Kumla Bibliotek

In this ‘factional’ novel, lost for more than 70 years, hero John Arnold is a post graduate student at Bonn University in the early 1930s. He is caught up in the insidious rise of the Nazis in the village where he lodges. His position is complicated by his love of Germany itself, as well as by his increasing fondness for two women; Tilde, the maid of the house where he lodges, and Rachel, a beautiful and powerful Jewish woman. Being semi-autobiographical, Their Cemetery Sown With Corn has intense authenticity. Binder captures the atmosphere of the time and place, and his narrative explains how the Nazis achieved their grip over a fraught and divided population.

He brings to life a rich cast of characters, and we witness how they develop in the face of Hitler’s oppression. This is a poignant human story of loyalty, love and courage in the face of extortion, treachery, blackmail and murder. There is humour, too, as Arnold learns that his best weapons are ridicule and cunning. Readers of this intriguing book will find themselves in a ringside seat witnessing one of the most extraordinary and sinister social and political phenomena of the 20th Century.