Holly Müller’s first novel has to be one of the most emotive accounts of life in Nazi Austria that I’ve ever read. Told through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Ursula Hildesheim, it’s partly a novel about the effects of war but also about growing up.
The novel begins with Ursula the child recounting how she has always been afraid of St. Nicholas coming to her house to punish her for her sins and ends with an Ursula who seems much older and wiser than her tender years.
My Own Dear Brother details Austria’s journey from being ruled by Nazi Germany to being ruled by Soviet Russia and whilst the soldiers in the war are struggling, Ursula is struggling alongside them. From the moment her best friend Schosi is taken away to the infamous Hartburg Hospital and she and Herr Esterbauer embark on a quest to retrieve him, to the terrifying months after the Soviet soldiers first arrive, bringing rape and destruction with them, My Own Dear Brother is twisted from beginning to end.
On the surface, the novel is simply about the war but if you look a little deeper, it’s about love and loss in a society where people have been numbed to pain and sorrow. However, whilst the characters might have been anesthetised, we are able to feel their sorrow for them and whilst I can’t say too much more without giving the game away, I can tell you that death is not the only source of pain in Müller’s novel; sometimes the pain comes from within us and one of the most painful things in life is the things that we try so hard to forget.
My Own Dear Brother is captivating and haunting from the first page until the last which is why I was thrilled when I was given the chance to review it by the Guardian Children’s Books team. I haven’t been able to put it down from the moment it arrived on my doormat so sadly my copy is now extremely dog-eared!
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