Compelling story about a woman named Trudi who is a zwerg, or dwarf, growing up in Germany after World War I. We follow her as she comes to terms with what it means to be constantly looked at as different in a society that, increasingly, values conformity-- as Germany moves out of one wartime and into the Third Reich, and on into World War II. While Hegi's portrayal of the incremental, ever-more-disturbing changes in and around Trudi's small town urged me to keep reading, once the second war ended, I was a bit baffled by why she would keep writing. I loved reading this book until I got about 100 pages from the end, and then I couldn't wait for it to be over. But there's much to mull over here, especially about madness, community, and of course, how we react to differences amongst those we live with.

RELEASE NOTES:

I released this book at the location above, but it was gone before I could even get back to write these release notes! Let's hope it gets journaled....

I love books. I was on my way to pick my girls up from their story hour at the library and as I was passing through the center of town, there on a bench was a book with a sticky note attacted "free book". I couldn't pass it up and picked the book up and put it in my stroller. Later that night I started to read it. I loved it right away and kept the sticky note as a book mark. I kept thinking about how strange it was to find it like that. I hadn't seen the note about bookcrossing yet, how I missed that I don't know. Anyway, I kept thinking about the person who would leave a book for someone else to pick up and how they took the time to write the note "free book". It wasn't scribbled, it was neatly drawn with heavy lettering and a nice "frame" drawn around the words. I just thought that I was meant to find it. Then a few days later when I actually saw the note about bookcrossing I was totally blown away. I will finish this book, passing the title to my book club. I'm next to offer a book for us to read. When I'm through with the book I will leave it in another town, on a park bench, under a tree.