Detail
Title: Stella ISBN:Published 2019 by Carl Hanser Verlag · Hardcover 218 pages
Genre: Historical, Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, Holocaust, Cultural, Germany, European Literature, German Literature, War, Roman, Literature
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Ceecee
Friedrich lives in Choulex near Geneva with his heavy drinker mother and wealthy father who imports velvet. As he grows up he becomes impressed with what he perceives as Nazi strength especially as he sees himself as ‘small’. In January 1942 he goes to Berlin ostensibly to attend art school but in reality to seek ‘truth’ and there he meets Kristin/Stella Goldschlag and Tristan von Appen.
Friedrich is a good, clear narrator capturing Berlin in the 1940’s, in places the language is staccato which matches the scenario of the intensifying Nazi yolk especially on Jews. I really like the round up at the beginning of each month which sets out the demands on the German population alongside world events. One that really resonates is the release of Disney’s Bambi making such a stark contrast to the edicts and wartime events. I like Friedrich's father’s letters from Turkey which records a very colourful life which is at odds with Berlin and Friedrich’s growing feelings of betrayal. It soon becomes apparent that our narrator is naive in his youthfulness as it takes him a while for him to see what Kristin is in reality and the same for von Appen. He appreciates he has been foolish and wrong about everything and acknowledges his initial blindness to reality. Kristin’s truth becomes clear in snippets interspersed with the narrative and it is a shock. There is nothing new in what we learn here as it’s well documented but what is different in this novel is how the characters are portrayed, their openly confessed ideas to Friedrich conflict with their pragmatic actions in a desire for self preservation. The storytelling changes from Friedrich’s intense obsession with Kristin to a very dark tale which is compelling reading. It becomes less his story and more about Kristin/Stella who is complex, complicated and an enigma.
My only negative is that sometimes the dialogue is a bit odd but that may be down to lost in translation and there are a few weird events that I’m not sure what to make of.
Overall, this is a well written and interesting novel with the focus becoming the wartime story of Stella Goldschlag, a singer, artists model, a beauty, a liar, a betrayer and seller of ‘Neschume ‘ - souls. I like the blending of fiction with the unedifying fact of Stella’s actions.
With thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books/Grove Press for the arc for an honest review
NILTON TEIXEIRA
Goodness… what to say?
This is a fiction work inspired by the true life of Stella Goldschlag, and she is the only real character. I can’t tell anything about her without spoiling. Personally, I have never heard of her.
Anyways… during the first 30% I was mesmerized and completely hooked.
It was so strong.
I was transported to the era.
There was something about the writing, even though it was translated from German, that really impressed me. It was grabbing and at the same time haunting.
The storyline is not flawless. It has its ups and downs, but it is heartbreaking, no doubt about it. My only disappointment is with the romance part and perhaps with the character’s development of the main protagonist, who remained too naive the whole time.
The ending was shocking for me. I really had no idea.
The horrors of the Holocaust are unbelievable and unforgettable.
What are you willing to do to save yourself and the ones you love?
Ingrid
Based on real events, a good book.
Ellie Spencer
Rounded up from around 3.5 stars ⭐️
This novel seamlessly blended fact and fiction in a wonderful manner. It left me feeling very thoughtful.
The story follows the life of Friedrich (a fictional character) through his childhood and into early adulthood. He decides to travel to Germany, despite WWII raging on around Europe. In Germany he meets and falls in love with Kristen (a person that existed in real life). But Kristen is keeping some dark secrets, including her real name- Stella.
I think any novel based on the atrocities of WWII and the treatment of Jewish people will always be deeply haunting. There is no one that can create such horrific stories within their minds. This novel, and the story of Stella, brings up an important question- how far would you go to protect those you love? Would you betray and endanger others to keep yourself and your family safe? I had never heard of Stella before I read this book, and now her story will always haunt me.
