Life Without You

Date

2016-01-07

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa

Abstract

War ravages through Europe in the early 1940’s as young German couple, Gottlieb and Herzeliede, struggle to learn who they are together and apart. After Gottlieb, an enlisted soldier, is captured by Allied forces he is sent to what he considers Hell on Earth, Tabor, Iowa. A prisoner of war, Gottlieb learns for himself who the real enemy is in the war while working with local farmers. Braving the fickle Iowa elements, Gottlieb’s work on the Iowa farms proves to be his only reprieve from the world around him as he learns of deaths he couldn’t stop, infidelity, and skewed views of reality. Meanwhile, Herzeliede’s life in Wutach with her parents never feels whole while Gottlieb is away. With only letters to communicate, she feels cut off from the world and helpless. When her parents send her to live with her Aunt Ana, a nurse in Munich, she learns how good her life really was in the German countryside. In the city with Ana by her side, Herzeliede struggles to deal with her long distance relationship, angry superiors, and continual overnight bombings which become part of her everyday life. She also discovers who she really wants to be with Gottlieb and without. Circumstances may keep them apart physically, but it is their attitudes that keep them apart emotionally in Life Without You.

Description

Keywords

Novel, WWII, Iowa, Germany

Citation

DOI

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