Janneke van der Meulen Book order (chronological)

"[A novel] about three women--transgender and cisgender--whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex..."--.

After Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig was perhaps the most well-known and widely read author writing in German before the Nazi period. Beware of Pity was written in Zweig's London exile in 1938, and although it is above all a psychological novel whose tragedy unfolds in the private realms, Zweig's humanistic perspective provides a commentary on the larger historical and political situation.

This Faustian tale unfolds as the fictional memoir of Dr. Max Aue, a former SS intelligence officer who has reinvented himself as a family man and lace factory owner in post-war France. An intellectual immersed in philosophy, literature, and classical music, Max is also a cold-blooded assassin and a meticulous bureaucrat. He recounts his life with chilling clarity, reflecting on his disrupted childhood, pivotal student experiences, and his involvement in Nazi atrocities across the Eastern Front, from Poland to the Caucasus. Present during the siege of Stalingrad and the death camps, he ultimately witnesses the chaotic downfall of the Nazis and Berlin. While Max is a fictional character, he interacts with historical figures like Eichmann, Himmler, and Hitler. This expansive, intense narrative is both hallucinatory and compelling, earning it the designation of a 'monument of contemporary literature' by Le Figaro. It has drawn comparisons to literary classics such as War and Peace. This profound exploration of the seductive nature of evil, the horror of war, and human malevolence is essential reading for anyone who contemplates the depths of human experience.