'Ein Gefangener' follows the movements of an unnamed prisoner of the Axis forces in the final days of the Second World War. Everything is falling apart, orders are incoherent and nobody has any direction to what they are doing beyond seeking basic survival. Through a combination of traditional third-person storytelling and exerpts of a soldier's diary, the reader slowly begins to decipher the narrative. The story takes place over a couple of days, beginning with the aftermath of its narrative before throwing the reader back to the beginning. Though an intriguing storytelling technique, it is perhaps overly convoluted, providing the reader with a sense of the disarray similar to Germany at that time. The apathy amongst people and soldiers becomes apparant, with only very few nationalist sentiments remaining in the face of clear defeat. Most are just seeking an end, and there are even soldiers defecting with a few weeks’ supply of food, hoping to wait the end of the war out.
What this book does do well is get across some the feelings that must have been rife towards the end of the war. However, the narrative is, at times, overly disjointed. When you strip back the storytelling device I mentioned earlier, I didn’t feel there was a great deal of story there. Even though it is just a short novella, it does feel as though it goes on slightly longer than I would like, and I found myself looking forward to the end. Once you read through the complexities of the narrative, the story doesn’t have much else. Perhaps that is deliberate, and I am being overly cynical. I did find myself wondering whether the feelings I had finishing this book were the intentions of the author. I certainly had a sense of the millions of little stories similar to this one that must have occurred all over Europe at the close of the war, where the only aim remaining for most was to survive, but with no clear plan on how to do so, and no guarantee at all of what the outcome would be.
The most interesting portion for me was a page devoted to a deserting German soldier, who had spent weeks gathering supplies to fulfil his plan to flee the barracks. He had previously worked on the construction of a now-derelict factory near his barracks, and thought he would be safe there. All his fellow soldiers are aware of his plan, including his superiors, but no one makes any attempt to prevent him from leaving. When he reaches the building, however, he discovers that someone else has already set up in there. Despondent, he turns back, and is not mentioned in the novella again. This stuck with me from the story. It really gave a sense of the futility of any planning, desire or commitment for anyone around at that time.
If this piques your interest, it's a very short novella that you can finish in an afternoon.
Review by Camille Boutrolle
This review was written for the ACF London's EXPLORE OUR LIBRARY initiative.
