It feels increasingly urgent to remember the lessons of World War II and I cannot think of anyone better than Svenja O'Donnell to navigate us through this particular slice of history. A lyrical, engrossing and essential read

Svenja O'Donnell turns her skills as an investigative journalist to unearthing a vitally important, powerful, and painful family story from World War Two. I was gripped as Inge's War revealed secrets within secrets, and exposed the dark realities of ordinary people's wartime lives to the light.

Inge’s War is a superbly nuanced reclamation of history and family secrets. With much empathy and skill, Svenja O’Donnell gives us a long withheld, powerful true story of love and suffering on the wrong side of the battle lines in World War II. It’s a timely reminder that a nation’s politics and people are not one and the same, that the innocent are sometimes punished for collective sins, and that women, across ages and cultures, have silently borne the brunt of war in ways we are only beginning to reckon with

I can't recommend this book highly enough ... a beautifully told story of tragedy and hope.

O'Donnell beautifully weaves together her family history with themes of love, guilt and betrayal

Too often the most dramatic, fascinating human stories are lost to history because they are never documented. Thankfully, Svenja O'Donnell has rescued the extraordinary saga of her grandmother, a saga filled with love and betrayal and secrets, a saga that illuminates the nature of war and memory. Using her remarkable skills as a reporter and writer, O'Donnell has recorded this story so meticulously and beautifully that it will remain forever in our consciousness

Exceptional... It presents a new perspective on the conflict: that of ordinary Germans who endured terrible suffering under the Nazi regime, but also that of women caught up on the wrong side of history. I could not put it down

The author, a graceful, eloquent writer, follows a trail that sometimes takes her through deeply troubling terrain, and she amply reveals the cruelty and compassion that characterize times of war. Haunting family stories that serve as a metaphor for human suffering everywhere

This exceptional account transforms a private tragedy into a universal story of war and survival

This compelling testimonial details the deprivations German citizens faced during the war and reveals a dark part of Danish history. The perspective is enlightening and the accounts of sexual abuse are timely to the continuing Me Too discourse. This memoir deserves a wide audience.

Through O’Donnell’s meticulous reporting and sensitive, compelling storytelling [Inge’s War] becomes the gripping story of anyone navigating life in a war zone… a riveting and important story, one that focuses so tightly on Inge and her family in its level of detail — physical, temporal and emotional — that it becomes universal. The reader can see these places, feel what these people felt, understand their trauma and pain. Living in wartime becomes palpably real

With Inge’s War, O’Donnell has created a story that reads like a novel filled with fascinating history and excellent detective work

A stunning read that offers a rare insight into what it was like to be an ordinary German citizen during the war

Inge's War is not just the story of a life - it's about the relationship between a woman and her grandmother ... Family secrets are revealed and a story emerges about first love betrayed, chaos and flight, and sexual violence, shame and despair. ... It is a moving story, sensitively told.

Fabulous

Outstanding

A fascinating book

[A] magisterial and superbly illustrated biography.

Monumental... This uncompleted project will surely be the Ozymandias of all biographies, since Richardson's talents were uniquely matched to his protean subject.

Wonderfully lively, greatly informative and memorably insightful... a great read.

Subtle, perceptive and beautifully written

Many consider the years before 1945 to be the most crucial in understanding Germany and the Germans. Wait until you have read this book.

Harald Jähner's deeply researched, panoramic account of how Germany rebuilt and discovered itself from 1945-1955 is an eye-opening, thrilling read

A magnificent overview of the astonishing decade in Germany that followed the defeat of Nazism

Eye-opening and often moving... a sobering look at how societies rebuild

Highly readable... Counter-intuitive but thoughtful

[A] thoughtful narrative... filling the yawning gap on bookshop shelves between a growing number of modern German history texts and the oversupply of Nazi studies that end in Hitler's bunker

Aftermath takes in the immediate postwar years where Germany was administered by the Allies... Jähner excels

Fascinating... Books about Word War II continue to spill out by the ton, but there has been less attention paid to how Germans coped with the country's shameful Nazi past after the conflict was over

Rarely has a non-fiction book so skilfully combined vividness, drama and eloquence.

Jähner's gripping 500-page X-ray-vision tale of an often overlooked and misperceived phase of German history reveals, like all great history books, as much about the first decade after the war as about today.

Clearly written, full of empathy for everyday life, which is far too seldom taken into consideration... You devour it like a novel.

A popular work of non-fiction in the best sense.