The Prodigal Sons: A Family in Weimar Germany

by Aubrey Taylor

Weimar Germany, 1923
A father, a son, and a cousin.

Ernst was born too late to fight alongside his brothers in the Great War. An alcoholic and brawler, he finds his place in Germany’s postwar struggle by throwing in his lot with the burgeoning Nazi Party. Yet the failed Putsch attempt brings him home to stay for the first time in years.

Jakob is a young prodigy and church musician who wants nothing more than to spend time with his childhood sweetheart and live a quiet life of service to God. Yet this is not the world he was born into.

Friedrich is a German-American who remained in Germany after fighting with the Allies in the Great War. After healing from a life-threatening injury sustained in October 1918, he’s become a devoted husband and man of God who is loved and admired by all. Yet can there truly be forgiveness for the sins of a past that continues to haunt him?

Written as a prelude to Sani: The German Medic, this book stands on its own or can be read in sequence, bringing the reader deeper into the history of the fictional Schmidt family as they wrestle through the tumultuous Twentieth Century in Germany.

Genres: Historical Fiction

481 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2022

About the author

Aubrey also writes under the pen name Aubrey Reiss Taylor. As a child, Aubrey spent countless hours creating characters and writing stories. Thirty years later, she took up her pen again, uniting her fascination for history with her passion for redemption, and creating a unique style of gritty, honest, wartime fiction written from the German perspective. Her pen name honors her own German ancestry and reflects her love for the culture about which she writes. She is a mother of three and married to her best friend Brian. When she’s not writing or taking care of home and family, she can be found making music, reading, or spending time with friends.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so pleased to have discovered Aubrey Taylor’s The Prodigal Sons while searching for historical novels set in Germany between the two world wars – and am happy to share a brief review of this quite remarkable book.

In book two of the Gott Mit Uns series, Taylor uses vivid descriptions of the characters, the locales and the dark times of inter-war Germany to draw readers into a great story. It is a multi-generational family tale that features the complex relationships the characters have with each other, with their personal histories, with God, and with the rising tyranny of the 1920’s and 1930’s.

As the story unfolds, I found myself drawn more and more deeply into the lives of Jakob Schmidt, his father Ernst, his cousin Friedrich, and the women in the lives of these prodigal sons. I hope other readers will feel the same pull I did, needing to see how they ultimately fare in this tumultuous time.