LIBRARY FOR THE WAR-WOUNDED
The internationally bestselling novel—a daughter’s portrait of her WWII veteran father, assembled from shards of memory.
We called him Vati, Dad. Not Papa. He thought it sounded modern. He wanted to present himself to us, and through us, as a man in tune with the modern age. A man who could be read as having a different past.
Inspired by the author’s family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports readers to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer’s father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, he found solace in books,
The internationally bestselling novel—a daughter’s portrait of her WWII veteran father, assembled from shards of memory.
We called him Vati, Dad. Not Papa. He thought it sounded modern. He wanted to present himself to us, and through us, as a man in tune with the modern age. A man who could be read as having a different past.
Inspired by the author’s family history, Library for the War-Wounded transports readers to the aftermath of World War II, uncovering the life of Helfer’s father, Josef. Born with the stigma of illegitimacy, he found solace in books, and his education was eventually funded by the Catholic Church. Drafted into the Wehrmacht, he witnessed the horrors of the Eastern Front and returned from the war an amputee. He married his nurse and brought his family to the high, idyllic slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he took a position as manager of a convalescent home for war-wounded.
Josef was a man of many mysteries. To his daughter Monika, none was greater than his obsession with the home’s unlikely and remarkable library, his great treasure and comfort as the country barrels away from the memory of war. He will stop at nothing to save it-even when it tears apart his family.
Beautifully restrained and compressed, Library for the War-Wounded turns lived experience into great literature by confronting the universal question: Can we ever truly know our parents?
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Hardcover
- January 2024
- 208 Pages
- 9781639732395
Buy the Book
$26.99
About Monika Helfer
Monika Helfer is the bestselling author of novels, short stories, and children’s books, including, most recently, Löwenherz (Lionheart), Vati (Daddy), and Die Bagage (Last House Before the Mountain). She lives in Hohenems, Austria.
Praise
“Helfer’s introspective remembrances of her childhood, complete with anecdotal narratives of her relatives and glimpses of the love shared by her parents, breathe life into the characters’ simple moments of joy amid times of hardship.” ―Publishers Weekly
“A clear portrait of the unrelenting, continuing legacy of damage suffered by those permanently maimed by war … Helfer’s unrelieved portrait of a suffering soul wastes nothing on superfluous embellishment.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Beautifully rendered in English by Davidson, Helfer’s novel stirringly blurs the line between memoir and fiction, concluding with painful honesty, confiding her doubts about how well she knew her father. Fans of family sagas will appreciate Helfer’s multifaceted tribute to the father who inspired her love of reading.” ―Booklist
“A poignant, captivating, beautifully woven family saga. As honest as Elena Ferrante, with the folkloric intensity of Téa Obreht.” ―Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles on Last House Before the Mountain
“Beautiful and heartbreaking, and readers will fall in love with Maria. I absolutely loved it.” ―Monica Ali, New York Times bestselling author of Untold Story and Love Marriage on Last House Before the Mountain
Discussion Questions
1. On the opening page, Monika mentions a photograph of her father standing outside the convalescent home for the war-wounded. She comes back to this photograph several times throughout the novel. How do you understand its importance?
2. In the conversation that Monika has with her stepmother, which serves as a frame for the story, she says she is writing a novel about her father. Her stepmother asks, “True or made-up?” and Monika answers, “Both, but more true than made-up.” How did her answer influence your reading of this novel?
3. When describing Josef, Monika often hovers between seriousness and whimsy, as when she writes: “Even as a child my father was a person who commanded respect. I suspect this was because he always spoke calmly.” How do you imagine Josef’s child self? How do other characters treat him? In what ways does he “command respect” as an adult?
4. Josef tells Monika, “When you look at a library, you know all there is to know about the person who owns them.” Do you agree? What does your personal library reveal about you?
5. Monika’s sister Renate says of their mother, Grete, “Maybe she imagined herself to be someone who is needed rather than loved?” Is this insight borne out in Grete’s relationships with her husband and children? How so?
6. Monika enjoys the company of the veterans who visited the convalescent home but also describes them as “Those whom people would rather not see. Because they were a reminder of the war. They stood in the way.” Do you see evidence of this attitude in the novel? Do you see it in the world today?
7. Why do you think Josef asks Monika to help him bury the library’s books instead of doing it alone?
8. How did Monika and her sisters’ experience after their mother’s death differ from Richard’s?
9. Monika says that she has never gone into the forest again to look for the buried books. Why do you think she made this choice? Did it surprise you?
10. Josef has a breakdown after Grete’s death and is sent to live with nuns. How do you think he would have been cared for if this were to happen today?
11. When Monika and her dad are discussing his life, she realizes: “He can never say the really important things. He has to use a book as an intermediary. Always.” Why do you think Josef does this? How does it relate to his love of libraries?
12. How did the stepmother’s character unfold throughout the novel? How do you think Monika felt about her in the end?
13. The characters carry wounds of various kinds—physical, psychological, and emotional. How do different characters deal differently with their wounds?
14. The narrator occasionally interrupts the story to discuss the act of writing it. How did those moments affect your reading?
15. There are no chapter breaks throughout the novel. Why do you think the author chose to do this?