possm reviewed Exil unter Palmen by Magali Nieradka-Steiner
Chronicles of exiled German intellectuals in one French village
2 stars
The book contains a couple of fun anecdotes, I especially enjoyed reading about Marta Feuchtwanger, she sounds amazing. But for the most part, it's not making the most of the material. Bad structure, bad transitions between parts, sentences that should have been broken up. Often the writing devolves into just listing names of notable people, sometimes over half a page. The author is clearly passionate about her research and very knowledgeable, which is great. But this book is not well written.