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All That I Am
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Review
Anna Funder proved herself a first-rate reporter with Stasiland - now she appears as a compelling novelist in a dark story of German emigres in the 1930s, struggling to warn the indifferent English against the Nazis (Claire Tomalin )
The subtlety of Anna Funder's novel is in the elegance of her precise prose, and in her painstaking portrait of an ordinary woman swept up in extraordinary events...The result is a strong and impressively humane novel (Ruth Scurr TLS )
A superb novel that transcends its setting...This book is a wonder. Do, please, read it (The Spectator )
History, like hope, is not something to be solved, but to be carried. Anna Funder has written an essential novel about how we carry the bricks of history on our backs, and how we continually build new homes from the material of the past. All That I Am is an intimate exploration of human connection and our responsibility to one another. Funder breathes life into Kundera's aperçu that the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting (Colum McCann )
A seamless and powerful tale...the book is far more than "faction"; Funder has successfully transformed the material into a narrative of individual endeavour and survival, that examines universal human themes...Dora and Ruth, especially, convey a sense of truthfulness and decency that transcends their time and should inspire us, even now, to expose injustice and tyranny (Rachel Hore Independent on Sunday )
The strengths of Funder's writing are emotional and imaginative.In what she has to say about love, loss and betrayal there is profound truth (The Times )
The subtlety of Anna Funder's novel is in the elegance of her precise prose, and in her painstaking portrait of an ordinary woman swept up in extraordinary events...The result is a strong and impressively humane novel (Ruth Scurr TLS )
A superb novel that transcends its setting...This book is a wonder. Do, please, read it (The Spectator )
History, like hope, is not something to be solved, but to be carried. Anna Funder has written an essential novel about how we carry the bricks of history on our backs, and how we continually build new homes from the material of the past. All That I Am is an intimate exploration of human connection and our responsibility to one another. Funder breathes life into Kundera's aperçu that the struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting (Colum McCann )
A seamless and powerful tale...the book is far more than "faction"; Funder has successfully transformed the material into a narrative of individual endeavour and survival, that examines universal human themes...Dora and Ruth, especially, convey a sense of truthfulness and decency that transcends their time and should inspire us, even now, to expose injustice and tyranny (Rachel Hore Independent on Sunday )
The strengths of Funder's writing are emotional and imaginative.In what she has to say about love, loss and betrayal there is profound truth (The Times )
Review
Spellbinding ... there are echoes of the best espionage tales Sunday Telegraph A superb novel that transcends its setting. This book is a wonder. Do, please, read it Spectator The strengths of Funder's writing are emotional and imaginative. In what she has to say about love, loss and betrayal there is profound truth The Times Dora is the most attractive fictional heroine in a long time ... a gripping story of love and betrayal New Statesman A seamless and powerful tale ... of individual endeavour and survival that examines universal human themes Independent on Sunday A remarkable story told with clarity and precision Guardian The subtlety of Anna Funder's novel is in the elegance of her precise prose, and in her painstaking portrait of an ordinary woman swept up in extraordinary events ... The result is a strong and impressively humane novel TLS A story of courage and betrayal ... she has captured the atmosphere of what it must have been like to have been at the centre of the left-wing movement in post-war Germany Evening Standard Anna Funder proved herself a first-rate reporter with Stasiland - now she appears as a compelling novelist in a dark story of German emigres in the 1930s, struggling to warn the indifferent English against the Nazis -- Claire Tomalin The subtlety of Anna Funder's novel is in the elegance of her precise prose, and in her painstaking portrait of an ordinary woman swept up in extraordinary events...The result is a strong and impressively humane novel -- Ruth Scurr TLS
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
After her interesting exploration of life in East Germany during the communist era, Stasiland, I ordered this with keen anticipation. However, whereas that piece was compulsive reading, I found Funder's novel a rather leaden encounter which required determination to read. (In fact, on reflection, Stasiland was not brilliantly written, but the stories assembled were what made it so gripping.Perhaps this is the key to my disappointment.)
