Praise for Motherland: A Novel
A SF Chronicle Best Book of 2014
"Hummel's haunting novel is set in the ravaged landscape of Germany just before the country's collapse at the end of World War II…Searing and honest, her book illuminates the reality of war away from the front lines —betrayal and compromise, neighbor turning on neighbor, the unexpected heroism of ordinary people — with a compassion and depth of understanding that will touch your heart." — People Magazine , Four Stars
"…deeply researched, painstakingly written, and, above all, heartfelt." — New York Times Book Review
"Hummel's focus on the concrete, physical experiences of one family is a fine, brave antidote to abstraction, and does what good historical fiction does best: explores what has passed in those undocumented rests between the things we know to be true." — San Francisco Chronicle
"Fear, grief, and the will to survive fuse in this beautiful novel about the inner life of a German family in the final months of World War II… The humiliations and guilt that each family member endures for the others are described with grace and humanity. While stunningly intimate, Motherland is expansive in feeling and scope. Extending beyond a simple historical drama, this book is a reminder of the reach of love, how it can blind, and how it can heal." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"These characters appear to have, at best, blinders on and, at worse, to be in denial about the fate of their missing Jewish neighbors and what is actually going on at camps like Buchenwald. However, these all-too-human failings are so honestly rendered that a stark question emerges: Who among us, faced with similar circumstances, would have acted differently? Heart-rending and chilling." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This is a tender, profound novel of a young woman who steps into a shattered German family and makes it her own. The radiance of her sacrifice, and of Hummel's storytelling, illuminates this dark chapter of human history with heart and revelation." —Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master's Son , winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"In stunning, pitch-perfect prose, Maria Hummel gives us a deeply moving portrait of lives on the wrong side of history. This isn't just another World War II novel; it's a spectacular story about what it means to love and hope in the most difficult times." —Jesmyn Ward, author of Salvage the Bones , Winner of the National Book Award
"Through the intimate story of one German family at the end of the Second World War, Motherland weaves a universal tale of moral obligation, wartime complicity, and the lengths we will go to protect those we love. From the bare bones of her own family's history, Maria Hummel has built a visceral, magnificent creature." —Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
"Maria Hummel draws upon her family history to create a spellbinding novel that examines the many facets of motherhood, during a time of war and beyond. Motherland is a vivid, heart-stopping depiction of a German family's struggle to stay together during the devastating Allied bombing of their small town. You won't soon forget these characters or the stories they have to tell." —Susan Sherman, author of The Little Russian
"A courageous and unsettling novel arising from the questions that Maria Hummel had about her grandparents' lives during the Third Reich. How much did they know? How did they survive?" —Ursula Hegi, author of Stones from the River
"In prose that is both spare and heavily laden with the exhausted emotion of hard living, Hummel maintains a claustrophobic undercurrent of fear even when describing mundane daily tasks. Dark and uncompromising, Motherland illuminates a little-examined aspect of the war." — Booklist
"Hummel gathered her raw material from the life of her grandfather, reflected in letters written during the war and discovered in an attic wall. Just as Londoners suffered under the Blitz, German citizens spent the last year of the war living as no human being should, amid the horrors of daily air raids and the loss of those they loved. Hummel somehow manages, without sensationalism, to drive home the humanity and suffering of the people who are frequently considered only as the enemy. Without canceling out our sympathy for those targeted by the Nazis, this humane and compelling story may extend it to those who (often unwittingly) assisted in some of humanity's worst crimes—and who themselves got flicked by the tail of the beast." — BookPage
" Motherland is a moving tale of hope, compassion, and the lengths we go to for the ones we love. Petition your book club to add it to the roster." — PureWow
"Inspired by letters between her paternal grandparents towards the end of the Second World War, Motherland explores love through the unfamiliar lens of Nazi sympathizers. Romantic endeavors during wartime are not unusual by any means, but rarely are we given the chance to make sense of, and furthermore, sympathize with, a love between those finding themselves on the wrong side of history... Like Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong , Motherland is more than a story of separated lovers — it charts, with great poise and more than a little poetry, the challenges of a time when allegiances, to one side or the other, were both necessary and potentially disastrous." — Bustle
Praise for Wilderness Run: A Novel
"Maria Hummel has a way with the stuff of battle, turning the horrific sounds, sights and smells into evanescent moments of exquisite lyricism… Writing of death and drawing rooms with equal aplomb, Hummel has created an utterly devourable historical novel." — Los Angeles Times
"A gifted poet has immersed herself in the history of her home territory to write a mesmerizing first novel." —David Huddle, author of The Story of a Million Years
"A gripping debut, shot through with poetry and violence, Wilderness Run traces the demons that divide us, whether as a nation or in our hearts. At turns radiant and shocking, understated and unbearable, Wilderness Run proceeds with the force of a coming locomotive." —Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
"This carefully wrought historical novel is rich in period detail that Civil War scholars will certainly appreciate, while its appropriately tragic romance will appeal to those looking for an absorbing read." — Booklist
"The horrors of the Civil War are the crucible of romance for two Vermont cousins in Hummel's debut, which is gracefully and evocatively written… Hummel creates solid characters while capturing the day-to-day reality of military life during the Civil War, and her well-paced, elegant prose turns especially poignant at the end." — Publishers Weekly
"Hummel's language is lyrical and vivid, and her portrayal of the everyday life of the Lindsey family and of Laurence's regiment is detailed and realistic." — Library Journal
2018-03-20
When a provocative painter goes missing on the opening night of her show, a museum copywriter falls back on her investigative roots.Kim Lord enjoys shocking her audiences, and Still Lives, her latest exhibition for LA's high-flying Rocque Museum, is no exception. Drawing on media coverage of murdered women, Lord produces a grisly set of paintings depicting the slain forms of Judy Ann Dull, Nicole Brown Simpson, and the Black Dahlia. The exhibition is "an indictment of our culture's obsession with sensationalized female murders," and Maggie Richter, the museum's in-house writer/editor, can barely stomach it—for more reasons than one. A few months earlier, her live-in boyfriend, the gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, left Maggie for Lord, a humiliation she's still struggling to live down. When Lord fails to show for her big opening night, everyone suspects foul play—and Greg. But will Maggie be able to uncover what really happened in time? And who is she really trying to save by digging into Lord's disappearance? In this taut take on noir, misogyny, and the art of responsible storytelling, Hummel (Motherland, 2014, etc.) balances the glitz and glam of the Los Angeles art world with the town tourists don't often see, from peeling, postwar bungalows to skid row tent cities and suffering junkies. There's a full cast of supporting characters, including Kevin, an earnest East Coast reporter covering the gala; Hendricks, a private investigator who seems to know too much about Maggie; Yegina, Maggie's talented and ambitious best friend; and a rotating gallery of suspicious art world collectors, carpenters, curators, and crew. At times the interpersonal dramas are larger-than-life, but this literary mystery has larger-than-life ambitions, too. "I hate this artwork," Maggie thinks, standing in the gallery, fretting about Lord's disappearance. "I hate the abject powerlessness it projects. I hate it because it reminds me there is an end for women worse than death." But Lord, through the careful plotting of Hummel, is determined to make you look.This is a whip-smart mystery and a moving meditation on the consumption of female bodies all rolled into one.
