & Josef and their sons Max and Georg. It's 1945 and Max has returned home from the front. He is quiet and off from his normal behavior. He spends a lot of time walking by himself through town and hanging out in the cemetery. He talks about bones a lot and how he had to collect bones. Meanwhile, younger son Georg, who had been at a Hitler Youth academy is sent out into the field with a troop of young soldiers. At one point, while in a transport vehicle and the rest of his group is sleeping, Georg jumps from the vehicle and begins the long journey towards home.
This novel is heart-wrenching. It shows the impact of WWII from a perspective we don't often see. You can feel Etta's worry for her family, in particular, Max. There is a lot of despair in this novel, which is what one would expect from a story of young soldiers who had seen battle. Including the whole family in the story added impact. I didn't quite connect with any of these characters as much as I'd hoped. I found myself putting it down to clear my brain.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
This novel is heart-wrenching. It shows the impact of WWII from a perspective we don't often see. You can feel Etta's worry for her family, in particular, Max. There is a lot of despair in this novel, which is what one would expect from a story of young soldiers who had seen battle. Including the whole family in the story added impact. I didn't quite connect with any of these characters as much as I'd hoped. I found myself putting it down to clear my brain.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
did-not-complete
July 18, 2020I am not rating this book as I could not get interested in it; and after 5 chapters gave up.
September 21, 2020
Many of the negative reviews of this novel refer to it being about an ordinary family in Germany during World War II and decry the fact that it does not explore the Holocaust in detail. While I agree that an acknowledgment of the Holocaust and its horrors is necessary to an understanding of World War II and the culture, if you can call it that, of Nazi Germany, it doesn't necessarily follow that every novel about World War II must explore the particularities of that issue, just as every novel set in 18th and 19th Century United States mustn't be required to explore the treatment of Native Americans that stopped just short of genocide or the issue of the slave trade. There are very accomplished novelists who have addressed those issues as well as those who currently explore the Black Lives Matter movement and destruction of the environment by those who favor an economic system premised on infinite growth in a world of finite resources. All of these issues are relevant and critical and should be embraced by readers who find an examined life worth living, but not every writer can fully explore every issue.
I disagree that The Vanishing Sky is about an ordinary family, unless one thinks that a family with a patriarch sliding into dementia, an adult son tormented by PTSD after witnessing the horrors of war, and a 15-year-old boy forced into military service while struggling with his nascent homosexual inclinations are just a ho-hum, run of the mill bunch. I find them anything but ordinary, especially as Annette Binder depicts them. And while there are chapters devoted to each of these males, it is Etta, in her role as Mutti (mother), as well as the other women in the novel who are central to an understanding of the novel. The men are expected to be destroyers, and in confronting those expectations, they are damaged to the point of their own destruction. Etta and her own mother have brought life into the world. Those lives are precious to them, and they nurture and try to protect those lives. Even when Etta is angry at her husband's obstinate militancy and wishes to hurt him, she pauses, reflects on the qualities that made her love him, recognizes the frailty under his hard shell, and forgives him for his weakness. The women who are strangers to young Georg understand that he is delinquent in fighting for his country. Instead of exposing his delinquency and punishing him, they help and protect him. If it is an accepted dictum in fiction that action is character, then the actions of the women in The Vanishing Sky should lead one to wonder whether the war and the Holocaust would have occurred if women were leaders of their countries.
On the issue of the Holocaust, it is present in the book, although it is not named as such. Denial of death is present, too, but there is a question of intent involved, and the distinction between an expression of denial and whether the person who utters the expression really believes it. There is an illustrative passage in a chapter from Etta's point of view in reflecting upon her son Max as a child:
"Even when he was little Max had a way of fixing his eyes on her and asking questions that had no easy answers or no answers at all. 'Mutti?' he'd asked her once when he was only six, 'where do birds go to die? I see birds every day and never a dead one. Where do they go then?' and Etta could only shake her head at her boy, who thought of such things. 'They go someplace nice,' she told him, 'where it's quiet and the cats won't find them and the wolves and foxes neither. That's why we don't see them. They go to bird heaven.' He looked at her a long while and then he nodded, satisfied with her response. It made sense that birds could find their way to heaven. They flew beneath it every day. It would only take a breeze to bear them up and through the gates, only a breeze and they were gone."
