I had a few issues with this book, like some it read as being a little contrived. The addition of the grandson's comments were I felt unnecessary in their places but were perhaps worthy of a concluding chapter of their own.
Personally not for me but I can see how it provokes different reactions amongst others.
Thank you to John Murray (Publishers) and NetGalley for the opportunity to give an unbiased review.

What a different perspective you have on WW2 when the protagonist is on the opposite side to your own country. This is a book that challenges preconceptions about the nature of battle and belonging. Fascinating to read - even if the structure feels at times a little contrived.

Thought provoking and stirring. This is the first time I’ve read a war story as seen from a German point of view. The soldiers in this story all came across as ordinary men at war - scared, exhausted and just wanting it all to be over.
I thought it was extremely well written and didn’t create negative feeling for either side. It just told a story of a period in history and gave food for thought.
Definitely one I’d recommend.

As someone living in germany , I enjoyed reading this book to get more insight into how one German soldier percieved the 2nd world war.

We very often see these kind of memories and stories told by one side only and yet we forget an entire nation of people suffered just as much. This was an eye opener to what life was like for those that we’re forced to suffer like the rest of the world.

Highly recommend.

We Germans is a thoughtful and involving book from an unusual and revealing perspective. It is in the form of a letter from a German veteran of the Eastern Front in the Second World War, responding to his British grandson’s questions about the war. He concentrates on a period of just a few days in autumn 1944 when the long, ruinous retreat from Russia has turned into an undignified, exhausted, straggling scramble to evade the pursuing Russian forces. There are reminiscences and digressions which create a context and also some interventions from the grandson, but this is chiefly a stark, human portrait of defeat, the realisation that he has been fighting for something fundamentally wrong and his attempt to resolve and come to terms with his part in what has happened.

I found it readable and gripping, and also quite profound in places. The handful of main characters are convincing and human, as is their interaction with each other. There are some scenes of real horror and Alexander Starritt evokes very well the revulsion but also, after nearly four years of fighting, the jaded acceptance of his narrator. His analysis of the lack of guilt but sense of genuine shame is very shrewd, I think, as is his discussion of whether having fought for Germany under the Nazis automatically makes one an evil person. These are complex and nuanced questions which are too often seen as simple binary moral issues and I think Starritt brings a wider, thoughtful perspective to the questions.

I did find the interventions from the grandson a distraction and rather a clumsy, unnecessary device – although his thoughts on dealing with his mixed heritage are interesting and worthwhile. In spite of this, I found We Germans a very engrossing read which has left me wiser than I was, I think. Slightly flawed, but still very good and recommended.

(My thanks to John Murray for an ARC via NetGalley.)

A truly eye opening book, we only ever read books or see films portraying the various wars from the perspective of the victors and the heroes, it was really enjoyable to read the what it was like for the Germans during the war

We Germans is a fascinating and often gritty account of a young German soldier’s experiences on the Eastern campaign. Told as a long form letter to his grandson – who had asked how his grandfather’s generation could have allowed the atrocities of WWII – it gives a ruthlessly honest, unflinching and poignant answer to the question of ‘how?’ It shows that the dissemination of information was not even handed or liberal. While the soldier does not plead ignorance of innocence, his account does make you understand how a person can be swept up in huge events, unable to see their shape from the inside. This is an important book that does not seek to justify but to understand.

My first Netgalley book!

I'll be honest, to start with I wasn't entirely sure if this was fiction or non-fiction. That will teach me to read the blurb properly!

I don't want to say I enjoyed the book due to the subject matter but this book was definitely one that stuck with me when I wasn't reading it. It's the first I've read showing the other sides view of WW2 and especially from the Eastern side of fighting rather than the Western Front.

I did struggle at times with the grammar, there were parts of the story telling where it was hard to differentiate who was talking and I ended up skimming through these parts.

This is a fascinating read. I don't know much about Germany's Eastern campaign in WWII, except that it was grim. This book really shows you how grim it was, and how vile the atrocities were that were committed there. It's also an interesting reflection on complicity and responsibility. Who is responsible for these acts? The soldiers who commit them, but also the people who put them there, and by extension, the people who put THEM there.

I've always been interested in what it was like for ordinary Germans in WWII. This book shows you how easy it would be to just "go along" with things, and also how - when the rules completely break down, when you're starving, when everybody's trying to kill you - you can become something very different to the person you started out as.

I was drawn to this book as it tells the story of a young German soldier's experience in the war, a perspective that I have always been curious about.

The writing was beautiful, emotional and gripping. The experience is told in letter form, following a request from a grandson to his grandfather to hear about his war experience. Begrudgingly it is shared, the recollections still raw. It really hits home that the men on the ground for Germany did not know the full extent of what was going on. Their experiences varied depending on where they fought.

This novel does not glamourise or plead ignorance, it is honest. He does not pretend he didn't see anything, he does not pretend he never killed anyone. This brings to life the daily grind of war, the confusion and the shame felt both during and afterwards.

A very good read, I highly recommend it. Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to review.

Released on May 14th 2020.

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Very heartfelt book to read. I really enjoyed it. It had such a poignant story to tell. It was well written and flowed very well. It was one of the best reads of the year