All for Nothing

Walter Kempowski

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847087213 ISBN 13: 9781847087218

Publisher: Granta Books, 2016

In January 1945, the German army is retreating from the Russian advance. Germans are fleeing the occupied territories in their thousands, in cars and carts and on foot. But in a rural East Prussian manor house, the wealthy von Globig family seals itself off from the world. Protected from the deprivation and chaos around them, they make no preparations to leave until a decision to harbour a stranger for the night begins their undoing. Finally joining the great trek west, the remaining members of the family face at last the catastrophic consequences of the war. Profoundly evocative of the period, sympathetic yet painfully honest about the motivations of its characters, All for Nothing is a devastating portrait of the complicities and denials of the German people as the Third Reich comes to an end.

Review:

'Gripping and dark... I read [it] with huge admiration and, yes, a bit of envy for the author's skill, imagination and daring' -- Margaret McMillan, Best Books of 2016 New Statesman

'I love this book. It is Kempowski's crowning achievement: his last, and lasting, work of fiction' -- Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room

'One of the best books I've ever read' --Jenny Erpenbeck, author of The End of Days

'It is brilliant; vivid, unsentimental, fast moving, cinematic and, for all its apparent ease of telling, scrupulously well-structured... As a feat of story-telling All For Nothing surpasses even Grass's Crabwalk...Kempowski has summoned unforgettable characters who are shocking, even heartbreaking, in their human responses. Far more than a great German novel; Kempowski's late masterwork is a universal tract which suggests that history can only present the facts; it is crafted stories such as this which enable us to grasp a sense of the vicious reality of war' -- Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'All for Nothing was widely acclaimed in Germany on its publication in 2006 and its English translation deserves a wide audience. With restraint and subtlety, Kempowski explores the ordinariness of complicity with evil. The characters' bewildered response to events are sometimes painfully honest. This book was written long before the current migrant crisis; but, Janus-faced, its descriptions of the mass migration of Germans across their own country is heartbreaking and illuminating' --Antonia Senior, Book of the Week, The Times

'Daring and brilliant in its rationing of sympathy, completely gripping - and horribly fascinating'-- Literary Fiction review in Daily Mail

'Kempowski s idiosyncratic genius lies in his ability to weave this accumulation of human fallibility into something greater. His perspective on a grim slice of history steadily broadens out to become visionary, lending his novel the irresistible pull of great tragedy' -- the Economist

'A novel of profound depth and originality' -- the Sunday Times

'An epic of exodus, timely for our days' --Jewish Chronicle

'Completely gripping' -- Must Reads in the Irish Daily Mail

'All for Nothing is a beautiful, forgiving and compassionate book that looks beyond the futil divisions people make between themselves. It reaches its last devastating line with poetic sensibility and the grace of a classical tragedy, confirming Kempowski as a truly great writer' -- the Guardian

'All for Nothing seethes with human drama, contradiction and complexity. No one is blameless; no one wholly unsympathetic. The result is an astonishing literary achievement' -- the Daily Telegraph

'All for Nothing turns a clear-eyed, compassionate gaze on an aristocratic family in East Prussia'-- the Sunday Times
'Kempowski portrays with great humanity the thoughts of the victims and perpetrators alike' -- Anna Katharina Schaffner, TLS
Best military titles in British History Monthly
'This is a brilliant, deceptively simple exploration of everyday complicity with evil' -- The Times
'[A] stunning final novel by German author Walter Kemppowski... Beneath its apparently serene facade, the book seethes with human drama and complexity. The tone is wryly reductive; a fable that becomes a nightmare.' -- Sunday Telegraph
'[A] narrative of profound depth and originality... Kempowski tells his story of individuals caught up in history's sweep with a dispassionate simplicity that adds to its power.' --Nick Rennison, Sunday Times

About the Author:

WALTER KEMPOWSKI (1929 - 2007) was one of Germany's most important post-war writers. He is known for his acclaimed series of novels German Chronicles (Deutsche Chronik) and his immense, eight-volume collection of first-hand accounts of World War II, Echo Soundings (Das Echolot), the final volume of which, Swansong 1945, was published by Granta in English in 2014. His last novel All for Nothing (Alles Umsonst), a bestseller in Germany in 2006 and critically applauded, sealed his reputation. It is available here in translation for the first time.