Defeat 
 The premise of this novel sounds bizarre, but I suppose the author must have done her homework. Peter Faber, a German private on the Eastern Front, gets married in absentia to Katharina Spinell, a young woman he has never met. This means a fortnight's honeymoon for him, the possibility of a widow's pension for her, and (if nature takes its course) a son for the Fatherland. So Peter goes to Berlin, lice-ridden and stinking, and, despite this inauspicious start, the young people fall for each other. Katharina's parents are gung-ho loyalists, totally ignorant of the true conditions in the Russian war. Peter also gets indoctrinated by the Spinell's wealthy and well-connected patron Dr. Weinart, who takes him out on Cleansing Actions at night. Then of course he returns to Russia; the myth of German invincibility turns into surrender at Stalingrad; and before long, bombing, privation, and invasion will tip normal life in Berlin onto its head. It is a book with the depressing trajectory of defeat. 
 Perhaps is is just a matter of timing; I have read too many books lately from WW2. But this promised something different: a personal story, set at least partly on the home front, with an emphasis on the sufferings of ordinary people caught up in the manias of their leaders. You would think that, by writing almost entirely in dialogue, Audrey Magee would be able to penetrate deeper into the minds of her characters, but for me at least, she failed to do so. This was especially so in the scenes with Faber, whose comrades--with names like Weiss, Kraft, Krauss, Fuchs, and Faustmann--never became sufficiently clear as individuals for me to see much meaningful dialectic in their arguments or to care much about their fates. Faber himself is something of a cipher. A schoolteacher before the war, you might expect him to have a more analytical view of the situation than he actually does. It is not surprising that the racial Utopianism he picks up from Dr. Weinart should eventually give way to the basic necessities of survival, but Magee does not make clear the process by which this happens; one moment he is super-keen, the next cynical. He is not just Hitler's puppet, but also the author's. 
 (view spoiler)[I felt similarly with Katharina, but less so. After the defeat at Stalingrad, it becomes harder for her to maintain her belief in her husband's return, and it is not surprising to see her flattered by the attentions of another man. Then suddenly she rejects him. Both the moralist and the romantic in me want to applaud--but the inquiring reader asks: "Why?" There is no indication whatsoever that this change in heart is triggered by any event, let alone moral struggle within herself; it seems more the author's decision than hers. But it does set up the possibility of a striking final scene. Here, Magee delivers a surprise, but her dialogue is simply inadequate to support it. Once again, I felt she was too rushed and superficial to convince me of the character and actions of Peter. Though I did gain a little more respect for Katharina--and that, I suppose, is something. 
 (hide spoiler)]