Heidegger's Glasses is set in Germany, late in World War II. Anyone who has seen any Indiana Jones films has heard that Hitler and some of his commanding officers in the Third Reich were obsessed with the occult and the supernatural. Preoccupied with their fears of keeping the Final Solution a secret from the world, Commandants Goebbels and Himmler worry that the ghosts of those who died in the camps after sending letters to loved ones will haunt and reveal their plans, so they (somewhat ludicrously) remove dozens of individuals from the death marches, those who are bilingual or speak obscure languages, and move them into an abandoned mine shaft, converted into an underground village. The Scribes, as the Reich calls these lucky few, have only one duty -- to write letters back to the dying or the dead, to keep angry souls at bay.
The ludicrous premise of the book leads to an interesting and rather haunting story of dozens of misplaced people struggling to survive, celebrating as the Third Reich crumbles around them. It is the story of Elie, a young Polish girl who is bent on saving as many people as she can, and her lover, former solider Gerhardt Lodenstein, who wants to understand Elie through his love for her but can't quite manage to figure her out. In the midst of their struggles, a letter arrives from the philosopher Martin Heidigger, to his Jewish optometrist who is now incarcerated at Auschwitz. His letter starts off a chain reaction that puts the lives of all the Scribes in danger.
This book was interesting. It's another book that I probably wouldn't have given a second thought to, had it not been a freebie on Kindle, but I'm glad I read it. I would recommend it, especially to anyone who is interested in historical fiction or World War II.
Rating: ****
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