Skeletons at the feast
Encyclopedia
Skeletons at the Feast is a novel by author Chris Bohjalian
, published in 2008. It is the story of a journey in the waning months of World War Two concerning the Emmerich family, who flee their beloved home in Prussia and move west to avoid the advancing Russian troops. The family consists of one of the novel's main protagonists, Anna; her mother, known affectionately as "Mutti"; her father, Rolf; her twin brother, Helmut; her younger brother, Theo; and the Scottish POW that once worked on the family's farm, Callum Finella, who becomes Anna's lover. Anna also has an older brother, Werner, who is off fighting in the war. Rolf and Helmut leave the family to aid in stopping the Russian advance and the rest continue on alone; on their westward journey they are joined by Uri Singer, an escaped Jew posing as a Nazi officer. Bohjalian said in an interview he was inspired to write the story after being persuaded to read a diary spanning from 1920 to 1945 belonging to Eva Henatsch, a German woman that embarked on a similar journey west across the Third Reich.
Callum Finella is the twenty-year-old Scotland native that became a paratrooper and drops into Normandy; he was captured with several others and became a POW. He is later sent to the Emmerichs' estate of Kamenheim to work the land and falls in love with Anna Emmerich. Throughout much of the first leg of the journey, and afterwards, Callum is forced to hide under sacks of feed in the wagon lest he been caught and killed on the spot as an escaped POW. Callum's point of view throughout the story is uniquely Western, bringing into the novel the view that the Allies held of the war and the Germans. Callum's disdain for Germans manifests strongly when Uri joins the group disguised as a German officer; however, he does not hold any sort of general animosity towards Anna or her family. Respectively, Callum's view of the Emmerichs helps Uri to also see that not all Germans are evil.
Uri Singer is a Jew caught up in the onslaught of World War II
. His mother warned Uri and his younger sister, Rebekah, that they had to survive no matter what so they could tell the world of Hitler's atrocities. Uri escapes the horrific fate of the concentration camp Auschwitz by leaping off the train while pretending to dump a slop bucket; however, this action constantly haunts him throughout the rest of his life, as he always wondered if his parents or sister happened to be on the train, and he is tormented by the idea that he left them to die. He moves steadily westward by stealing Nazi uniforms (and sometimes killing their former owners) and posing as German officers of various rank and name. He eventually adapts the name Manfred and it is here that he meets up with the Emmerichs, and they begin to journey together.
Cecile is a young French and Jewish woman imprisoned in a concentration camp; the prisoners are uprooted and marched west in order to stay away from the advancing Russians. Cecile is single-handedly responsible for keeping her friend Jeanne alive; she continuously picks Jeanne up over and over again when the other simply wants to give up and die. Cecile's point of view brings to the story a juxtaposition of the best and worst elements of the human soul coming out; the blackest evils in the Nazis' cruel acts, but Cecile herself is the embodiment of the ultimate perseverance. Even in the bleakest of times she not only keeps herself going but encourages others around her never to give up hope. Cecile comes across as a figure of survival, as she manages to live through the worst phases of the war.
Mutti Emmerich is Anna, Helmut, and Theo's mother. Initially she is a supporter of Hitler, although Anna suggests that her mother distinguished between Hitler's good qualities and bad qualities. Mutti seems to hold out the most hope in the beginning that the family will one day return to Kamenheim and find something left over after the Russians ravage it; she carefully drapes the furniture in sheets and tells Anna and Rolf to bury the silver. However, along their journey she eventually comes to realize that they will never be able to return to Kamenheim. Mutti is the character most at odds with what has happened in Germany; she does not seem to believe the reality of the concentration camps until she sees it with her own eyes. She becomes a pillar of strength to her children, continuing on for them; reminiscent of Uri's mother, she conveys the same message to Anna that they must survive so the world will know what has happened.
Theo Emmerich is Anna's youngest brother. Even though Theo is only a child, he feels somewhat inferior to his older brothers, who are both soldiers. While Theo's bravery does not come from the battlefield, it manifests itself on the family's journey westward. Although the family initially views Theo as a child, it is clear as the novel progresses that he matures greatly both in his own eyes and in the eyes of his family.
