Book Review: Skeletons at the Feast (Audio)

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian, read by Mark Bramhall, Publisher: Random House Audio; Unabridged edition (May 6, 2008), ISBN-10: 0739366238

Rating: 4 of 5 STARS
Source: Public library pick

I've listened to two other books by Chris Bohjalian (Before You Know Kindness and The Double Bind) and this one has been my least favorite. The story was definitely engaging, the characters well developed and likable, and the historical perspective interesting. The reader, Mark Bramhall, did a wonderful job, too. But something kept me from really liking this book.

From the book's product description:


In January 1945, in the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives: an attempt to cross the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine if necessary, to reach the British and American lines.

Among the group is eighteen-year-old Anna Emmerich, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats. There is her lover, Callum Finella, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war who was brought from the stalag to her family’s farm as forced labor. And there is a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, who the pair know as Manfred–who is, in reality, Uri Singer, a Jew from Germany who managed to escape a train bound for Auschwitz.

As they work their way west, they encounter a countryside ravaged by war. Their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–assuming any of them even survive.

The main question I think Bohjalian asks with this book is, "How could some Germans not know what was being done to the Jews?" He explores this through Anna's and her mother's (Mutti) slow awakening to the brutality of their country during the harrowing days of their march from Warsaw to the Allied lines. In order to "wake them up" Bohjalian takes us through some pretty violent and disturbing scenes. Maybe that's why I didn't like it as well as some other reviewers have. I'm about spent on WWII and its particular brand of evil. Time to take a break from this time period!

All that said, I would definitely recommend this audio book to you. Chris Bohjalian is a very talented writer, the reading is awesome, and the story's historical perspective worth knowing.