"WWII seen through the German lens-a story of irreparable damage on the home front, and one family's participation -- involuntary, unseen, or direct -- in a dangerous regime." says the cover flap. Yes, this is the story of Etta, who watches in desperation as, piece by piece, one by one, she loses her family. "Two years since Max had left for the front, and now Georg was at the Hitler School.

"In March of 1920, a bread roll weighed eighty grams and cost fifteen pfennig. In August, 1922, the same roll cost twenty marks, and by October the following year, the roll weighed only fifty grams and cost half a million marks." How are they to survive? Etta's husband, Josef, is the teacher at the local school. Until he isn't -- because he's started to forget things, "basic things a teacher needed to know."

Eventually, Max returns home, but he is a broken man. We'd call it shell shock. Etta lives in constant fear that he will be taken away to an asylum, and one day she awakens to find him gone -- seized from his bed in the middle of the night. She asks and asks and asks, and finally goes where he has been taken -- bearing bread and good wishes. But not even Etta's love can save him.

Meanwhile Georg, drafted into the Jungvolk at ten and the Hitler Jugend at fourteen, is being slowly indoctrinated. He enjoys magic tricks and carries with him five American half dollars. He does not enjoy the army, and soon escapes and heads for home.

Etta's world is shrinking. Is disappearing. Is vanishing.

I read this EARC courtesy of Bloomsbury Books and NetGalley. pub date 06/09/20

I was so excited to start The Vanishing Sky. The title and cover had me drawn in immediately, and WWII is my favorite topic of historical novels. This one had so much potential being told from a perspective other than what one traditionally finds.

This is the tale of a family affected as many were. Sons and fathers fighting for their country. Families being forced to define their truths and values. It brings to light some of the invisible affects the war had on individuals, and often still does have on those who have served in one aspect or another.

Because it draws from the author's own family stories it certainly squeezes at my heartstrings. I struggled with how much the book bounced around and found it required a lot of focus to keep up. Overall a powerful and important story, it would have been better with some fine tuning.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the opportunity to read this early in exchange for my honest review.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

This book did not hold my interested and I could not get past the first 50 pages. WWII is one of my favorite parts of history and I was really looking forward to reading it from a different perspective. But I just couldn’t get into it.

The Vanishing Sky is an ambitious book. How else can you describe a book written about WWII about a German family where both sons and the father are fighting for the Third Reich? Binder works hard to give the characters depth and stir empathy for them, but all of them are pitiful creatures in their own rights. I find the idea of writing a story about Germany during WWII and only alluding to the Nazi atrocities to be insulting, at best. Yes, Mutti and Josef and Georg and Max refer to people who are taken away, but not acknowledging where they were going--and continuing the facade that the German people didn't know what was going on--is a slap in the face to the 6 million people who died during the Holocaust.

I think the book had potential. I understand Binder's goal was to write about an average German family just trying to survive WWII, but basically ignoring the overarching issues around WWII is ridiculous. The writing was lovely, and Binder was able to really flesh out the characters and the misery of living in a war-torn country with great detail. While I enjoyed Binder's prose, I can't give it more stars because the lack of discussion about the social, political, economic, issues that were overwhelmingly prevalent at the time, and continue to be relevant today.

This book shows one German family's trials during the end of WWII. It follows the Huber family and the experience of both boys and parents as they are split apart by war. I had a hard time getting into this book. There were a lot of extra details to wade through to get to the heart of the story. There was no real conclusion at the end of the story, and it left me wanting.

So beautifully written a heart wrenching novel a book of Germany of family survival relationships,A book that drew me that I could not put down.Will be highly recommending.#netgalley#bloomsbury.

I downloaded this novel because the of the catchy title and the beautiful but a bit depressing cover. The novel is about the story of survival of a German family, the Huber family, towards the end of World War II. Etta, a mother of two sons is the main protagonist of the novel. Her husband Josef is desperate to fight the war and tries to mix up with the young soldiers when he rejoins the army. Her elder son, Max, returns from the war at Stalingrad with severe PTSD. Her younger son ,Georg ,is in the Hitler's Youth.
Positives:
1.The story is descriptive.
2.This means that it is successful in delivering the pain to the readers.
3. The story is cinematic which reminds me a lot of Jojo Rabbit.
Negatives:
1.The story is depressing. Only strong people could read this stuff as terrible things happen in almost every page.
2. The story is flat and confusing. I had to go back several pages to understand what was happening at a particular scene.
3.I am not able to classify it as historical fiction.
Recommendation: I recommend it to strong-hearted history enthusiasts.

