Rating: 
Summary: Tell yourself you can finish this book!
Review: Be cautioned. This story moves very slowly. There is a good tale behind the prose but it takes reading half the book to get the momentum going. It's a large tale because it encompasses many lives which intersect over many generations. Some things I like a lot: the words in German and Leo Montag, the wonderful father figure so often lacking in modern fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Could've been worse
Review: This book has it's moments, but on the whole it is slow, predictable, and boring. Hegi spends too much time on things of little consequence, and the last five pages are so overwritten and self-indulgent I finished the novel feeling nauseated.The story tends to wander, and it's obvious Hegi wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do with it. Threads start, then fade without resolution. Whatever strong characters or plot-lines are here get bogged down in masses of hollow banter. There are better things to read.
Rating:
Summary: Long on character, short on plot.
Review: Having attempted once to read this story of a German community, I forced myself to try again. I should have followed my instincts and put the book down. While the character studies were excellent --- Trudy Montag emerges as an almost heroic woman --- the plot was aimless. Nothing ever quite reached maturity: not Trudy, not the various neighbors, not the relationships, not the plot. Virtually every vignette was left hanging and the point of the book --- that everyone has a flaw --- was underscored by the flaws of the book itself. This book cries out for an editor to impose some closure and to give the reader a reason to keep going. The only reason I finished the book was to discover if there was a hidden plot. There wasn't. If a reader has nothing better to do, this book is worth reading. If there is anything else to do, by all means, do it.
Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding statement about grief, war, life
Review: I read this book over a year ago and thought it was magnificent. Recently, I heard Hegi read the book on audiotape. Wow. It was even better in some ways. She has a lilting German accent, and it just makes everything come alive. There are two passages in the story that truly stand out: the suicide from the rooftop and Trudi's grief after the lose of her father. When will Hegi give us another gem?
Rating:
Summary: hmmmm...
Review: When I purchased this book, the clerk said to me, "oh, you are going to love it... it is going to be a classic". It took me so long to actually get involved into the characters, and even afterwards I would find myself loosing track and spacing during the middle of a page. We have all heard numerous stories of the horrors of WWII; I wish that Hegi had concentrated a little more on Trudi and her character development.
Rating: 
Summary: Audio book review.
Review: I listened to the unabridged audio book version, read by the author. It was very moving, hearing it told with the author's accent. I think anyone who feels they did not quite "fit-in" with the norm would really enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Tour de force!!!
Review: This is definitely my favourite book of all time. I have never read a book that made me feel so good while reading it. Even when I had finished it, I secretly wished that it wasn't over. Trudi is a character that will stay with me forever and I am eternally grateful to her for giving me a new and interesting perspective on life.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Perhaps I was expecting too much, having read so many glowing reviews; but I stuck with it, thinking, ah, it will pick up, and towards the middle it does, but then it seems to lose its energy again... I liked Trudi and really felt for her but I was simply not compelled by the story, so much of it was predictable, a foregone conclusion... Maybe I'm just jaded, having read too many WWII stories by now, and watched the entire soap "Heimat"... There is a novel about WWII by Erich Maria Remarque, A Time to Love and A Time to Die, which is the best "German point of view" novel I've ever read, and I'm afraid to say that Ms Hegi's book paled in comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent! Couldn't put it down!
Review: What a wonderful writer Ursula Hegi is! She's created a fascinating, multi-layered character in Trudi. In fact, the entire town is a character in this book. I've never read a book told from the P.O.V. of ordinary Germans during WWII, and it felt very real, and very moving.
Rating:
Summary: A great way to learn some important history!
Review: I finally could put myself into a world I had always wondered about. The displacement of friends, relatives, and lives--vividly told. Thank you.
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