To Broadway

 To Broadway by Maurane Mazars (2025) 248 pages

This is historical fiction set in the late 1950s about a young gay German man studying modern dance who dreams of Broadway or Hollywood in America. The watercolor art is brilliant. We ride the ups and downs of Uli's career, love life, and friendships. Fantastically emotive with the use of visuals without too many words. And the Epilogue reveals some of the real people involved in the story. Translated from French.

Stranger in My Own Country: a Jewish Family in Modern Germany / Yascha Mounk 261 p.

Extremely interesting and readable, but a little hard for me to review.  Mounk is now a graduate student in the United States, but was born and raised in various parts of Germany, after his mother's family migrated there from Poland after the war.  Mounk narrates his increasing sense as he matured that as a Jew, he would never truly be German as well.  Partly a recounting of personal anecdotes in which he experiences philo-Semitism (as opposed to the anti-Semitism of earlier generations), and partly a sketch of Germany's postwar history and relationship to its past, Mounk is convincing and graceful in his presentation.  It's difficult to evaluate how important some of the trends he describes truly are, in particular what he describes as Germany's recent insistence on reaching the 'finish line' of apologizing for their past.

For me, the most powerful part of Mounk's writing is his comparison between German/Jewish relations and Black/White tensions in the United States.  He is thoughtful enough not to overstate his case here, but there is a lot of food for thought.

Masaryk Station by David Downing

Masaryk Station by David Downing, 330 pages.

The final book in Downing's excellent John Russell series takes place after the war and as the Cold War is starting. All of the decisions that Russell made during the war, helping the British, the Americans and, when he had to, the Russians come back to him as he and Effie try to survive in 1948 Berlin. All sides think that Russell is their man, working as a double-agent. Russell must find a way out of the web he has found himself in as the city must deal with the looming blockade.
Excellent ending to a very well done series. Highly recommended for fans of well-written thrillers and fans of WWII and espionage ficiton.

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