All That I Am

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All That I Am Pub. Date: 5/28/2012 Publisher: Viking
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All That I Am Pub. Date: 2/7/2012 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

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Overview

All That I Am is a masterful and exhilarating exploration of bravery and betrayal, of the risks and sacrifices some people make for their beliefs, and of heroism hidden in the most unexpected places.

When eighteen-year-old Ruth Becker visits her cousin Dora in Munich in 1923, she meets the love of her life, the dashing young journalist Hans Wesemann, and eagerly joins in the heady activities of the militant political Left in Germany. Ten years later, Ruth and Hans are married and living in Weimar Berlin when Hitler is elected chancellor of Germany. Together with Dora and her lover, Ernst Toller, the celebrated poet and self-doubting revolutionary, the four become hunted outlaws overnight and are forced to flee to London. Inspired by the fearless Dora to breathtaking acts of courage, the friends risk betrayal and deceit as they dedicate themselves to a dangerous mission: to inform the British government of the very real Nazi threat to which it remains willfully blind. All That I Am is the heartbreaking story of these extraordinary people, who discover that Hitler’s reach extends much further than they had thought.

Gripping, compassionate, and inspiring, this remarkable debut novel reveals an uncommon depth of humanity and wisdom. Anna Funder has given us a searing and intimate portrait of courage and its price, of desire and ambition, and of the devastating consequences when they are thwarted.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Funder follows the success of Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall with a debut novel “reconstructed from fossil fragments, much as you might draw skin and feathers over an assembly of dinosaur bones, to fully see the beast.” Ruth Becker glimpses that beast outside her Berlin apartment in 1933, as her showy journalist husband, Hans, makes mojitos on the day that Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany. The heart of the novel, however, belongs to Ruth’s cousin Dora Fabian, leftist agitator, doomed idealist, and soul mate of playwright Ernst Toller. Ruth helps Dora hide Ernst’s writings as the Reichstag burns, and she flees with Hans the next day after being questioned about her Communist affiliations. Outside Germany, she works tirelessly for the cause, bringing Nazi preparations for war to the attention of the British. But her relationship with Hans, whose secret activities endanger everyone, crumbles. As the Holocaust begins, Ernst, in New York, relates Dora’s role in his life to a typist whose document reaches Ruth in Australia almost 60 years later. By alternating between Ernst and Ruth, Funder leaps through time with alacrity. She adds an integral perspective on a shopworn subject by invoking the lives of Nazi dissidents whose attempts to alert the world to the growing menace were ignored until it was too late. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, the Wylie Agency. (Feb.)

John Williams

…Funder writes with grace and conviction about the intrusion of the political on the domestic and the thrill of falling in love over a cause.
—The New York Times Book Review

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780062077561
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 2/7/2012
Pages: 384
Sales rank: 111,747
Product dimensions: 6.10 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Anna Funder is an Australian writer who grew up in Melbourne. She has worked as an international lawyer specializing in human rights and constitutional law. She is the prizewinning author of Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, which has been published in twenty countries and translated into sixteen languages. In 2004 Stasiland won the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize, the most prestigious nonfiction award in the United Kingdom. All That I Am is her first novel. Anna Funder lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.

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candc320

Posted February 18, 2012

more from this reviewer

Well Written But Slow

I reviewed this book for the blog Luxury Reading.

All That I Am is the story of the leftist resistance in Germany and the influences and consequences of its compatriots beginning in the 1920s and reaching into the early 21st century. The story is told from the perspective of two German resisters, one a highly respected activist – Ernst Toller – and the other a smaller yet observant member – Ruth Becker. While they both mostly bypass each other in this complicated maze of activists there is one person they both cherish above all others: Dora Fabien, a freedom loving key member of the resistance.

Toller’s story takes place in 1939 with him in exile in New York City, making corrections to his autobiography that he and Dora began before they were forced to flee Germany in 1933. Toller feels a desperate need to resurrect Dora, this great love of his life, and to tell her story so she is not forgotten to history as so many of the brave men and women working to bring the truth of Nazi Germany to the rest of the world have been. He feels he failed her during her life and must finally tell the whole truth as they saw it before the darkness that plagues him takes him under for good. As he goes back in time so do we.

Ruth is in Sydney, Australia in 2001, finding that, in her old age, she is less able to control the memories that surface unbidden. When she receives the original corrected autobiography of Toller, which had been hidden away and only recently discovered with her name on it, her past comes screaming into focus and often seems more real than the reality surrounding her. She not only remembers living and working with her strong, enigmatic cousin Dora but remembers the highs and lows of doing what they felt was right at whatever costs it brought. We see the high times of prosperity and purpose before they left Germany in 1933, Ruth’s marriage to the dashing and charismatic journalist Hans Wesemann, the hardships of exile in London and the deep need to continue their work under the continual and increasing threats by the Reich.

As the consequences of their work get deadlier, a devastating betrayal at the center of their group – one that Ruth is crushed that she didn’t see – brings the downfall and even death of many within the group. When Ruth escapes to live out her life without those that have supported and loved her, she highlights the life without roots of a continued exile. Her life goes on even as a part of her is always missing.

While the writing is beautiful, there are portions of All That I Am that are slow going, especially the portion dealing with the exiled resistance workers in London in the 1930s. Without having a strong background in the various leftist political parties of the time it can be kind of confusing to keep the various differences and beliefs in line with the story being told.

What I did enjoy was the character development of Toller, Ruth, Dora, Hans and a few secondary characters and the fact that most of them were actual people in history. For anyone who has a good understanding or love of German history and the political resistances that consumed the time period, this book is ideal. It is also worth a read for general lovers of history with a warning that the story does drag at times.

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