Our group felt the opening of the book was excellent in generating an interest in reading on. We also appreciated the description of the events during World War I and the explanation of the Treaty of Versailles. It was interesting to see impact the first World War and its aftermath had on Germany and contributed to the rise of the Nazis. However, we felt there was some historical events mentioned in the novel that required additional background information. We discussed how the characters of Erich and Lise symbolized German people and other Europeans,but we flet it was difficult to like them. We felt they should have been developed more. Of all the characters, Steeg was the most developed, and we would have liked to see this kind of development for other characters. We were particularly interested in Hilde and her relationship with Steeg.