Chris Bohjalian - Skeletons at the Feast

It is important to note that although characters in this novel endure some of the same trials as Eva Henatsch and her remarkable family, Irmgard Emmerich-Mutti-is not Eva. Nor is Anna Emmerich a re-creation of Eva's daughter, Heidi. But I hope the fictional Mutti and Anna have at least a semblance of Eva's and Heidi's monumental courage and resiliency and compassion.

Finally, I must express my deepest gratitude to the entire Krahn family for sharing with me Eva's diary and then reading this manuscript. Heidi Krahn, Gerd Krahn, and Laura Krahn gave me observations about this novel in its earliest drafts that were helpful and wise, and they always shared their thoughts kindly. Their graciousness, their friendship, and their candor have meant the world to me, and I thank them once again for being a part of my family's life over the years-and for their patience with me while I was writing this novel.

CHRIS BOHJALIAN is the author of eleven novels, including The Double Bind, Before You Know Kindness, and The Buffalo Soldier. His novel Midwives was a Publishers Weekly “Best Book” and a selection of Oprah's Book Club. His work has been translated into twenty languages. In 2002, he won the New England Book Award for fiction.

He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.

Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com.

In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal important aspects of the plot of this book-as well as the ending.

If you have not finished reading Skeletons at the Feast, we respectfully suggest that you may want to wait before reviewing this guide.

In the chaotic months before the final collapse of the Third Reich, the Germans living in the eastern part of Hitler's empire fled their homes to escape the onslaught of the Soviet Army. If these refugees didn't know the specifics of the atrocities their people had committed on Russian soil-and, in fact, were still committing in concentration camps across Poland and Germany-they nonetheless understood that the Russians were going to be merciless.

It is this world that Chris Bohjalian brings vividly and powerfully to life in Skeletons at the Feast. A Prussian aristocrat struggles west with her beautiful daughter, her young son, and a Scottish prisoner of war. Meanwhile, a female Jewish prisoner endures first the horrors of a concentration camp and then a forced march west in the ice and snow of a German winter. And a Jewish man who has leapt from a train bound for a death camp learns to do whatever he must to survive.

This reader's guide is intended as a starting point for your discussion of the novel.

1. Do you know-or are you yourself-a veteran of World War II? Discuss what you know of the war and any reminiscences that veterans may have shared.

2. Both of Anna's parents are members of the Nazi Party-though it is clear that they are not die-hard believers. Living on their farm in rural Prussia, they are largely sheltered from the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews. As Germans, do you think they share responsibility for the Nazis' actions even if they didn't know the full extent of what was happening? Why did they join the party? Did they have a choice? Consider Helmut's teacher who questions the boy about his father's loyalty to Hitler and the consequences of resisting. If failure to join meant death for you, what would you have done?

3. A group of POWs is brought to the Emmerich family's farm to help with the harvest, including a Scot named Callum Finella. He and Anna fall in love. What brings them together? Does the kindness of the Emmerich family, and Callum's love for their only daughter, change his view of the German people as a whole?

4. We meet Uri on the train to Auschwitz. What kind of man is he? How does he behave on the train? Imagine yourself in those deplorable conditions. Do you think you would seize the opportunity for freedom and jump as Uri did, leaving behind your family to an uncertain future?

5. While arguing with Anna about what is really happening to Jews, Callum says, “Suppose my government in England just decided to ‘resettle’ the Catholics-to take away their homes, their animals, their possessions, and just send them away?” What if this was happening where you live? What actions would you be willing to take to protect your friends and neighbors? At what point would the risks have been too great?

6. To survive, Uri impersonates German soldiers, stealing papers and uniforms from men he either kills or finds dead. Discuss the events that lead up to his first killing of a Nazi. Discuss his reaction to what he has done (Chapter Two). Do you believe his actions were warranted?

7. Although the world is essentially collapsing around them, Anna and Callum fall in love, Theo cries over leaving his beloved horse behind, and Mutti carefully drapes the furniture in sheets to protect it before they flee their home ahead of the Russians. What do these simple, ordinary actions reveal about them as people? About the human capacity for hope?

8. Theo is only a child but he feels lacking in comparison to his older brothers Werner and Helmut, both off fighting in the war. What kind of child is he? Does he fit in with his peers? Why doesn't Theo tell his mother about his foot? What does this reveal about him? Does Theo change over the course of the novel?

9. Describe Cecile. What kind of woman is she? What keeps her going in spite of the cruelty and degradation she suffers every day? How is she different from her friend Jeanne? Do you think you would act more like Cecile or Jeanne in the same circumstances?

10. In Chapter Eight, Helmut and his father, Rolf, try to convince Uncle Karl to leave his home along with the Emmerichs. He refuses, keeping his daughter, daughter-in-law, and grandson with him in spite of the danger. Why won't he evacuate? Why won't he let the women and the child leave? On Chapter Eight he refers to them and their way of life as “skeletons at the feast.” What does he mean by this?

11. Describe the circumstances that bring Uri and the Emmerichs together. Why does he choose to stay with them after running alone for so long? How does he feel about them initially? How do his feelings for them change?

12. On Chapter Eleven, Callum is thinking about bringing Anna home with him to Scotland after the war. How does he think she will be received? Why is he troubled?

13. During their long march from the prison camp to the factory, Jeanne and another prisoner find soldiers' rations and eat them. They do not wake Cecile to share them with her. Why? In the same circumstances, what would you have done?

14. Given the odds of success, would you have been brave enough to attempt to escape with Cecile and her friends?

15. Describe Mutti. What was she like at the beginning of the war? At the end? What does she view as her primary responsibility? On Chapter Seventeen, she remembers burying the young German pilot whose plane crashed in her park. Why was burying him-and the enemy Russian soldiers-important to her?

16. How does Anna change as the novel progresses? Why does she feel the need for personal forgiveness at the end? Is she right to feel guilty?

17. Discuss the importance of hope in survival. Which character is the most hopeful? Which character is the most defeated? What moments at the end of the novel symbolize hope most poignantly?

18. Discuss the legacy that Mutti's generation left for Anna's. As a nation, what kind of legacy are we leaving for our children?