I loved that Takis started chapters by recapping what historical moments happened during that month/year. I also loved the inclusion of real notes from the court trial about Stella. My only issue with the book was that some parts felt a bit clunky, but this may be due to the translation, as often beautiful sayings become more stilted when translated into other languages.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that enjoys historical novels that are based on true stories.
Lou (nonfiction fiend)
Stella is a story about fear and hope - and about the decision to betray yourself or your love. It is inspired by the true story of Stella Goldschlag, also known as 'The Blonde Poison', and the loyalty and deceit present in World War II Berlin painting the portrait of a woman caught in the tragic cycle of history. In January 1942, Friedrich, aka Fritz, an even-tempered and unworldly young man of twenty arrives in Berlin from Switzerland in search of the truth about the Nazi war machine, to seek refuge from his alcoholic mother and to try to fulfil his dream of becoming a brilliant and burgeoning artist. Having grown up in a secluded house in Choulex overlooking Lake Geneva in an affluent family comprised of his textile importer father and heavy drinking, anti-Semitic painter mother, he had daydreamed about escaping to a more fruitful life with more opportunity. Through a plethora of stories, literature and newscasts Fritz develops a romantic idea of Berlin resulting in his move there despite it being the centre of the raging wartime efforts. A short time later, at a free figure drawing class at the Feige and Strassburger art school, he is hypnotized by the beautiful and mysterious model, Kristin, who becomes his guide to the bustling and cosmopolitan city, escorting him to secret jazz clubs, sharing with him his first kiss and having fun in each other’s company, however, she refuses to allow him to meet her family or even let him know the location in which she lives. She takes care of him and teaches him to move between the Cenacles of the city's effervescent nightlife, and soon the intensity of their relationship turns into a passionate love story.
But the Nazis are increasingly taking control over the intimate lives of German residents, the Gestapo arresting and killing anyone who shows opposition to their ideology. Kristin is targeted by the Gestapo, tortured and battered, and despite her seemingly carefree life, she has good reason to be afraid: her real name is Stella Goldschlag, and she is Jewish, passing, or masquerading, as Aryan. In order to protect her parents, who have been imprisoned, Stella agrees to inform on other Jews for the Gestapo and denounce those who have fled or gone into hiding, leaving Friedrich out of his depth and torn between preserving his own moral integrity and the intensity of first love. Stella is an enthralling and captivating 1940s love story set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime and their atrocities; it highlights perfectly that the heart wants what the heart wants and that it is difficult to withdraw from someone you adore. It asks you, the reader, to consider the question: How guilty are you if you do everything you can to protect the lives of your loved ones, even if it means precipitating the death of many others? Wartime Berlin is described in rich, vivid detail and it's clear extensive research went into crafting the most authentic narrative possible. It's a fact-based historical novel that is difficult to put down and I appreciated the excerpts from witness statements documented at a postwar trial of the real-life Stella Goldschlag, a terrifying yet fascinating and self-confident woman, who continued to inform for the Gestapo throughout the war. It's a subtle yet powerful, affecting and melancholy story that I know I'm not likely to forget any time soon. Highly recommended.
Shirin T.
Stella by Takis Würger, translated in English by Liesl Schillinger. The story of Friedrich (a fictional character), through his childhood and his travel to Germany in WWII. Based in part on a real historical character, a love story, torture, betrayal, and the horrors of war times.
"Falling is something you can only do alone".
Friedrich was born in 1922 in a villa on the outskirts of Choulex, near Geneva, Switzerland. His father was traveling most of the time, and his mother would drink so much that she would lie down on the dining room floor. After he was hurt, had lost the ability to see colors.
"The paint pots gave off different smells. The paints were made of natural pigments. Indigo blue smelled of the butterfly blossoms in our washhouse; Naples yellow of lead; cadmium red of clayey earth in summer; black of coal; white of chalk".
He reached Berlin in January 1942 with dreams of becoming an artist. That was a time when Adolf Eichmann listed methods for the extermination of the Jews of Europe. The story is about the year when Friedrich lived in Berlin. Very interesting that at the beginning of each chapter (month) mentioned world and German events.
