This is a good book, but the narrator’s German is AWFUL and it really is distracting. I’m guessing from the author’s last name that he is at least familiar with the language if not a native and it is incomprehensible to me that this would have been acceptable to him, unless he is a native and being “condescending” to Americans (as Germans can be) with no expectation that they can learn or enunciate a foreign language accurately.
He would have been better off translating everything for the audio version. This is the worst of both worlds. For listeners who don’t know German, nothing is learned about the sound of the language by listening to this, and for those who do, it’s so bad that it is hard to tell what is being referred to frequently. I lived in Berlin and only because of that was I able to grasp most of the references related to it. Distinguishing ‘EI’ from ‘IE” sounds….that’s basic (LEEPSIC!?, that’s in Indiana I think).
The effect of the various creepy euphemisms for holidays, organizations that the Nazis used is completely lost if you don’t get them right!
I would be glad to consult on a redo of this. The subject is worth it.
ALM, M.A. Germanic Languages, Indiana University