Fly Away Home

Read during Summer 2002

I had no idea Austria was occuppied by the Russian Army following WWII. This is a memoir of an 8 year old girl living in Vienna in 1945. Her family lives in the city but after the apartment is bombed, they are lucky to find a villa in the outskirts where they eke out an existence. What is amazing is that the narrator still acts like an obnoxious child despite the war and everything that happens but then has sudden moments of terror and clarity. Very well written.

This autobiographical novel describes the end of WWII in Vienna from the point of view of a child. It is written for older children, but is well worth reading as an adult.

This does not go into all the horrors of the postwar period. Living on the edge of the city in an undamaged house that was taken over by a Russian Major and his staff, the narrator and her family are somewhat protected. The girl is innocently unconcious of what lies behind many of the incidents she relates. Her parents and adult readers are not.

I read this in German. Nöstlinger's use of language is also fun. She uses a wide vocabulary. 'Der Feldwebel brüllte. Iwan, der Feldpolizist schrie. Ludmilla kreischte dazwischen.' The sentence structures are relatively show more simple, but not childish. The language seems to be more that of a 12 - 13 year old looking back on her 8-9 year old self. show less