I did not care for this at all. Although im a fan of novels set during WWII, this failed to reach the mark that is set by others in this genre.

The Vanishing Sky is a quiet, but beautifully-written book about a wife and mother in Germany who takes care of her family: her husband who is forgetting more and more, her son returned from war who is not altogether there, and another son who is still off fighting. What matters most to her is her family and the loving care she gives to them.

I really struggled to get through this book.
The book follows a family in Germany nearing the end of the war. One of Etta’s sons has come home from war but is not himself. The doctor doesn’t know what exactly is wrong with him but knows that it is above anything that he can prescribe.
I understand this book is about PTSD and that it can’t be anything but sorrow filled but I just couldn’t get into the writing. It jumped around a lot and I didn’t really feel connected to any of the characters.
This one just wasn’t for me.

What an appropriate name for this novel. Lives were vanishing; individual 's souls were vanishing and the sky only portended of trouble. The novel felt poetic with undulating waves of emotion. The characters were well developed as this was much more driven by their lives as opposed to introducing a complex plot. At the end of the war in Germany in WWII, a mother with 2 sons is left bereft as the older one enlists and comes home with severe PTSD. Her younger son is with the Hitler Youth who forsakes his group, running away to find his way back home. Both have become "lost" because of this war, while this desperately loving mother pines for them every day. Seeing the German point of view was thought-provoking but my heart went out to this mother, as I felt her pain on each and every page. Depictions of the savagery of war and its barbarism at right at the forefront. It is a deeply heartfelt book.

This book was interesting from an historical perspective, but as historical fiction, it didn't grab me, In fact, it was downright depressing. As the book chronicles a German family near the end of WWII, one son has PTSD after fighting at Stalingrad, a younger son faces loss (but eats well) as a member of the Hitler Youth, the dad pathetically attempts to fit in with much younger soldiers as he re-joins the army, and the mom just goes along with it all.

The author did nothing to make me like these characters. Also, the book was one flat, depressing saga.

I received this as an ARC from the publisher, and I was so excited to read it since I love World War II novels. Much like one of my favorite historical fiction books, We Were the Lucky Ones, the author bases her story on her ancestors' experiences during World War II. Unlike most WWII books, however, the story explores the lives of a German family during the war and what happened to ordinary citizens of the Axis country. Any mother can empathize with the heartbreak and perseverance of Etta and the true horror of her world crumbling around her. The search for her sons and her unwavering devotion are admirable. Her sons’ predicaments are challenging and harrowing, as you would imagine during this time in history. The author is a very descriptive writer, so you feel as if you are there on the wall with your shovel or hiding in the bushes as the soldiers roll past. This is not a light-hearted read, with hard things happening on almost every page, but there are some uplifting moments as ordinary people step up to help strangers. I recommend it for fellow WWII history enthusiasts who want to read a different perspective on WWII.

Historical Fiction Set During WWII.

I read a lot of historical fiction set during WWII. I think I am very interested in that era of history. It is very rich and has a lot of depth. More importantly however, I am deeply affected by the tragedies that ensued from WWII. This story gives us a personal look however, at the other side of the coin. A German family that has two boys set to enlist in the Hitler Youth.

This book was interesting because it tells a perspective we don't often hear of during that time - the perpetrators. Max and Georg are two young children that are part of the Hitler Youth. It can be argued that because the children were young, they didn't have a choice in the matter, however when you see videos, these children were fervent and dedicated. I did think it was unique to read a book about the other side that is not often told.

I was deeply engaged to the plot. I thought this was a unique WWII story that had a twist. Definitely recommended if you enjoy WWII historical fiction.

Read. But I have to admit I was surprised when I flipped the page and realized I was indeed done. The novel was interesting as it tells the story of WW2 from the perspective of the German people. I did find myself skimming a bit and that generally indicates the need for more detail, events, dialogue. I felt ‘hanging’. Perhaps that was the intent - the fear of what was coming next, the fact that even those who stood steps for action were left empty handed.

The Vanishing Sky by L. Annette Binder - June 2020

Last month I posted on a deeply moving short story by L. Annette Binder ,”Lay My Head”, from her award winning debut collection, Rise. Here are my opening thoughts on this profound story.