Fritz saw Kristin/Stella (a real historical character), a blond model, at his first drawing class. Also, He met Tristan von Appen (a fictional character), a rich young man who did nothing but just living. Both of his new acquaintances have kept secrets from Friedrich.
“Show me how a man treats animals, and I’ll tell you if his heart is in the right place,”
Soon, Friedrich realized that Stella can control the situation in her own way. She had been under the power of the Gestapo for so long. When he looked back understood how blind he was.
"I don’t know if it’s wrong to betray one human being to save another. I don’t know if it’s right to betray one human being to save another".
I really enjoyed this. I'm afraid to say more because of spoilers. It was a sad, heartbreaking novel from a different point of view and another kind of hurt that war cause to people. Well written, and very various from other WWII stories I've read. Highly recommended to the fan of war stories.
Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read Stella by Takis Würger in exchange for an honest review.
switterbug (Betsey)
The novel takes place during the rise of Hitler and the anti-Semitic aggression that spread throughout Germany. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would engage, as the protagonist, a young Swiss man born into wealth, is an amorphous character, vague even to himself. I’m not fond of nebulous main characters, but I settled into it once I realized that this is a coming-of-age story, one that may sting. Friedrich, the protagonist, travels from the safety of his Swiss home to Berlin, to attend art classes, to manifest a calling and some confidence, and acquire an articulate and coherent self.
Naïve, Friedrich thinks he can temporarily live in Nazi Germany and remain untouched by its menace; he wants to take in their strength, their tenacity. Friedrich is decidedly not anti-Semitic, nor does he agree with Nazi ideology. He believes he can pick and choose the attributes that he admires, and disregard the ugly Nazi dogma.
Friedrich meets an enigmatic woman named Kristin, who was the nude model in an art class he attended, and was almost immediately enchanted, especially as she was so forward and friendly. Don’t read the blurb on the book, which contains minor spoilers, although not the devastating twist. And devastating it is! Over the course of living in Berlin, he meets new people through Kristin, including a flamboyant man, Tristan, who frequents a “negro” jazz club. Tristan, Friedrich, and Kristin go there to listen to music and dance, and Friedrich observes that Kristin may be an alcoholic.
This is a romance with an edge. There are also graphic displays of violence, although not gratuitous, and not pervasive. Most of it is suggested, like the interspersed and italicized information bulletins about the “accused” and a “witness”—briefings of Jews that were captured and sent to the death camps, and some who managed to escape. It reminds you bluntly that Nazi Germany is to be feared if you are Jewish.
The prose is stark, like the story. Even if you’ve read dozens, or hundreds of Nazi Germany stories—both fact and fiction—this storyline will shatter you--an astonishing denouement. I was demolished. For much of the story, I remained at a distance, at arm’s length, a vicarious onlooker to Friedrich and Kristin’s oddball love story. However, I never lost interest. I think Würger kept us coolly restrained from the story, until we weren’t--it equates how the German civilians were remote from the horrors that gripped the country, too.
Looking back, we can’t imagine that Germans were oblivious to Hitler’s deeds. But, at the time, many were just trying to survive and emerge out of poverty. Gradually, Friedrich is directly shocked by unimaginable events, and I sympathized with his plight as the story unfolded. The star-crossed lovers will shatter your heart and smash your soul.
“Do you know that silence is sometimes worse than lies?...”
Jill
In the early pages of Stella, inspired by a true story, we discover the most important attribute of our narrator Friedrich: he is passionately devoted to the truth. His inability to tell a lie quite literally marks him as a child. He quickly confesses to throwing a snowball and is branded with an anvil horn by the victim.
He reflects, “Father had told me that telling the truth was a sign of love. Truth was a gift. Back then I was sure that was right.”
That belief is sorely tested later on in life when his need for the truth conflicts with a nebulous sort of morality. Unworldly and naïve, Friedrich arrives in Berlin from Switzerland as the Nazi party ascends into power. There he becomes obsessed with a model in his art class named Kristin and he also makes a friend Tristan. Tristan is a member of the Nazi party. And Kristin? Who is she really and how is she surviving in these times?