Jeanne is a Jewish prisoner alongside Cecile; they first meet in a concentration camp when Cecile, who has an extra pair of shoes, gives the flats to Jeanne and keeps her husband's boots. Jeanne seems to want nothing more than to give up hope; she does, many times, and it is only Cecile's constant flow of encouragement that enables Jeanne to survive.
Helmut Emmerich is Anna's twin brother. He leaves the family shortly after crossing the Vistula to fight the Russians in a counterattack to stop their advance alongside his father, Rolf. He holds a great amount of disdain towards Callum, though the source of his revulsion is not always entirely clear.
Rolf Emmerich is Anna, Helmut and Theo's father and Mutti's husband; in the beginning he leads Mutti to believe there is a possibility the family will be able to return to Kamenheim, but he truly does not believe this himself. He tells this to Anna when they are burying the silver at their mother's request; as the ground is frozen solid, they simply shove the silver into the snow. Rolf leaves the family and accompanies Helmut in a last-ditch attempt to stop the Russian advance.
Chris Bohjalian
Christopher Aram Bohjalian, who goes by the pen name Chris Bohjalian, is an American novelist. Bohjalian is the author of 14 novels, including New York Times bestsellers Midwives, "Secrets of Eden," The Law of Similars, Before You Know Kindness, The Double Bind and Skeletons at the Feast...
, published in 2008. It is the story of a journey in the waning months of World War Two concerning the Emmerich family, who flee their beloved home in Prussia and move west to avoid the advancing Russian troops. The family consists of one of the novel's main protagonists, Anna; her mother, known affectionately as "Mutti"; her father, Rolf; her twin brother, Helmut; her younger brother, Theo; and the Scottish POW that once worked on the family's farm, Callum Finella, who becomes Anna's lover. Anna also has an older brother, Werner, who is off fighting in the war. Rolf and Helmut leave the family to aid in stopping the Russian advance and the rest continue on alone; on their westward journey they are joined by Uri Singer, an escaped Jew posing as a Nazi officer. Bohjalian said in an interview he was inspired to write the story after being persuaded to read a diary spanning from 1920 to 1945 belonging to Eva Henatsch, a German woman that embarked on a similar journey west across the Third Reich.
Plot summary
The plot of the story centers around a young Prussian girl, Anna Emmerich, and the broken remnants of her family as they flee westward from the advancing Russian army. Along with them they bring the Scottish POW, Callum Finella, with whom Anna has embarked on a secret love affair. As Anna, her mother, her younger brother Theo, and Callum trek across the Third Reich, other stories run parallel to theirs, including the story of Uri Singer, a Jew that leapt off the train to Auschwitz and survives by assuming identities belonging to various German soldiers; and Cecile, a French Jew taken prisoner in a concentration camp and, along with her fellow prisoners, forced to march westward to outdistance the Russian advance. Eventually all three stories come together when Anna's party, joined by Uri, crosses paths with the sad march of Cecile and the other prisoners. Throughout the novel, Anna struggles with the ideas of the atrocities the Nazis have committed and how she can possibly bear the burden of blame by the rest of the world.Characters
Anna Emmerich is the novel's main protagonist, and the story, which is told from several varying viewpoints, is most often told by her narration. Anna is an eighteen-year-old beauty described as having "cornsilk" blonde hair. After the war begins and the young men leave to fight, Anna and her friends become bored with the lack of men, and they flirt with the POWs that arrive to work the land. In particular, Anna develops a relationship with the young Scot Callum Finella, and they eventually fall in love. While they are forced to hide the relationship from her family, it transpires throughout the story that most of the characters knew anyway. After her father and brother leave, Anna is the one to shoulder much of the responsibilities, including caring for the four horses. She is not nearly as disillusioned as her mother towards the horrors committed in wartime; after Helmut witnesses the scene at Uncle Karl's house, he spares the details when telling his parents but informs Anna of every grisly detail. Anna is easily one of the more courageous characters of the novel; her will never breaks, and she continually puts one foot in front of the other, despite the fact that she takes ill on the journey to Stettin. Her relationship with Callum, which comes at a time when the world is falling apart at the seams, suggests that even in the darkest of times, there is still hope for the future.Callum Finella is the twenty-year-old Scotland native that became a paratrooper and drops into Normandy; he was captured with several others and became a POW. He is later sent to the Emmerichs' estate of Kamenheim to work the land and falls in love with Anna Emmerich. Throughout much of the first leg of the journey, and afterwards, Callum is forced to hide under sacks of feed in the wagon lest he been caught and killed on the spot as an escaped POW. Callum's point of view throughout the story is uniquely Western, bringing into the novel the view that the Allies held of the war and the Germans. Callum's disdain for Germans manifests strongly when Uri joins the group disguised as a German officer; however, he does not hold any sort of general animosity towards Anna or her family. Respectively, Callum's view of the Emmerichs helps Uri to also see that not all Germans are evil.
