Eva's CousinBerchtesgaden, Germany, is a beautiful place, set among the gentle meadow-clad hills rising to the sheer heights of bare Alpine peaks. It is here where an elderly woman arrives and recollects her past--and her peripheral role in a chapter of world history. She walks along a beaten path, which has come into being because so many tourists have ventured this way . . . to see something that exists only in her memory. In the summer of 1944, twenty-year-old Marlene is thrilled when her older, more glamorous cousin, Eva Braun, Adolph Hitler's mistress, invites her to come to the Fuhrer's Bavarian mountain retreat. Against her father's wishes, Marlene accepts, and immediately sets forth to Berghof. There, while Hitler is away desperately trying to turn the tides of war, Marlene finds herself in a strange paradise, a world of opulence and imminent danger, of freedom and surveillance. The two women sneak off and skinny-dip in a nearby-lake, watch films in the Fuhrer's private cinema, and flirt with the SS officers at the dinner table--one of whom will become Marlene's first lover. Initially delighted by Eva's attentions, Marlene later tries to understand the elusive connection between her cousin and the man she loves. In quiet defiance, she begins to commit her own acts of subversion, which include listening to BBC radio broadcasts, forbidden by the Fuhrer. But a clandestine mission of mercy will force her to question her allegiance to both her cousin and her country--and to face the chilling reality that exists outside her sheltered world. Based on the true experiences of Eva Braun's cousin, Gertrude Weisker, who has shared her memories with Sibylle Knauss after more thanfifty years of silence, "Eva's Cousin is a novel that illuminates the banality of the domestic face of evil. It casts a special light on the profound questions of innocence and complicity that still haunt much of the world today. "From the Hardcover edition. |
Contents
Section 1 | 1 |
Section 2 | 12 |
Section 3 | 18 |
Section 4 | 26 |
Section 5 | 44 |
Section 6 | 51 |
Section 7 | 57 |
Section 8 | 80 |
Section 21 | 207 |
Section 22 | 209 |
Section 23 | 218 |
Section 24 | 230 |
Section 25 | 245 |
Section 26 | 254 |
Section 27 | 255 |
Section 28 | 262 |
Section 9 | 83 |
Section 10 | 90 |
Section 11 | 108 |
Section 12 | 125 |
Section 13 | 144 |
Section 14 | 157 |
Section 15 | 168 |
Section 16 | 171 |
Section 17 | 173 |
Section 18 | 174 |
Section 19 | 189 |
Section 20 | 206 |
Section 29 | 276 |
Section 30 | 294 |
Section 31 | 301 |
Section 32 | 333 |
Section 33 | 334 |
Section 34 | 336 |
Section 35 | 338 |
Section 36 | 339 |
Section 37 | 340 |
Section 38 | 341 |
Section 39 | 343 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adolf Hitler Aunt Fanny Bayrischzell Berchtesgaden Berghof Böhmerwaldplatz Bormann Braun bunker cellar climb close comes cousin dance dark door dream Eva Braun Eva's everything eyes father fear feel felt film Fräulein front Führer German girl gnädiges Göring Gretl Gruppenführer guards hand happened hear heard Hermann Fegelein Hitler Hitler's Tea Hugh Carleton Greene Jossip Kehlstein kind kitchen knew Königssee Korcziw light Lili Marleen living look lover Mama Fegelein Mikhail Mooslahner Kopf morning mother mountain move Munich Nazi never night Obersalzberg Obersturmbannführer once perhaps Platterhof realize Reich Chancellery remember says Eva Scharführer Schloss Fischhorn Schorsch secret seemed smell snow someone soon sound standing stay suddenly talk Tea House tell There's thing thought told turned Uncle Fritz understand valley voice waiting walk window women young woman