The Black Eagle Inn By Christoph Fischer
Christoph Fischer is one of my favorite “Undiscovered writers” who, with the publication of the final book of his Three Nations Trilogy, is certain to become known to a wider audience. He writes detailed historical fiction in an approachable way that places the reader in the period. Before I go on about The Black Eagle Inn, I must again recommend his first two books; The Luck of the Weissensteiners and Sebastian.
In The Black Eagle Inn (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer, the author takes us into a sweeping tale of a Bavarian family during the twentieth century. It is a journey of an unremarkable family as they endure the history, hardships and celebrations that came with life during that period. Fischer has many strengths as a writer but creating characters that come alive within the pages may be his best. After reading his work, I feel I know some of these people better than my own family. I care about them, they occupy my thoughts when the book is no longer in my hands. His ability to weave multiple story lines within a grand plot is remarkable and proof his audience with grow. Very highly recommended – deserving of six stars.
9781492391715 A new Germany
The third in his series, this is Fischer's most approachable book. Fighting by the family members is the only war that goes on, but it is just as fatal for some of them. Without war the historical aspects of the book are more political and subtle, but I found it fascinating to see how the aftermath of the war played out in a small community such as Heimkirchen and the Hinterberger family. Again, I learned a lot from the book and enjoyed the colorful characters. A great ending to the trilogy. I look forward to more from this author.
9781492391715 This book gives insight into Germany after the war but not about the Nazi trials and the rebuilding of the bombed out cities. It is the story of one family struggling and fighting about money, politics and religion. They are a mirror of what happens in the entire country. As family saga this is as entertaining as a good soap opera: the characters take some extreme measures, are stubborn or change, kiss and make up or never speak to each other again. It is a great portrayal of the human condition and family life in an interesting historical setting. 9781492391715 Family dynamics are often complex and disagreeable. In THE BLACK EAGLE INN, the Inn and adjacent farm are as much characters in the story as the various members of the Hinterberger family and those who interact with them throughout the book.
This is imaginatively achieved by the nice blend of characters that stagnate refusing to grow in spite of life offering them great opportunities to do so as well as characters that grow, either by experience or example. The subtleties and blunt ways of attacking each other as members of a dysfunctional family are clever and easy to visualize.
The wide diversity infused in the small town setting through the historical periods is ingeniously woven by allowing some characters to grow through experiences in other cities or countries as well as by the international influence of the `foreign' elements, through visitors to the BLACK EAGLE INN or the flow of immigration through the various changes in Europe before during and after WWII, and well into the Cold War.
As the book covers a large time period it addresses historical attitudes to prejudice of all kinds, from the Jews, to women's rights as well as prejudice to Muslims with its strongest note to homophobia.
My favorite character was Markus; as a reader he took me in a journey of understanding success and failure. The possibility of redemption when feelings run deep and there is the presence of love and forgiveness. I also found the development of the character's journey trying to accept his truth, while battling the religious beliefs that made his very nature a sin a very believable one. It was very interesting to have a story that combined how society sees homosexuality through various time periods as well as how Markus learns to balance and accept who he is.
Emotions; positive and negative run deep at THE BLACK EAGLE INN. Rivalries make sense and the Karmic wallop to those who deeply deserve it made for a most enjoyable ending. I am a big Fan of Christoph Fischer and now that he has so nicely wrapped his Three Nation Trilogy and entered the realms of modern times, I am most curious as to what he will write next. BRAVO and well done! 9781492391715 Wow what a harrowing and as far as i can tell accurate telling of what life back then would have been like post world war 2. This is usually not my cup of tea but i have to say i was enthralled from the moment i started to read this to the time i put it Christoph has certainly got my historical juices going with this book.
Hearlt recommend this to anyone who likes real life stories 9781492391715
Every time Christoph Fischer publishes a new book, I lose a night of sleep, happily and willingly. Yes, his books are that good. Impossible to put down. What I love about his writing is his incredible ability to present impeccably researched historical events with a personal perspective, through family stories – and isn’t that the best way to engage the readers and make history real? Especially if the story is well-told. And Christoph Fischer knows how to write amazing stories. I absolutely loved his first two books, and this one is even better – and I didn’t even think that was possible.
