Summary

This section includes Part 1 “Fatherland” in its entirety - from Chapter 1 through 6. Chapter 1 opens in September 1942, as the protagonist Anton sits on a train leaving Stuttgart, Germany. He thinks about how his town has changed in the war. He thinks about his past life as a friar, and how that life is over now. He overhears a couple talking about the White Rose, and he intercedes trying to make a joke as they debate the resistance. Anton arrives in Unterboihingen, and meets his new landlord Herr Franke. Anton has brought with him four heavy travel trunks, and he gives some boys at the station some money in exchange for helping them load his luggage. Anton tells Herr Franke that he has a back injury from his time as a soldier in the German army, and explains to the boys that he injured himself...