In My Grandfather's Shadow: A story of war, trauma and the legacy of silence

Description

Fusing memoir, psychology and a historical detective story, a powerful exploration of how trauma can be handed down through the generations. Having wrestled for decades with an inexplicable sense of guilt, Angela Findlay eventually turned to her German roots in the hope of finding answers. There, she discovered three generations knotted together by events that took place in Nazi Germany- a grandfather who was a decorated general on the Eastern Front, his daughter and granddaughter - Angela herself. In a rare confluence of memoir, psychology and historical detective story, Findlay's unflinching quest for the truth about her grandfather breaks through the silence surrounding many the Second World War's perpetrators. In My Grandfather's Shadow explores the heritability of unresolved experiences, questions deeply held perceptions of good and bad, and uncovers the lesser-known history of the war's losers, a post-war culture of apology and atonement, and the lingering legacy of shame. Using her own family story to explore an episode in history that continues to appal and fascinate, Findlay reveals that it is possible not only for the scars of trauma to be handed down through generations, but also for them to be healed.

Angela Findlay is a professional artist who has spent much of her career teaching art in prisons. Her time 'behind bars' in Germany and later as Arts Coordinator to the Koestler Arts charity inspired her research into intergenerational trauma and, over the last decade, she has been speaking and writing about trauma, guilt, cultures of remembrance and her own Anglo-German roots. In My Grandfather's Shadow is her first book.

A remarkable cross-pollination of memoir, psychology and history in which the author comes to grips with being the granddaughter of a Nazi general. * i Paper * A compelling journey through guilt and shame that asks fundamental and painful questions about the extent of a family member's participation in one of the biggest crimes of the 20th century. -- Derek Niemann, author of A Nazi in the Family In My Grandfather's Shadow is an extraordinary book. Beautifully written, poignant and acutely perceptive; endlessly thought-provoking and challenging. From the nature of wickedness to the phenomenon of epigenetics, it is also an extremely powerful and different way of seeing the vast and terrible tides of history. -- Sinclair McKay, author of Berlin, Dresden, and The Secret Life of Bletchley Park Seeking to untangle the complexities of her own life, the author goes in search of a WW2 German general - the grandfather she never knew. The outcome is a powerful and at times painfully honest story that will touch readers at many levels. -- Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich and A Village in the Third Reich This is a moving and powerful memoir that illuminates the extraordinary power of unprocessed trauma as it passes through generations, and how when it is faced it can be healed. -- Julia Samuel, author of Every Family Has a Story, Grief Works and This Too Shall Pass