Address Unknown

Unprecedented in its time, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor's Address Unknown is a remarkable literary accomplishment. A stunning novella told solely through letters between Max Eisenstein, a German-American Jew living in California, and his friend and business partner, Martin Schulse, who recently relocated to Germany with his family during the rise of Nazism. A strong message, well-structured and brilliantly concluded, is well worth the quick read.


Favorite passage:

“Max, I think in many ways Hitler is good for Germany, but I am not sure.
He is now the active head of the government. I doubt much that even Hindenburg could now remove him from power, as he was truly forced to place him there. The man is like an electric shock, strong as only a great orator and a zealot can be. But I ask myself, is he quite sane? His brown shirt troops are of the rabble. They pillage and have started a bad Jew-baiting. But these may be minor things, the little surface scum when a big movement boils up. For I tell you, my friend, there is a surge — a surge. The people everywhere have had a quickening. You feel it in the streets and shops. The old despair has been thrown aside like a forgotten coat. No longer the people wrap themselves in shame; they hope again.
Perhaps there may be found an end to this poverty. Something, I do not know what, will happen. A leader is found! Yet cautiously to myself I ask, a leader to where? Despair overthrown often turns us in mad directiodns.”