Uwe Timm Am Beispiel meines Bruders (In the Shadow of my Brother) Kiepenheuer & Witsch, August 2003. 159 pp. ISBN 3-462-03320-4 Uwe Timm is one of the leading novelists of his generation in Germany. In this new book, he exchanges fiction for history, delving into his own family's past. Timm is in search of his brother, Karl Heinz, who volunteered for the SS in 1942, aged eighteen, and was killed in the Ukraine the following year. Timm seeks to come to terms with the elder brother he never really knew, but whose shadow hung over his childhood and adult life. Though the book principally deals with the period 1942-58, it builds up a vivid picture of Germany from the early 1900s to the present day. Born in Hamburg into a relatively prosperous family, Uwe was the youngest of three children. His sister was an unlucky, unwanted child, and an unhappy adult. Karl Heinz was the warm and loving eldest son, adored by his parents, who idolised him after his death. But what was the truth behind this apparently bright and gentle young man? Why did he volunteer for the SS? How did he feel about killing? And what alternatives would have been open to him? Timm pieces together events from personal letters, Karl Heinz's war diary, public records and his own reminiscences. Karl Heinz's diary remains a focal point of interest, a tantalising piece of evidence that can never quite unlock its author's secrets. Why did Timm's brother stop writing? What did he witness on his last days on the front? Timm's memories of his family are tender and poignant, but this story cannot have a happy ending. Like many of his generation, Timm faces the possibility that those he knew and loved were personally involved in Nazi atrocities. This is a moving exploration of the profound and difficult questions that continue to haunt the author and many of his generation nearly sixty years on. 'Uwe Timm yet again weaves an ingenious, revealing, and charming tale. He is indeed an "extraordinary storyteller".' The New Yorker on The Invention of Curried Sausage '…a slinky literary thriller, a novel as hard to put down as a boa constrictor.' NY Press on The Snake Tree 'It is impossible not to be vastly entertained by Timm's nimble narrative and ruefully comic tales.' Writer's House on Midsummer Night