Library for the war-wounded : a novel
(Book)

"A daughter's portrait of her world war II -- veteran father, assembled from shards of memory." ...Publisher.

"First published in 2021 in Germany as Vati by Carl Hanser Verlag."

We called him Vati, Dad. Not Papa. He thought it sounded modern. He wanted to present himself to us, and through us, as a man in tune with the modern age. A man who could be read as having a different past. Inspired by the author's family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports readers to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer's father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, pitied by the community, and ultimately drafted into the Wehrmacht, he witnessed the horrors of the Eastern Front and returned from the war an amputee. He married his nurse and brought his family to the high, idyllic slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he took a position as manager of a convalescent home for war-wounded. ,Josef was a man of many mysteries. To his daughter Monika, none was greater than his obsession with the home's unlikely and remarkable library, his great treasure and comfort in a country barreling away from the memory of war. He will stop at nothing to save it-even when it tears apart his family. Beautifully restrained and taut, Library for the War-Wounded turns biography into great literature by confronting the universal question: Can we ever truly know our parents?",Provided by publisher.