In Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets (9 hours), New Yorker staff writer Burkhard Bilger recounts his search for the truth about his grandfather, Karl Gönner, a former Nazi party chief who was credited with shielding an Alsace village from Nazi reprisals—and also accused of being a war criminal who ordered the death of an innocent man.
Bilger’s narration of his book reflects the ambiguity of his family’s history. Raised in Oklahoma by German immigrant parents, Bilger has a barely perceptible Oklahoma twang, softened by years spent away from his birthplace. He also speaks fluent German, a clear legacy from his extended family that sometimes inflects his spoken English. Like Karl, Bilger’s voice is neither purely one thing nor another, but rather an unexpected amalgam reminding the listener that human stories are not drawn in black and white but in complex and varied shades of gray.
