eBook Eva's Cousin (Ballantine Reader's Circle) download

I've read a lot about World War II but this was an aspect that had never been covered in anything I had ever read. Eva Braun's cousin - how could I pass that up. I read about this book in BOOKMARKS magazine and after finding it in Amazon ' s used books I snapped it up. I have passed on to one friend who passed it on to another . . . It is a unique perspective on THE war. It's a pretty amazing book.

although this was a work of fiction, i believe some of the incidents and characters were based on fact. I read a lot of WWII book, and i based it on that. Good reading.

This book was ok, I just couldn't get into it.

Extremely slow, boring and way too verbose for my taste.

Great WWII book told from a German perspective.

I have recently developed an intense interest in Hitler, his personal life, his relationship with Eva Braun, Eva as a person and a general working out of the mysteries to my satisfaction left behind by all of the above. Whenever I develop an intense interest in something, I must find out everything I can about it. In the case of Hitler, just determining that he was pure evil and leaving it at that as many are content to do is not enough for me. So I read this book with great interest, and it is an engrossing ,well written book. I couldn't help but be left wondering what strands of truth existed among the pages. What of these things did Eva really say? What of these things did she really do? I will always want to know, but a person will never know. Eva's real cousin has said all that wants to say so one can only wonder. That wondering leaves a bit of dissatisfaction so I can not leave a perfect rating for the book.

Eva's Cousin" is a work of fiction. Sibylle Knauss had always been interested in matters of German history and how they could be transformed into literature. Before beginning her novel, the author, had the opportunity to interview Gertrude Weisker, Eva Braun's real cousin and the model for her central character, Marlene. Eva Braun had indeed invited Ms. Weisker, 20 years-old at the time, to stay with her at Berchtesgaden in the spring of 1944, a year before WWII would end with Germany's unconditional surrender to Allied Forces, her cities, country and people laid waste. Hitler was away in east Prussia, waging war, and Eva was lonely - she needed to be amused. Although based on fact, many of the folks who people these pages are fictional, as are their stories. Essentially, however, Ms. Knauss captures the true characters of Eva, her cousin, and those who surrounded them, as well as the very ambiance of the Berghof itself, and the period, which represent, as Hannah Arendt worded it, "the banality of evil."

This is beautifully written, nuanced fiction, not an action-packed thriller, but I was riveted to the page even so. More dramatic and disturbing than the image of Nero fiddling while Rome burned, is one of the New Year Eve Ball, (1944-45), at the Platerhof Hotel in Obersalzberg, near Adolph Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat. It was not a party for ascetics. Featured on the menu were: goose liver pate, larded saddle of venison, eels in aspic, Parma ham and overflowing bottles of champagne - all one could drink, and more. However, the hungry were not to be fed at this feast. The hungry and starving were in Auschwitz and Dachau. They were slave laborers in German factories. They were women and children throughout Europe. They were soldiers at the front. On this same New Year's Eve, the nearby Bavarian capital of Munich was in ruins. The revelers partied as if there were no tomorrow, and for many of them the tomorrows would be few. They welcomed in the new year, "the year of their downfall, rejoicing." Throughout the novel the luxurious lives of the politically and "genetically privileged" are juxtaposed with the unspoken - with those of the people of Europe, the rest of the world, in fact, the German citizens who were being bombed to smithereens 24/7. Were these human beings? Very much so, our author tells us.

This is the story of two young women who were fortunate enough to spend almost a year together at one of the world's most beautiful places, the Bavarian Alps. Yes, they were seemingly fortunate until one realizes that their host was Adolph Hitler. Evil rubs off, if in no other way than by selective blindness to the horrors which the man and his machine perpetrated on a daily basis. These women listened to the BBC. They were not ignorant. They lived right above a slave labor camp. They saw. Evil is being a sycophant to evil doers. Evil is luxuriating in the spoils of a heinous war. Evil is accepting the dehumanization of human beings, and ignoring the merciless slaughter of same.

Marlene, just twenty, was naive and worshipped her older, more glamorous cousin Eva, Hitler's long time mistress. Eva, a superficial woman, not overly bright, was addicted to shopping, pretty clothes and jewelry. She was, herself, an ornament. One of the few instructions she left before she committed suicide was that her papers, the ones with shopping lists, unpaid bills, and receipts, be burned. She did not want to go down in history as a shopaholic - "the only sin she was aware of committing." Ms. Braun was virtually unknown to Germans outside Hitler's inner circle, and had little personal worth other than that of being linked to the Fuhrer. Mistresses did not command much respect in this male dominated, macho society. Still the two played, girl-like, giggling, at sports, skinny dipping in a gorgeous mountain lake, riding, and hiking. Outside the world had become Hell incarnate - "inside frocks were being made amongst the ruins." There is even a love story here, of sorts. A powerful SS officer, much older than Marlene, fell in love with her. For a moment, one could almost forget the "SS" part, when he whispered tender words of love to her. However, when she asked her romantic knight about the terrible conditions of the starving laborers, he tells her abruptly that the slaves are not human beings like the German people. They do not feel and suffer as Germans do, and they are lazy and must be dealt with harshly. Forget? How can one forget?

Ms. Knauss said in an interview about the four women, both her fictional protagonists and the real-life Eva and Gertrude, "They are examples of people who were very close to the center of Nazism, but somehow they were also very far from it. They didn't think about anything political, about political crimes or war, they just lived their little everyday lives at the Berghof." She also makes the point that when she wrote the novel, Gertrude Weisker's story was not the point. She wanted to write about what it felt like to be a young woman at that time, with such close proximity to the Fuhrer and his private world. What would be the consequences, on one's character, on one's very soul, of this proximity? This is a most powerful novel - in its content, writing style and the excellent translation. "Eva's Cousin" is an eye-opener!
JANA

Like many others, I've always been fascinated by the story of Eva Braun, but (maybe because I'm Jewish) was also afraid to really take a good look. It's part of a horrifying story for a Jew, but I was drawn to this book specifically because it purported to be a "fictionalized" version of a (probably mostly) true story. That kind of made it more neutral for me. What I didn't expect was to come away with some sympathy for Eva; the author revealed aspects of her life with Hitler that show her to be something of a victim and a prisoner herself. After all, once involved with this monster, she was not able to be free; she couldn't even leave her home alone, ever - she was always under guard. And the author also brings up the fact that Hitler wouldn't marry her publicly...she was always described as his "friend" or his "secretary." In that time, in Europe, it was something of a disgrace to be a mistress, with no hope of marrying the man who had ruined your reputation. So that Eva was placed in a humiliating position. In other words, this is as much a feminist novel as one about an evil society (which it also is; very, very subtly elaborated as the story unfolds). Another surprise was to find that I identified with Eva in some respects. For example, the author describes her as a "fashion addict," a shopaholic; all she ever thought about was what she would wear next. And Eva would often change her clothing several times a day. This vanity - this character defect of placing appearances above other values - is found among women everywhere, trained to use appearance to compete for men's attentions. Eva is depicted as shallow and uninterested in anything other than being Hitler's lap dog. This made her an object of scorn in the novel - but also a forgiveable, if weak, type of woman common to every culture. I found myself unable to put the book down, and I admired the writing, which was, as one reviewer said, perfectly "creepy" - as if the storyteller were whispering a horror tale. There are many insights about the times, the protagonists, including Hitler, Eva and Hitler's stooges. As another reviewer has mentioned, one thinks about this book long after putting it down.