I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing, and the author L. Annette Binder. 
I am always interested to read WW2 historical fiction, and I am enjoying the recent increase in novels focused on the story from the German point of view. 
'The Vanishing Sky' is an emotional story told from the perspectives of a Mother, Father, and their two sons as they deal with the fallout of the end of the war, and from decisions made by a few powerful men in cities far away from their beliefs and how they live their ordinary lives. It is heartbreaking in the way it focuses on the overwhelming futility of the whole war, and the sheer volume of loss on both sides. "They've wrecked the world, these men, and still they're not done. They'd take the sky if they could."
Beautifully written, but a little slow at times. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I found this book to be profoundly moving. It is a story about loss. War has terrible consequences. The author made a difficult choice by asking us to universally sympathize with loss, no matter which side of a conflict we were on. A son is a son, and a mother is a mother, and a wife is a wife; the universal language is love, and war destroys all.

The pity, horror and sheer futility of war is supremely captured in L. Annette Binder's evocative and moving novel. Set in the dying days of The Third Reich, we see what the calamitous effect war and conflict has on an ordinary family.

Although it tells a story from The Second World War, its theme has a universiality that can apply to all wars throughout history right up to the present day.

The story is told from two perspectives. Firstly there is Etta who has two sons, Max who left two years ago for the Eastern Front and Georg who is at the Hitler School and who provides the other first person narration.

Etta's husband Josef has been irepairably demaged from his expreiences in the First World War. Now Max is due to return home, but in what condition and what will be the fate of Georg who despite being still a boy is expected to fight the approaching army.

At times this was a difficult read as the real cost of war is laid bare leading to the inevitable devasating climax.

Recommended but be prepared to be moved and perhaps shed some tears.

This was quite a depressing, but I suspect accurate tale of life in Germany towards the end of the war. Bombing, little food and emotionally and physically damaged individuals. A searing and honest description of life during this period.

A really interesting story about a German family towards the end of World War 2. A fascinating read which seems raw and honest.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This is a heartbreaking story of how war affects ordinary lives and its effects on all members of a German family in 1945. 

Etta is the mother of the family, increasingly left alone to deal with her husband's ill-health, her elder son's trauma  after being discharged from the war, and missing her younger son who is lost between the Hitler Youth, an escape and the aftermath of heavy bombing.

The characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, and the story shows the huge scale of the tragedy of the Second World War brought down to the impact on each individual. There are so many touching details and so many individual stories across the book, you can't failed to be moved by the sadness of it all.

Sobering account of a German family in 1945, torn apart by the War. Ella, the mum is trying to hold what remains of her family together. Her husband, a once respected ex-teacher is suffering from dementia. Her eldest son Max has been away at war and newly returns, a changed and damaged man; and her youngest teenage son is living at a Hitler youth camp in another part of Germany. It’s the story of a woman trying to find a new normality in the aftermath of German firestorms, defeat and trauma, and damage to her family. 

Both of the sons’ stories are harrowing and the firestorms which occurred in Germany are described in horrifying detail, the ages of the only Germans left in the country to defend their cities, shocking; 11 year olds through to the elderly. Although a ‘trendy’ genre at the moment (I think it took a while for publishers to acknowledge we could consider and mourn for the ‘other side’s’ trauma), this book is powerful and moving, well written but also stark and desolate. A superb read.

The Vanishing Sky is a touching portrayal of how war touches the lives of ordinary folk. A storyline which depicts the shocking impact of war but this time from the perspective German family - the Hubers.

Etta and her husband Josef roam an empty nest. It’s Germany in 1945. Their eldest son Max is fighting on the frontlines, while fifteen-year-old  studious Georg has signed up for Hitler Youth. 

When Max is unexpectedly discharged and returns, Etta is overjoyed but he is not the same young man who went away. Georg,  a hundred miles, provides no comfort. Josef is having is own personal battles with patriotic duty. Etta, alone,  must hold her family together in the face of uncertainty. 

This book is partly biographical as the author, Binder writes with the knowledge of her father’s experiences in the Hitler Youth. 

The story of the war’s toll on German soldiers and civilians is told very well. Binder is a beautifully descriptive writer and you will experience the harrowing and barbaric nature of war alongside her characters. It’s a different perspective to the norm so if you want a book where you can emphasise with an increasingly desperate mother who is trying to keep her splintered family together, you will enjoy this book. For history enthusiasts, the lack of comment on some of the social and political issues of the time may hinder and you won’t fully immerse yourself in the prose. You may be left wanting a more adequate explanation.