All That I Am by Anna Funder

Wow. I loved Stasiland and I loved this book too. I love the way Funder gets underneath a story and although it is based on truth manages to make it mysterious and compelling reading. This is the story of a cohort of largely Jewish playwrights, journalists and political activists who were exiled to Britain and France before the war and worked against Hitler’s regime from there. It is told by Ruth, who was a member of the upper class Jewish elite and Toller, a writer and activist. Central to both their lives is Dora, their cousin and lover respectively, a star around which the story revolves. It is obvious from the moment you open the book that Dora is dead, but what takes a while to unfold is that the story is told in two different time frames: during the thirties leading up to the second world war, and the present, when Ruth lives in Australia. What was really moving about this book is the enduring presence of Dora in Ruth’s life, some seventy years into the future.