I didn’t enjoy reading Stella so was glad it was a very short book - only 193 pages. (Although I didn’t buy my copy of the book, I note that its retail price is £12.99 which I consider a bit steep for such a short paperback book by a little known author.)
I found the narrative very stilted and monotonous, possibly in part due to the book having been translated from German into English. Every so often the dreary story was interspersed with witness statements concerning the arrest and deportation of Jews, the significance of these witness statements only became apparent in the ‘A Note from the Author’ at the end.
I didn’t find the fictional characters of Friedrich and Tristan at all credible or interesting and they didn’t help to portray Kristin/Stella in a sympathetic way.
Probably the best parts of the book for me were the sections which listed the historic facts about what happened each month during the war.
I found the narrative very stilted and monotonous, possibly in part due to the book having been translated from German into English. Every so often the dreary story was interspersed with witness statements concerning the arrest and deportation of Jews, the significance of these witness statements only became apparent in the ‘A Note from the Author’ at the end.
I didn’t find the fictional characters of Friedrich and Tristan at all credible or interesting and they didn’t help to portray Kristin/Stella in a sympathetic way.
Probably the best parts of the book for me were the sections which listed the historic facts about what happened each month during the war.