Historical Fiction · DarkParables about generals, composers and ordinary people facing moral choices in wartime Europe
Europe Central
Stories of people in Germany and the Soviet Union who face moral decisions in wartime
Europe Central is built from a series of stories set in Central Europe in the twentieth century, mostly in wartime. The cast ranges from generals and martyrs to poets, artists, musicians, police officers and traitors. Many of them are real people, among them Dmitri Shostakovich, Anna Akhmatova, Käthe Kollwitz and Friedrich Paulus. Vollmann calls the book a series of parables about moral actors at moments of decision.
More about this book
Who
Mostly real people, among them Shostakovich, Akhmatova, Kollwitz, Kurt Gerstein and Friedrich Paulus, along with invented ones.
World
Germany, the Soviet Union and the lands between them, through the wars of the twentieth century.
What makes it different
The author's afterword calls it a series of parables, and The New York Times described it as part novel and part stories. It is heavily researched but includes invented details, such as an imaginary love triangle.
Feel
Weighty and serious. It won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- Europe CentralWikipedia