My Own Dear Brother

In her debut novel, Müller explores Austria near the end of WWII through the eyes of a young girl whose coming-of-age is fraught with the dangers of the times. In 1944 Austria, Ursula Hildesheim is 13 years old and facing the dangers of Nazi occupation, hunger, and fear as her father has been missing since the Battle of Stalingrad. Ursula worries about her brother, Anton, who is now a member of the Hitler Youth. A friendship develops between Ursula’s mother, who is having an affair with a married man, and Frau Hillier, mother of Schosi, a boy with mental disabilities. This relationship will help the women bond through the changes at the end of the war, including the brutality of the Russian occupation. Ursula’s reaction to the changes to the world around her as she is forced to grow up too quickly provides an eye-opening view of the suffering of the innocents of war. Yet what resonates most about Müller’s intense, moving novel is the revelation that some of those who helped end Nazi rule may have treated the women and children worse than the previous Nazi occupiers. (Oct.)