She has unexpectedly received a manuscript of Toller's memoirs, dictated before he took his own life in exile in New York. The threads of the novel are pulled together by Ruth, now living out her days in Sydney, Australia. The group campaigns and agitates against the secret rearmament of Germany, the rise and election of Hitler and the dangers of fascism. Anna Funder's new novel,Īll That I Am, tells the story of Ruth, Dora and Ernst, along with their comrades Hans Wesemann (later Ruth's husband) and Berthold Jacob. Germany has been devastated by both the Great War and the reparations imposed on it in the Treaty of Versailles. When 18-year-old Ruth moves to Berlin in the 1920s, she soon becomes swept up in her cousin Dora's left-wing politics, particularly her campaign to release Ernst Toller, one of the imprisoned leaders of the failed Bavarian Soviet Republic. Signed by Author(s).Ruth Becker has always looked up to Dora Fabian. And then, one day, they face the chilling realisation that Hitler's reach extends much further than they had thought, even to London itself.Inspiring, tragic and based on real events, "All That I Am" is a masterful and devastating novel of bravery and betrayal, of the risks and sacrifices that people endure to protect their beliefs and of discovering remarkable heroism hidden in the most unexpected of places. But with each breathtaking act of courage and every person that they trust, they cannot help but risk betrayal and deceit. Fleeing the country, Ruth and Hans find refuge in a basement flat in Bloomsbury, but inspired by Ruth's fearless cousin Dora, they defy the conditions of their visas and risk being sent back to Germany in order continue their dangerous resistance work. Having dedicated themselves to resisting the Nazi's rise, they have become hunted outlaws overnight. Her life and those of her tight-knit group of friends are about to change beyond all recognition. Hans is making caipirinhas, snow falls outside the kitchen window, and Hitler is making his first speech as Chancellor of Germany. Opening its delicate pages she meets with a flood of memories.It's 1933 and she is back in her light-filled flat in Berlin. Inside she finds a tattered little notebook.
One September morning, elderly Ruth Wesemann wakes to the sound of a parcel being delivered to her door.
AUTHOR HAS SIGNED, LINED & DATED DIRECT TO HALF-TITLE PAGE. Book in as new, unread, FINE/FINE condition. 1ST EDITION, 1ST PRINT, Penguin Books Ltd, 2011.
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