It's no easy thing to watch a cat snatch a low-flying bird out of the air, tear it to bits, and deliver the bird's head to the man or woman who feeds, shelters, and pets the cat. For Etta, there was "no easy answer" to Max's question, because the truth was not easy to tell or to hear or to understand. There is a time for growing into such answers, for those who can grow. I think L. Annette Binder understands that, and her novel reflects that understanding, and the understanding that love is the truth most dear to a Mutti.
I disagree that The Vanishing Sky is about an ordinary family, unless one thinks that a family with a patriarch sliding into dementia, an adult son tormented by PTSD after witnessing the horrors of war, and a 15-year-old boy forced into military service while struggling with his nascent homosexual inclinations are just a ho-hum, run of the mill bunch. I find them anything but ordinary, especially as Annette Binder depicts them. And while there are chapters devoted to each of these males, it is Etta, in her role as Mutti (mother), as well as the other women in the novel who are central to an understanding of the novel. The men are expected to be destroyers, and in confronting those expectations, they are damaged to the point of their own destruction. Etta and her own mother have brought life into the world. Those lives are precious to them, and they nurture and try to protect those lives. Even when Etta is angry at her husband's obstinate militancy and wishes to hurt him, she pauses, reflects on the qualities that made her love him, recognizes the frailty under his hard shell, and forgives him for his weakness. The women who are strangers to young Georg understand that he is delinquent in fighting for his country. Instead of exposing his delinquency and punishing him, they help and protect him. If it is an accepted dictum in fiction that action is character, then the actions of the women in The Vanishing Sky should lead one to wonder whether the war and the Holocaust would have occurred if women were leaders of their countries.
On the issue of the Holocaust, it is present in the book, although it is not named as such. Denial of death is present, too, but there is a question of intent involved, and the distinction between an expression of denial and whether the person who utters the expression really believes it. There is an illustrative passage in a chapter from Etta's point of view in reflecting upon her son Max as a child:
"Even when he was little Max had a way of fixing his eyes on her and asking questions that had no easy answers or no answers at all. 'Mutti?' he'd asked her once when he was only six, 'where do birds go to die? I see birds every day and never a dead one. Where do they go then?' and Etta could only shake her head at her boy, who thought of such things. 'They go someplace nice,' she told him, 'where it's quiet and the cats won't find them and the wolves and foxes neither. That's why we don't see them. They go to bird heaven.' He looked at her a long while and then he nodded, satisfied with her response. It made sense that birds could find their way to heaven. They flew beneath it every day. It would only take a breeze to bear them up and through the gates, only a breeze and they were gone."
It's no easy thing to watch a cat snatch a low-flying bird out of the air, tear it to bits, and deliver the bird's head to the man or woman who feeds, shelters, and pets the cat. For Etta, there was "no easy answer" to Max's question, because the truth was not easy to tell or to hear or to understand. There is a time for growing into such answers, for those who can grow. I think L. Annette Binder understands that, and her novel reflects that understanding, and the understanding that love is the truth most dear to a Mutti.
March 23, 2020
What an appropriate name for this novel. Lives were vanishing; individual 's souls were vanishing and the sky only portended of trouble. The novel felt poetic with undulating waves of emotion. The characters were well developed as this was much more driven by their lives as opposed to introducing a complex plot. At the end of the war in Germany in WWII, a mother with 2 sons is left bereft as the older one enlists and comes home with severe PTSD. Her younger son is with the Hitler Youth who forsakes his group, running away to find his way back home. Both have become "lost" because of this war, while this desperately loving mother pines for them every day. Seeing the German point of view was thought-provoking but my heart went out to this mother, as I felt her pain on each and every page. Depictions of the savagery of war and its barbarism at right at the forefront. It is a deeply heartfelt book.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC and my honest opinion
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC and my honest opinion
December 28, 2020
The novel is embodied around an ordinary German family living in a small town and the timing was towards the end of WW2. This is the first novel I’ve read on WW2 which is written from the perspective of a German family. Though it is a hearth wrenching novel, I liked the storyline and portrayal of the characters and places.
