Reunion: A Novella

by Fred Uhlman

Book Overview

A daring novella about the loss of innocence in pre-war Germany.

Reunion is the story of intense and innocent devotion between two young men growing up in "the soft, serene, bluish hills of Swabia," and the sinister (but all too mundane) forces that end both their friendship and their childhood.

The year is 1932. Hans Schwartz is Jewish, the son of a Stuttgart doctor who asserts that the rise of the Nazis is "a temporary illness,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374525153
• ISBN13: 9780374525156
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

powerful parable

A simple tale that leads you along the edges of evil, the ugly gratuitous possibilities that lurk within the human personality, and also reminds you breathtakingly that each person is an opaque mystery. A very important read for an evil-infatuated age.

An excellent book

A short, excellent novella about the relationship of two boys on the eve of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. On of the boys, Hans Schwarz--the narrator--is the son of a doctor (and former officer in the Imperial Army), a descendent of rabbis and shopkeepers, whose German roots go back hundreds of years, and whose Jewishness is little more than a matter of heritage, not faith. He feels himself to be as German as anyone can be, but even moreso, like many Germans, a citizen of a region (in this case Swabia), of which he is fiercely proud. At school--and exclusive school for the elite--he befriends Konradin von Hohenloh, a member of one of the most noble of aristocratic families. Despite their difference, a friendship ensues--but is brief and idyllic. Soon the outside world, of which they had remained largely ignorant, begins to creep into their lives, and their friendship is unalterably effected. Reunion is an excellent short study of this tragic time, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

6 stars are needed for this book

I read some of the other reviewers' comments before buying this book. I thought: 'come on...! it cannot be that good'. I was wrong, Reunion's even better than that. The book was a delight to read, but the ending devastated me like no other book in 30 years of reading has even come close to. I cannot think of anything (Tolstoi's Hadji Murad, Kafka's Concerns of a family man, Shakespeare's Lear) that has the same emotional impact of this little book. I know, I know... It's too much. Well, read the book and see.

ONE BOOK A DAY, DURING 60 YEARS...

and Reunion is the most perfect, delicate small great jewel I have ever found ( Only 120 pages and Prologued by another genius )It delves deeply into the moral aspects of the human soul, while weaving a unique friendship among 2 worlds represented by 2 teenagers in the pre Second War World, in Dusserldolf: A jew and a German...If you aprecciate deeply the delicacy and talent of a friend...make him/her this amazing gift of love

The shock of this story has stayed with me for 21 years.

This small but powerful novella is a striking and stunning story. It is the story of a young Jewish boy in Germany whose new classroom member is from an aristocatic family. This new boy is immediately popular due to his good looks, intelligence, athletic abilities, and family standing. The young Jewish boy realizes that given his own stature and desire to befriend the new boy will be a difficult task. He successfully makes great efforts to distinguish himself as a scholar. This results in a close friendship between the two boys. Given the new boys family status the Jewish boy is limited as to how much of this world of his new friend he can be a part of. The young Jewish boy is painfully aware of these limitations. The resulting Nazi domination and war bestows powerful changes in this friendship leaving feelings of betrayal and loss. The young Jewish boy painfully lives with these feelings. The ending was the most powerful I had ever experienced in a book. It was totally unsuspected and shocking. The book caused much thought provoking that has permenantly stayed with me.