The book is about Germany, its history, and its people, but Christoph Fischer’s presentation of that history will hold interest of readers well beyond Germany. Part of my childhood was spent in Russia, and I clearly remember the animosity that the older generation held towards Germany – towards everything German, to the point of refusing to take German classes in schools because nobody wanted to learn “the language of the fascists.” When I was younger, I saw the events of World War II exclusively from the Russian perspective – post-war re-building, re-structuring, recovering, etc. Like many of my peers, I never considered the other point of view – how did Germany recover, not just economically and physically, but philosophically and culturally? How can a country move forward, regain its pride, its sense of identity after so many atrocities and horror that it inflicted upon the world and, of course, upon its neighboring countries. And that’s one of the main issues that Christoph Fischer addresses in his book, and that’s what fascinated me and kept me glued to my Kindle until the very last page of this beautifully written and incredible novel.
But, of course, this is not a textbook – even though the research that obviously went into writing it can surpass that of most textbooks – it is a riveting story of a family, of specific people, with their own opinions, ideologies, philosophies and issues, all set against the backdrop of the changing political landscape of wartime and post-war Germany. Christoph Fischer does not shy away from tough issues, so there’s everything in this novel, from religion to politics to homosexuality –all real issues that real people have to tackle. A fascinating new book from a talented author. Absolutely brilliant.
9781492391715 This book is quite a feat. It has an enormous cast of characters - and each of them is well-thought out and painstakingly developed. The author seems to move with ease from one character's mind to the next and presents a complete point of view for each. I can't add much to what the other reviewers have said, other than to add my vote and recommend it as both an educational and an entertaining read - it teaches us history but is not missing any of the elements of ambition, desire, intrigue, and betrayal that are worthy of the most popular soap opera. 9781492391715 This is a story of a Bavarian family that, for the most part of their lives, lived in or around a huge farm with an equally impressive and renowned restaurant and inn, called The Black Eagle Inn, just outside the city limits of Heimkirchen, a sleepy Bavarian town.
The back story starts at the beginning of the century, even before the Great War. Anna Stockmann, nee Hinterberger, one of the central figures in this novel, grows up to be a very unusual girl--she has a firm grasp of business and a Machiavellian mind, that allows her to outmaneuver her siblings, even her older brother, when the time came to inherit. To my mind, her story is one of the most interest in seeing how people change through their lives. I would even go so far as to say that her life is an allegory of the old Germany, it mirrors it so closely.
While Anna has ho children of her own, some of her siblings procreate prodigiously, and from those offspring, a new generation of the family, who will play an important role in bringing this story to a conclusion, appears.
Just naming all of the characters would take much of the place for which this review allows. Suffice it to say, this book is a family epic. And when I say epic, I really mean it. We tend to think of kings and queens, noblemen and their flock, as required to create that epic feel to the story. What Christoph Fischer has done is truly remarkable: he took a regular German family and gave us a book with enough plotting, machinations, politics, and intrigue to rival any of the books that concern royalty and then some. Betrayals and ambitions, loyalties and self interests are all mixed together in a constantly changing scene of the narrative without letting go.
However, and as Howevers go, this is a big one: This is a book about Germany and her people. While I see Anna as an allegory for the country, her family is the representation of the German people: they can be industrious, which goes without saying; selfish and selfless, self absorbed and carrying, pious and liberal, absorbed in politics and neutral, scheming and naïve. As generations change in the family, we can also trace the changes in the German people. The later parts that of the book that describe Maria's (Anna's niece) marriage and its consequences and Marcus's (Anna's nephew) finally starting to accept himself as a homosexual really underline the changes that the after-war Germany went through and the struggles the country had to face before becoming the modern Germany we know today.
What makes this book unique, is the time period in which the book is set. Most historical novels deal with the juicier timelines that involve wars and upheavals, unrest and suffering. While this novel has that as well, of main interest are the other parts that concern the pre- and post-war Germany, and its gradual, grudging transformation through the generations of people who lived through it and built that country.
The Black Eagle Inn (The Three Nations Trilogy) by Christoph Fischer is a really great historical novel in best traditions of James A. Michener and Errol Lincoln Uys, that delivers a historical narrative through character exploration; a fascinating journey into a less-explored territory. Highly recommended. 9781492391715 Book Trailer
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Thoughts by the author on the book:
Why I wrote THE BLACK EAGLE INN
I was born 25 years after the end of the war. Our history lessons at school ended with the year 1945. One of the most urgent and important questions remained unanswered for me: How did a country with so much shame and horror in its past recover and move forward? How could it? I don’t think anything can ever make up for what has happened and nobody can forgive or atone for the collective guilt. But can the new generation ever deservedly rid itself of the stigma the previous generation has brought to the country?
