All That I Am

I received this book from the Goodreads First Reads program

I was originally really excited to receive this book, as I have always had a deep-seated interest in learning about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. However, once I started to read the book I was disappointed to learn that it was less historical in nature than I had originally thought. While I realize this is a work of fiction (but still loosely based off of real people), I still had hoped for more historical depth to the story.

The book revolves around four main characters: Dora, Ruth, Hans, and Ernst, and the story is told from the alternating perspectives of Ruth and Ernst Toller. Two notes on this – I found Ruth's perspective much easier (and more interesting) than Toller's, but I completely hated that I could never quite tell at which point in time (year-wise) the story was taking place. I found it incredibly confusing to try and differentiate between two or three points in time, and for me I think it took away a lot of the enjoyment I might have received from reading this story.

That being said, I give Anna Funder a lot of credit for taking the story of people that actually existed and wrote them into a believable story. I just wish that the story might have been written a little differently!