Uri Singer is a Jew caught up in the onslaught of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His mother warned Uri and his younger sister, Rebekah, that they had to survive no matter what so they could tell the world of Hitler's atrocities. Uri escapes the horrific fate of the concentration camp Auschwitz by leaping off the train while pretending to dump a slop bucket; however, this action constantly haunts him throughout the rest of his life, as he always wondered if his parents or sister happened to be on the train, and he is tormented by the idea that he left them to die. He moves steadily westward by stealing Nazi uniforms (and sometimes killing their former owners) and posing as German officers of various rank and name. He eventually adapts the name Manfred and it is here that he meets up with the Emmerichs, and they begin to journey together.
Cecile is a young French and Jewish woman imprisoned in a concentration camp; the prisoners are uprooted and marched west in order to stay away from the advancing Russians. Cecile is single-handedly responsible for keeping her friend Jeanne alive; she continuously picks Jeanne up over and over again when the other simply wants to give up and die. Cecile's point of view brings to the story a juxtaposition of the best and worst elements of the human soul coming out; the blackest evils in the Nazis' cruel acts, but Cecile herself is the embodiment of the ultimate perseverance. Even in the bleakest of times she not only keeps herself going but encourages others around her never to give up hope. Cecile comes across as a figure of survival, as she manages to live through the worst phases of the war.
Mutti Emmerich is Anna, Helmut, and Theo's mother. Initially she is a supporter of Hitler, although Anna suggests that her mother distinguished between Hitler's good qualities and bad qualities. Mutti seems to hold out the most hope in the beginning that the family will one day return to Kamenheim and find something left over after the Russians ravage it; she carefully drapes the furniture in sheets and tells Anna and Rolf to bury the silver. However, along their journey she eventually comes to realize that they will never be able to return to Kamenheim. Mutti is the character most at odds with what has happened in Germany; she does not seem to believe the reality of the concentration camps until she sees it with her own eyes. She becomes a pillar of strength to her children, continuing on for them; reminiscent of Uri's mother, she conveys the same message to Anna that they must survive so the world will know what has happened.
Theo Emmerich is Anna's youngest brother. Even though Theo is only a child, he feels somewhat inferior to his older brothers, who are both soldiers. While Theo's bravery does not come from the battlefield, it manifests itself on the family's journey westward. Although the family initially views Theo as a child, it is clear as the novel progresses that he matures greatly both in his own eyes and in the eyes of his family.
Jeanne is a Jewish prisoner alongside Cecile; they first meet in a concentration camp when Cecile, who has an extra pair of shoes, gives the flats to Jeanne and keeps her husband's boots. Jeanne seems to want nothing more than to give up hope; she does, many times, and it is only Cecile's constant flow of encouragement that enables Jeanne to survive.
Helmut Emmerich is Anna's twin brother. He leaves the family shortly after crossing the Vistula to fight the Russians in a counterattack to stop their advance alongside his father, Rolf. He holds a great amount of disdain towards Callum, though the source of his revulsion is not always entirely clear.
Rolf Emmerich is Anna, Helmut and Theo's father and Mutti's husband; in the beginning he leads Mutti to believe there is a possibility the family will be able to return to Kamenheim, but he truly does not believe this himself. He tells this to Anna when they are burying the silver at their mother's request; as the ground is frozen solid, they simply shove the silver into the snow. Rolf leaves the family and accompanies Helmut in a last-ditch attempt to stop the Russian advance.