An ordinary youth by Walter Kempowski

Following the Kempowski family from the months before the outbreak of war through to the fall of Berlin, ‘An Ordinary Youth’ is the fascinating story of an ordinary childhood in extraordinary times. Here, Walter’s academic struggle sits alongside his father’s conscription; his brother’s love of jazz burgeons amid the destruction of the barrages. And all the while, the horrors of Nazism loom in the peripheries – communicated in furtive looks or hushed conversations – running alongside the Kempowski family’s daily rituals and occasional scandals.