Max
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Nazi Germany 1936. The Lebensborn program is going strong as German women are carefully selected by the Nazis and recruited to give birth to new representatives of the Aryan race. Inside one of these women is Max, a fetus waiting to be born and fulfill his destiny as the perfect Aryan.
Max is taken away from his birth mother as soon as he enters the world. He will be raised under the leadership and ideologies of the Nazi Party. As he grows up without a mom, without any affection or tenderness, according to Nazi educational precepts, he soon becomes the mascot of the program. But things don't go according to plan.
Originally published in French, Sarah Cohen-Scali's touching, illuminating, and heartbreaking book has been translated for an English-speaking audience.
A Neal Porter Book
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
French author Cohen-Scali's U.S. debut chronicles the rise and fall of the Third Reich through the eyes of a child. Konrad von Kebnersol (dubbed Max by his birth mother) is a product of Lebensborn, a top-secret Nazi eugenics program designed to propagate the Aryan race. Baptized by Hitler and raised by the Nazi Party, Max serves as bait to aid in the kidnapping of Polish children, then enrolls at the Kalish school to facilitate the abductees' Germanization. There, Max meets Lukas, an older boy to whom Max bears a striking resemblance. The two become like brothers, so it's a shock to Max when Lukas confides that he's Jewish. Unfortunately, Cohen-Scali's plot relies too heavily on coincidence, and Max's narration lacks nuance (even as a fetus, he narrates like a mustache-twirling villain); although Lukas's relationship with Max forms the book's emotional core, Cohen-Scali waits 200 pages to introduce him. The novel endeavors to teach an important lesson about the indoctrination and exploitation of German youth, but excessive exposition and an awkward structure muddy the message. Ages 15 up.
