Books from Germany

In 1938, as Nazi persecution intensifies across Europe, Shanghai becomes an unlikely refuge for Jewish refugees fleeing Germany. But escaping persecution does not mean escaping danger. Daniel Lohr, a German Jew who has survived the Gestapo, arrives in Shanghai hoping to begin again. Penniless and stateless, he turns to his uncle Nathan, a mysterious businessman who runs a glamorous nightclub and maintains dangerous connections with the city’s criminal underworld. Meanwhile, Daniel cannot forget Leah, a woman he met during the voyage to China, whose fate becomes entangled with his own. As political tensions rise and Japanese occupation looms, Daniel is drawn into a world of gang warfare, corruption, espionage, and shifting loyalties. In a city where survival depends on knowing whom to trust, every alliance carries a price—and the past is never entirely left behind. Atmospheric and suspenseful, Shanghai brings to life a city caught between cultures and conflicts, where desperate refugees, gangsters, and political operatives struggle to survive. Joseph Kanon explores the moral compromises people make in extraordinary circumstances, asking how much of oneself can be sacrificed in the pursuit of safety.

All Quiet on the Western Front follows Paul Bäumer, a young German soldier who enlists in the First World War alongside his school friends after being encouraged by patriotic teachers. Once at the front, the young men discover that the heroic ideals used to recruit them bear little resemblance to the reality of trench warfare. Constant bombardment, hunger, exhaustion, and the loss of comrades gradually destroy their innocence and their faith in the society that sent them to fight. When Paul returns home on leave, he finds himself unable to reconnect with civilians who cannot understand his experiences. Remarque portrays war as a force that damages not only bodies but also the emotional and moral foundations of a generation. The novel explores trauma, disillusionment, and the devastating distance between military rhetoric and the human cost of conflict.