Just finished Ben Elton, Two Brothers. I should say first that I have enjoyed all Ben Elton's writing but I would observe I hope objecively that the quality of his writing has improved over the years, this book is possibly his best yet.
Weaving biographical and historical detail into a story focused around the personal lives of those in Germany growing up through the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, it made me realise how little I knew of the internal aspects of Nazi Germany. I would have considered myself fairly well versed in the external factors and the historical context, but beyond asking the obvious question of how could a nation have done what Germany did, I knew little hard fact and did little to acquire it.
The small detail of this book, evidently researched and fact based, has spurred me on to read and investigate. I think now I begin to understand the situation a lot better, for example I had never seriously considered the impact and meaning of Socialist in the National Socialist, I didn't even realise that word Nazi was derived from the German for National. The spectre of people comparing everything extreme to the Nazis has obfuscated the facts and stands in the way not only of our understanding but also of our ability to resist the forces that would make that darkness happen again.
Surprisingly for Ben Elton, this book has a complete absence of polemic, but then the historical facts and the fictional people's real emotions speak loud enough for themselves. The story is a good one: two brothers brought up from birth in 1920 as twins by a jewish family, one an adopted non-jew, grow up through the rise of Hitler, living and loving as normal people an in extraordinary situation. Doing what must be done to survive, observing those who do not. The background mystery that unravels through the book provides a subtext that draws the story to the modern day. However incredible it may seem at times, each step is credible and - as the biographical note at the end confirms - much has been extracted from Ben Elton's own life (his father was called Ehrenberg, originally).
I would thoroughly recommend this book to all.