Become a Member
Books

Book review: People Like Us

Holocaust novel is a fiction too far

August 20, 2020 10:37
People Like Us.png
2 min read

People Like Us by Louise Fein (Head of Zeus, £18.99)

The Holocaust was too vastly dehumanising, you would think, to be played with by storytellers. But that hasn’t prevented  a growing number of writers of fiction tackling the subject, often successfully in commercial terms at least. But Holocaust novels carry an enormous responsibility towards history, humanity and sheer tastefulness. Unless they are totally authentic — and well-written — they are an inappropriate form of literature. Sadly, Louise Fein’s People Like Us is an example of this.

Set in 1930s Leipzig, it is “inspired by the author’s own family history” and is the story of an SS officer’s daughter, Hetty Heinrich, who is captivated by Adolf Hitler — she whispers “Happy birthday” fervently to his giant photograph in her bedroom, rather like a David Cassidy fan who kisses his image on a poster before she sleeps. 

But, despite her profound dedication to the Führer, she falls in love with a Jew. And not just any Jew: “I nearly drowned and Walter rescued me; that makes everything different.”