Since Nazis abhorrently tortured and killed millions of innocent people, they were definitely the evil part of the history. But ordinary German citizens, mothers and children especially, suffered enormously. Nevertheless, they had to remain silent because they were the Germans. Different sources say 400.000 to 4 million German civilians were dead during the WW2. They couldn’t even keep a proper tab on the civilian loss and cities were destroyed to the ground. This book tells the story of them.
I reccomend it if you like reading realistic fiction, and/or interested in WW2 stories.
Since Nazis abhorrently tortured and killed millions of innocent people, they were definitely the evil part of the history. But ordinary German citizens, mothers and children especially, suffered enormously. Nevertheless, they had to remain silent because they were the Germans. Different sources say 400.000 to 4 million German civilians were dead during the WW2. They couldn’t even keep a proper tab on the civilian loss and cities were destroyed to the ground. This book tells the story of them.
I reccomend it if you like reading realistic fiction, and/or interested in WW2 stories.
August 31, 2020
Reading about WW I and II is fundamental for me in my attempts to grasp what those wars did to the people and communities who were affected by them. The Vanishing Sky is a novel with a different look at WW II. Rather than taking the Allied viewpoint of Nazi Germany, it speaks through the voices of Germans: it is a human family story, depicting war's tragedy on all sides of the political spectrum. Drawing inspiration from her own father's time in the Hitler Youth, L. Annette Binder has written a heart-breaking novel about the choices we make for country and for family. Sensitively portraying a grieving mother in a small German village, including brutal descriptions of her sons at war, this depiction of the horror of war is L. Annette Binder's fist novel and it is a fine one for this unique perspective.
July 31, 2020
A harrowing story of living through the Second World War as told from a German families point of view. Etta has already lost 3 sons to the war. Her husband has come home from the fighting but isn’t right, he forgets things and is distant. He son Max has been sent home from current fighting and spends his days walking the streets and having incoherent conversations with himself. Then there is Georg, he is in the hitler youth army but he doesn’t want to be a soldier and he runs away.
This story is told mostly through Etta and Georg. Their resilience and perseverance to stay alive and reconnect with those they loved. A story that could be transported to any country, any soldier, any family, any mother no matters who you are fighting for.
This story is told mostly through Etta and Georg. Their resilience and perseverance to stay alive and reconnect with those they loved. A story that could be transported to any country, any soldier, any family, any mother no matters who you are fighting for.
June 26, 2021
Y'all...I never give a book one star, but I trudged through this one. It felt like a chore every time I picked it up. This story alternates between two German perspectives in WWII: that of Georg, the younger brother, and his mutti (mother), whose primary concern is the care of her older son, Max, a young man with PTSD from his time serving in the war. Now I love a historical fiction as much as the next girl, but this one didn't seem to make any sense at all: the dialogue felt stilted, the characters' actions felt unrealistic, and the writing was dry and often beat around the bush, being quite vague about what was actually happening in the story.
January 28, 2021
Beautiful description and meticulous exposition form a spare and exquisite elegy for the end of a way of village life, as the devastating hardships of war close in on a family in a small German village. As the war’s end comes closer, the mother struggles to save her eldest son, while her younger son tries to survive and find his way home. As bombs fall and authorities enlist the old men and children who remain to face certain destruction, hope fades against the vanishing sky.
January 29, 2021
An extremely visual novel with beautiful description. I felt that you had to read between the lines for much of the book. It felt a touch scattered at points, almost like I wanted more depth about the characters and story line. The end leaves a few things open ended but in the theme of a WWII novel where not many people get answers it seems fitting.
April 1, 2021
When I read the synopsis of this book I was intrigued and thought it would be a great quick read..boy was I wrong. This book was just terrible. I had to force myself to finish it. There never seemed to be a good flow to it and it bounced around to too many times that in my opinion didn’t pertain to the story. Definitely regret buying this book
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