Book Review: “Deutschland allein zu Haus”

As part of their work for the Multicultural Germany undergraduate seminar at UC Berkeley, students in the course have reviewed recent German books relating in various ways to topics of migration, multiculturalism, and contemporary German identity. Sara Sellami reviewed Osman Engin’s 2013 novel Deutschland allein zu Haus (Germany Home Alone):

Deutschland allein zu Haus is a novel written by the Turkish-German author, Osman Engin, and was published in 2013. The book tells the story of a Turkish-German family coming back from vacations in Turkey to find out that the neo-Nazi party was elected and plans on getting rid of all foreigners. Osman, the father, tries to deal with the consequences of the revival of the neo-Nazi party and must at the same time hide the political situation from his uncle, who is visiting him from Turkey. The novel depicts, with humor, what life in Germany would be like were the far-right party the second largest party in the Bundestag, highlighting the importance of foreigners and people with a migratory background in German society today….[Read full review here.]