Germania

In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History

By: Simon Winder

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Sitting on a bench at a communal table in a restaurant in Regensburg, his plate loaded with disturbing amounts of bratwurst and sauerkraut made golden by candlelight shining through a massive glass of beer, Simon Winder was happily swinging his legs when a couple from Rottweil politely but awkwardly asked, "So, why are you here"? This audiobook is an attempt to answer that question.

Why spend time wandering around a country that remains a sort of dead zone for many foreigners, surrounded as it is by a force field of historical, linguistic, climatic, and gastronomic barriers?

Winder's audiobook is propelled by a wish to reclaim the brilliant, chaotic, endlessly varied German civilization that the Nazis buried and ruined, and that, since 1945, so many Germans have worked to rebuild. Germania is a very funny audiobook on serious topics: how we are misled by history, how we twist history, and how sometimes it is best to know no history at all. It is a audiobook full of curiosities, odd food, castles, mad princes, fairy tales, and horse-mating videos. It is about the limits of language, the meaning of culture, and the pleasure of townscape.

©2010 Simon Winder (P)2018 Tantor

A brilliant, hilarious love letter to Germany

Simon Winder may be a world-class editor, but he may be an even finer writer. I adore this book so much that I’ve listened to it three or four times.

James Cameron Stewart is a glorious narrator. I have loved him for 15 years in his role as narrator for the Economist audio edition. Here, he brings warmth and humor to the thoroughly enjoyable text.

I love it! I hope you do, too.

Yours,
Jamie

50 / 50

I am having a love-hate relationship with this book.

I love the droll, witty, almost sarcastic tone of the book; it’s fantastic!… but the narration is on and off. Yes a dry English narrator is a perfect fit, but he pauses in weird places and sometimes all sentences feel like declarations.

I love all the touristy leads I am getting for my next trip to Germany… but there are so many and I am not retaining ANYTHING

ARGH! I think this is one of those books one must re-read multiple times to truly absorb.

wry

author takes tour of unfamiliar Germany past and present with a wonderful dry, wry sense of humor

You’re going to have to work to enjoy

He’s very witty and very present in German cultures but makes so many in-jokes that Dennis Miller would probably rage quit at times. But if you bother to look up the places and people, it’s very rewarding.

Superb tour of Germany

It's not often a history book stops you in your tracks because you're laughing so hard, this book did it more times than should be possible.

A superb mix of anecdotes, self deprecation and insight, wrapped up in a remarkable method of making history fun and entertaining.

I wish Winder wrote children's books, in fact I wish Winder was in charge of all history teaching period.

More than the other parts of the series, the authors' love hate relationship with German history comes through and I occasionally found myself cringing at the too frequent references to Nazism, but these moments pass quickly.

Perhaps the most I can say is that Winder is the type of person who could turn 6 hour delay on public transport into a joy if you were lucky enough to be sitting next to him.