The structural device of multiple voices and time periods demands much more careful and deft handling than I found here. As others have commented elsewhere at some length, these voices are insufficiently differentiated for a) narrative clarity and b) character development, to provide the hook which prompts enthusiastic engagement. I should add, 'for me', of course. I have to admit I gave up after about 100 pages. To be frank, the 3* is in recognition that it's unfair to damn a book one hasn't finished: were I actually rating my own enjoyment of the book I would be a little less generous.
The structural device of multiple voices and time periods demands much more careful and deft handling than I found here. As others have commented elsewhere at some length, these voices are insufficiently differentiated for a) narrative clarity and b) character development, to provide the hook which prompts enthusiastic engagement. I should add, 'for me', of course. I have to admit I gave up after about 100 pages. To be frank, the 3* is in recognition that it's unfair to damn a book one hasn't finished: were I actually rating my own enjoyment of the book I would be a little less generous.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
the idea of a resistance group against the the horror of nazi germany has got so much going for it that I was at a loss to understand why I just could not get into this story. I mean, a story that has a line 'when hitler came to power I was in the bath ' has got to have a wry touch ? Well, it did not in the end - sadly
They are a brave bunch doing their best against the nazi machine and suffer great privation but I could not get behind the characters - it seemed a bit soulless to me , done for the mind and not the heart - and I guess that was why I ultimately felt dissatisfied with the story as it was told - or maybe I justprefer open opposition
They are a brave bunch doing their best against the nazi machine and suffer great privation but I could not get behind the characters - it seemed a bit soulless to me , done for the mind and not the heart - and I guess that was why I ultimately felt dissatisfied with the story as it was told - or maybe I justprefer open opposition
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Sadly, and unusually for me I have given up with this book. I chose this book as I too know very little of the years between the two world wars and of Hitler's rise to power and wanted to to find out more of this period of history. But this book is a slow burner and although it is called a novel, I found it more of a "drama documentary" where the main characters are relating their stories retrospectively rather like a chronicle of events. Anna Funder's writing style was difficult to read for any length of time and I found no empathy with the main protagonists even though I realise they were brave heroes of their day, and the book left me feeling apathetic towards them. For now the book has been consigned to the bookcase and it might be picked up again in the future, but I'm afraid it wasn't for me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Challenging but ultimately rewarding
Like some other reviewers I did not find this an easy book to get into. This was largely owing to the alternating narrative voices of Ruth and Toller especially in the early short... Read more
Published 18 days ago by hiljean
When true-life trumps fiction
The main effect this book had on me was a deep sense of my own lack of similar courage. I was moved almost to tears by the fate of Ruth Wesman, and the knowledge that this is... Read more
Published 1 month ago by aruna
A True "Novel"
Anna Funder;s "Stasiland" is a book I reread every couple of years and every time I reread it it reads fresh. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. John Gayton
Extraordinary true story, beautifully told
Anna Funder's follow up to the highly regarded Stasiland is a novel based on real events. It follows the separate but closely linked stories of elderley Ruth in the present day and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Jeff Markham
History comes alive - a book to be savoured.....
All That I Am is a novel using existing records and real people. I knew little of the period from 1918 until Hitler became chancellor, and I certainly knew nothing of Bavaria... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Both the Macs
Great subject tediously written
What a disappointment. If only another writer had taken this story and a)given it a plot b)not used the lazy device of first person c) made you not want to flick over the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by London Matron
Extensively researched, beautifully written of betrayal and the...
In 'All That I Am' Anna Funder returns to a subject that she knows well. Her non-fiction book 'Stasiland' told of the everyday people who suffered at the hands of the GDR in East... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Victor Ward
Fictionalized Saga of Germans Opposed to Hitler in 1930s Great Britain
When it is done extraordinarily well, as the justly celebrated Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series demonstrates, historical fiction can make the past come alive for readers,... Read more
Published 5 months ago by John Kwok
Might have worked better as non-fiction.
Anna Funder's debut novel, "All That I Am" was a difficult book to review. A good novel should have either a strong plot or strong characters. Funder's novel has neither. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jill Meyer
Not the easiest read
I was really looking forward to getting this book, as I was thoroughly gripped by Anna Funder's non fiction book Stasiland, about the Secret Police in East Germany, when I read it... Read more
Published 6 months ago by lilysmum
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