Only ten years after the end of the war a wave of Italian and Turkish Immigrants filled the hole in the German employment market, ten years after that a new right wing party formed in Germany.
The Sixties brought the Bader Meinhoff Complex, student revolts and family conflicts. Many of the young adults were disillusioned with politics and turned violent. It took a new generation of politicians to instigate a modernisation of German society.
My book should be particularly interesting for those whose knowledge of Germany also ends with the year 1945. We know about the Nuremberg Trials but what does the little man do with this broken country? 9781492391715 In this last book of the trilogy, we are given a micro view of what it means to live in a nation decimated by a war waged and lost against the rest of the world. The Hinterberger's are a proud family living in Heimkirchen, Germany, farming land that has been in the family for a while and running the local inn, The Black Eagle. All the problems that can beset a country in turmoil are seen in this family.
Desperate to own the family properties, Anna drives her brother off. When her father dies, Anna inherits everything and becomes the family matriarch. With her husband off at war, Anna runs everything to suit herself. Unable to have children of her own, she takes in young family members and raises them. She has taken in the propaganda and is a strict xenophobic. She refuses to hire anyone not from her own part of Germany. Religious differences cause strife within the extended family. Relative is pitted against relative in the belief that one or the other will inherit this or that portion of the Hinterberger properties.
Underhanded dealings provide luxury items for the restaurant at a time when they could not otherwise be afforded, and the family prospers. Much like the country at large, the various members of the family are doing what they must to survive and ensure they receive what they believe they are due for their efforts. Underhanded dealings, trickery, poison, creating false documents are all part and parcel of trying to rebuild and survive in the aftermath of a war that leaves many Germans ashamed.
The struggles of trying to survive in a country attempting to rebuild itself and regain respectability as the horrors of its leaders is made public is both heartrending and poignant. Families are torn apart and brought back together. Once again, Fischer has brought to life a world that most of us today weren't alive to witness, and done so eloquently. His characters come to live in a way that draws you into the story. You have to feel for them; he leaves you no choice. Whether those feelings are sadness, disgust, compassion, you must feel.
From a quiet farm to a family and country rising from the ashes back into respectability, Fischer handles everything with a deftness I've come to expect from his writing. Having read all of the books in the Three Nations Trilogy, it is obvious Fischer is passionate and extremely knowledgeable about the subjects of which he writes. His characters are well developed as they are in the other books.
Although the narrative moves slow and is detailed, I believe this is necessary for the reader to fully understand what the family, and in a broader view, Germany itself, is going through. Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn show us a better view of Germany during this time period than any history book I ever read in school. No history can be complete that ignores the citizens of the country being studied. Fischer has done an excellent job filling in important blanks in my own education, for which I give him thanks. This book, and in fact the entire trilogy are thought-provoking, requiring you to question what you thought you knew and understood. You have to feel something. Can any book be ignored that does that?
I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 9781492391715
The Black Eagle Inn is an old established restaurant and part of a family farm business in the sleepy Bavarian countryside outside of Heimkirchen. Childless Anna Stockmann has fought hard to make it her own and keep it running through WWII. The family is divided by rivalry between family members since her own youth but at the heart of this story one of Anna’s nephews, Markus, owns her heart and another nephew, Lukas, owns her ear, while her husband Herbert is still missing-in-action.
Religion dictates life in Heimkirchen's enclosed Catholic community that was almost unaffected by the fighting in the war. Anna’s brother Hans-Ulrich is involved in the church as well as in post war party politics. He finds that the new generation, his own off spring, are not functioning as well as the older one would like. Bitter conflicts arise in the new forming Germany and the family members all need to decide how to respond to the challenges ahead.
How does a Nation recover from its collective shame, how does it rebuild itself into a modern state and deal with its horrendous past and the difficult path ahead? Restructuring of the political landscape & the influence of religion are strong themes in this historical family saga & post war drama set in Germany 1940 - 1976.
This is war fiction without immediate war, it is literary history about Germany after the Nazi rule with gay, racial, religious and feminist themes, describing the way one family experiences the forward move of a shamed Nation.
Fischer tells a great family saga with war in the far background and weaves the political and religious into the personal with belated or indirect impact of war on people. The Black Eagle Inn