The back cover of this book – and indeed, most reviews – present spoilers, so I believe it is important for the reader to not read anything else about it first. Having said that, is is obvious, even by the title of the book, that Kristin is not who she claims to be.
The savagery of the Nazis has been well-documented and there are certainly more glimpses of their inhumaneness in Stella. But this book is really about the inability to face the truth and develop a clear sense of right and wrong. Is it right or wrong to betray one human being to save another – or to save oneself? What if the truth is too much to bear? What if the truth is defined by evil people and it has no semblance to the real truth? What then?
“Life turns us into liars,” Friedrich concludes. And so it does. Sometimes, it even turns us into something that’s unrecognizable to oneself.
Cathy
As the author reveals in the afterword, although many of the characters are fictional, Stella herself is based on a real historical character. And Takis Würger’s personal connection to the story that unfolds is underlined by the book’s dedication to his great-grandfather, killed by the Nazis in 1941.
Arriving in the city of Berlin in January 1942, Friedrich falls immediately under the spell of the woman he initially knows as Kristin, but whose real name is later revealed to be Stella Goldschlag. It’s no wonder Friedrich is dazzled by Stella; she’s beautiful, spirited and uninhibited. Through her, Friedrich meets the equally larger-than-life Tristan von Appen, one of whose idiosyncrasies is his habit of addressing Friedrich as ‘old boy’. (It reminded me rather of Jay Gatsby’s habit of addressing Nick Carraway as ‘old sport’ in The Great Gatsby.) Soon Friedrich finds himself rubbing shoulders with senior Nazis at a garden party where the champagne flows, music plays as the guests enjoy a lavish buffet. As Friedrich reflects, ‘You could have forgotten we were in wartime’.
The story unfolds month by month with each chapter commencing with something akin to a news report in which mundane items appear side-by-side with more chilling material. So, for example, May 1942’s report includes the news that Bing Crosby and other musicians have recorded the song “White Christmas” in New York, the monthly fat ration has been cut and there has been an assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich. Many chapters also include extracts from witness statements concerning Jews arrested and sent to concentration camps as a result of being denounced by informers, the relevance of which only gradually becomes apparent.
As the months go by, Friedrich slowly awakens to the realities of what is taking place in Berlin. “Every day in Germany I had been going through this, acting as if I could live with what was happening to the Jews in Germany. I had put up with the flags with swastikas and with the people greeting me and roaring at me with their right arms outstretched.” The revelation of the nature of Stella’s involvement sees him attempt to protect her. This leads to a surreal scene in which Friedrich is forced to play a game of cards in the office of Dobberke, the head of a detention centre, whilst negotiating a deal for the release of prisoners involving bacon.
Duality and performance are themes of the novel. So while the Reich outlaws “degenerate” art, Nazi officers visit illegal jazz clubs where the music of Jewish composers is played. And while the citizens of Berlin endure food rationing, hard cash can buy the finest luxuries for those in the know. Stella remains an enigma, and the consummate performer. Even Friedrich comes to recognise this fact. “This woman contained so many roles within herself: the artist’s model, the singer with the breathy voice, the beauty in my bathtub, the penitent, the liar, the victim. Stella Goldschlag, the woman I loved.”
Stella is a powerful story of naivety, betrayal and the limits of love which also explores the impossible choices people are forced to make in times of war.
Maine Colonial
I received a free advance review copy from the publisher, via Netgalley.
I read a lot of WW2-era fiction and non-fiction, particularly about Nazi Germany and the war in Europe. I learned a long time ago that the term “U-Boat” has two meanings. Of course there is the German submarine. The other is slang for those 5,000-7,000 Jews who “submerged” into hiding in Berlin during WW2. About 1,700 were successful, surviving until the end of the war.