My earliest reading memories are of being read fairy tales.  Long ago our youngest daughter saw an edition of The Complete Fairy 
Tales of the Brothers Grimm on  my book shelves years ago and asked if she could keep on the shelves in her room. She  still has it booked marked so I know she is reading it.

One of the associations in literature throughout history is that of beautiful people with goodness and unattractive, ugly people with evil.  You see this every where from the latest popular novel to the great works of literature.  I increasingly think this, as it is mostly women who are described as beautiful, represents the deeply pervasive image of women as commodities for men to consume.  This prejuduce runs so far down into our consciousness that most repudiate my idea.  Illness as it changes appearances away from standard notions of beauty is seen as a manifestation of evil within the person, either an ancient curse or inherent malignancy coming out for the "beautiful" people and their admirers to fear.  These  are part of what I see as themes of "Lay My Head".

I was very happy and gratified to be given the opportunity to read an advance review copy of her forthcoming novel, The Vanishing Sky. The Vanishing Sky is set in 1945 in Germany as the country’s defeat is inevitable. The story centers on the Huber family.

The central character is Etta, mother of two young men.Max is in the army, serving on the Eastern front. Her younger son, Georg is in the Hitler Youth. He is not quite old enough to fight the coming America invasion,he very devoted to the German cause and is being prepared for the final stand. There are lots of bombing raids, in one very moving scene Georg and other boys find a body in a bombed out building. As things get worse her husband Josef becomes ever more, oblivious to reality.

There son Max returns from the war. He has suffered serious mental harm. He wants to back to fight but his mother tries to hide him from Nazi’s rounding up soldiers. There is a very
powerful Holocaust related scene.



The Hubers are just an ordinary Family caught up in a nightmare. Just sort of people that have died in wars for thousands of years, to no point.

The Vanishing Sky is a fine work of art. There are many subtle touches that create a cinematic feel of perfect verisimilitude. It conveys a strong sense of day to day in Germany as the war ends.


From http://lannettebinder.com/


“I was born in Germany and grew up in Colorado. Like many immigrant kids, I learned my English from primetime TV and the Saturday morning cartoons. My parents spoke to me in German, and -- to their dismay -- I started answering in English before the boxes were even unpacked. 
The Vanishing Sky, my first novel, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury and Bloomsbury UK in June 2020. It is inspired by my family's experiences in World War II Germany.
My collection of stories, Rise (Sarabande Books), received the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Literature. My fiction has appeared in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, One Story, American Short Fiction, The Southern Review, Third Coast, Fairy Tale Review and others. 
I have degrees from Harvard, UC Berkeley and the Programs in Writing at the University of California, Irvine. I live in New England with my husband and young daughter”

I give The Vanishing Star my total endorsement.

Mel u

I cannot begin to explain how beautiful this novel is, truly. The writing is transcendent; you fully understand the pain, longing, and fear that all of the characters experience in a this story of war-torn Germany. This is unlike any other war novel that I have read, yet perhaps it is the most accurate in relaying the life of those left behind or those who exist on the edges of war. I will be pushing this book into everyone’s hands once it is published and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to read this advance copy.

THE VANISHING SKY is a beautiful story about a broken German family near the end of WWII and their story of survival. It follows the mother Etta and how she tries to keep her family afloat after her son Max returns from the war front with undiagnosed PTSD. It also follows young Georg who is stuck in Hitler Youth and he decides to run away and make his way back home. It's a story about how this family finally comes back together again.

This book was told through a lyrical, omniscient narrative lens. The writing was well-done and captivating. So much so that it was sometimes hard to follow the story, and I had to stop and re-read some parts to make sure I understood everything correctly. The book was very character-driven, and very different from the types of stories I read. And very different for a WWII story, quite frankly. But I think in the end it offered a unique perspective on the war, especially by giving a small snapshot of Germany at the end of the war through this little, broken family.

The ending left me wanting more, and I wished we had a little more in the narrative, but it was ultimately quite satisfying.

3.5/5 stars

A German family at the height of WWII. A mother trying to hold it together, her husband desperate to fight for the cause but his efforts are not wanted, a son back from the front but not the same man as he was when he left and another son, wanting to get away from it all but pulled back in, time and time again.

I struggled through this one. It was so wordy and it jumped around so much I found myself having to backtrack and reread things just so I could figure out what was going on and move forward.

I will say that it is an interesting point of view, a German family tangled up in the war. There were a few times when I was truly caught up in the story but was quickly lost again

This book was hard to put down. I devoured it in two sittings. The story was so captivating it made you not want it to end. I love it!