U-Boats were always scrambling to survive, often without fixed addresses, jobs, or ration cards, and usually without even fake identity papers. Those who had an “Aryan” appearance often couldn’t resist being out in public, trying to live as Aryans. If they were caught, the Gestapo transported U-Boats to the camps or into forced labor. But if they caught an Aryan-appearing U-Boat, they might use that person to help them catch others. Such was the case with Stella Goldschlag, a pretty blonde young woman, who was coerced, by threat to her parents, into acting as a catcher. I first read about her in a biography by her former schoolmate, Peter Wyden.
Takis Würger (author of the previous novel, The Club, which I recommend), fictionalizes Stella’s story here. At first, it doesn’t seem to be about Stella at all. The story is told from the point of view of Friedrich, an introverted young man from a wealthy family in Geneva, Switzerland. He decides, against his parents’ advice, to go to Berlin in 1942, ostensibly to study painting. But he is curious about all the contradictory stories he hears about the city.
Friedrich soon meets and falls in love with Kristin, an artist’s model, and is befriended by Tristan von Appell, a rich young man living the high life. But neither Kristin nor Tristan turns out to be what each first appeared. Kristin is the name on Stella Goldschlag’s fake identity papers. Tristan is an SS officer who uses Stella for his own purposes.
Interspersed with Friedrich’s story of the months he spends in Berlin are excerpts from the court transcript from Stella’s actual 1946 trial for her actions as a catcher, as well as short descriptions of the real-life things that happened each month, from the birth of Paul McCartney to war events to a recitation of Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels’s 10 commandments for National Socialists.
World War II and Holocaust-related fiction seem to have become more popular than ever in recent years. I read some of it, but too many books are, to me, simplistic and exploitative, an attempt to dress up a conventional story by using the horrors of the period for sensationalism. Characters are often stock heroes, villains, and victims. Takis Würger does something different here. He shows the complex stew of identity confusion, yearning to belong, self-preservation, and fear that drives the characters. Not one of them is admirable, but each is recognizable.
Joseph
In 1942, despite the raging war, would-be artist Friedrich leaves the relative safety of his native Switzerland for Berlin, a city which haunts his imagination. Friedrich has barely started his art classes when he falls for the model, Kristin. Kristin appears to Friedrich to be whatever he is not – confident, worldly, enigmatic, glamorous. Despite Friedrich being something of an introvert, the two soon become lovers, sharing his rooms at the Grand Hotel and seemingly oblivious to the cataclysmic world events going on around them. Kristin, however, has her secrets. When, one day, she comes back battered, bruised and abused, Friedrich starts to realise that there is more to his lover than he realised at first – for a start, the fact that her real name is Stella and that she is a Jew, notwithstanding her surprising friendship with members of the Gestapo.
Stella is hardly the first novel inspired by the tragic situation of the Jews under the Nazi regime. Certainly, it will not be the last. Würger’s approach, however, is both original and sensitive. In choosing as his subject a real historical figure who chose to hide her Jewish identity, he confronts the reader with a moral dilemma which ultimately lies at the heart of the book – is all fair in love and war?
What also struck me about this novel is the narrative voice. This is a book full of extremes of passion – love, hate, lust, tears and laughter, life, death. Yet Friedrich, who acts as the narrator, is often detached and matter of fact. The chapters of the novel are set in consecutive months in 1942 – each starts with historical snippets, as if we’re reading a history book. This deliberate attempt to eschew melodrama makes the salient scenes of the novel more effective, shocking and moving. The final paragraphs, in which an older Friedrich abandons himself to nostalgia, are nothing short of heart-breaking.
Stella is a quick read but one which, I suspect, will not be easily forgotten.
https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/20...
Andy Weston
There are plenty of books about the heroes and heroines of the Second World War; people who sacrificed their own lives to stand up to the Nazis and in many cases save the lives of many more - but few like this one, about someone who decided to do everything possible to save their own skin, even at the expense of others.
Such a person was Stella Goldschlag, a singer and artists' model, Jewish, and also a liar and betrayer. This is her story, fact blended with fiction, as her path crosses with the fictitious young narrator, Friedrich. This is also his story; an only child from a wealthy Swiss family, with an alcoholic mother, he leaves home in 1938 at the age of 16 to see what all the fuss is about in Berlin. As the Jewish people are steadily expelled from the swastika-adorned city, he attends a drawing class, and meets and falls in love with the beautiful Kristin (Stella).
A third character plays a key role. When hearing Kristin sing in a jazz club he meets Tristan, an eccentric aristocrat, who becomes a friend, but also who is a member of the Secret State Police. Though Friedrich had been determined not to involve himself in the War, he cannot help but become involved.
This is a very powerful and different war novel, and a deeply personal one also, as indicated by Würger's dedication to his great-grandfather, who died in the camps. That is highlighted by the chapters being separated by witness statements of betrayal.
Once the relationships between the three characters are established the novel jumps to 194s, each month forming a chapter at which the start list the Nazi atrocities that have just occurred, with other notable world events.
Würger's writing is to spare and haunting, wonderfully translated by Liesl Schillinger. It is the story of a sheltered and privileged young man very rapidly coming of age, and also of betrayal, with Friedrich the moral compass at the novel's heart.
Robyn
STELLA is another translated book that feels like something got lost during the process. After I finished the book, I actually looked under the back cover to see if there wasn't just a bit more.. it just didn't feel finished! It felt like something was missing!
Friedrich, who is a calm and even-tempered man from Switzerland moves to Berlin in hopes of becoming an artist. This I found a bit strange as Friedrich had been in an accident at age 8 that damaged his color vision, so he was effectively colorblind. This would not seem to be a good health state for an artist.
He falls for an art school model (Kristin) and they become a couple on the move in Berlin, going to clubs and drinking. But Kristin, never allows him to see her home or meet her family, which is strange to Friedrich. But the war is looming and sweeps into Berlin and the mood in the city changes. Kristen is kidnapped, raped, and beaten and comes back with her head shave as she is really Jewish and named Stella Goldschlager. This begins the search for a Jewish document forger to save Stella's parent's lives, which might or might not be a lie...
This makes the book one filled with naiveté, young love, betrayal, and the horrors of history, but again... the ending lacks a certain level of resolution.
3.7 rounded to 4 stars
Happy Reading!
Nadja [BücherRausch]
I liked the story itself, but it was way to easy to get through this book (even though the topic is challenging). I really enjoyed how the author started new chapters - beginning with what else happened right at that time in the world was different to everything Ive read before. So kudos to you for that 😊 the book kept me going and I finished it in just a few days - which is good for me. I think the characters where quite flat and boring. I was hoping to get more out of our protagonists. There could have been a little bit more storytelling about Stellas 'job'. And does nobody care about how long Friedrich stayed in this extremely expensive hotel, wasting his fathers money - well it seems like he didnt had any limit? Doesnt even think about maybe getting a job or study so he can someday take care of himself? And the mom never gets mentioned again (in an important way) .. ok .. whatever
Natalie Mackay
I was given a free copy of this book from Readers First in exchange for an honest review
I have to start by saying that I’m a big fan of pretty much any book set, or in any way related to Germany during this time period - so I am a little biased.
I was actually surprised by this book - I’m not big into romance, and I was concerned it would wishy washy but it wasn’t.
The author is fantastic at setting a scene, brilliant use of imagery really help the setting of the book.
Each chapter begins with facts about what is happening in and around the world at the time, and overall the book is clever in that the chaos encircling Germany and its occupants at this time, are both at the forefront of the story and hidden in the background. The characters and their tale are kept in the limelight and aren’t overshadowed - it’s cleverly done.
I enjoyed the style in which it was written, punchy and almost stunted - much like a diary might be, some chapters have more oomph than others. The characters for me were a little distant in how they were presented, but again, based on how I interpreted the book - I feel this was purposeful and only adds to the overall feel of the book.