The Wehrwolf
by Alma Katsu
The “Werwolf” was a rather obscure Nazi plan to create a guerilla resistance force to repel Allies advancing through German territory. In The Wehrwolf, Alma Katsu references this historical fact, by setting a werewolf story in a rural German village in the dying days of the Second World War.
Uwe Fuchs, the protagonist, has escaped conscription because of an exemption to allow him to care for his ailing mother. He is a simple farmer, whose priorities in life iare his wife Katya and young daughter Liesl. As news from the front worsens, paranoia descends on the village, and Uwe is pressured into doing his bit for his country by joining a local militia led by strongman (and alleged army deserter) Hans Sauer. Uwe soon realises that he has struck a devilish bargain, and that the local legends about men-wolves may not be so fantastic after all...
The premise of The
Wehrwolf is an interesting one. As
in her longer novels, Katsu combines supernatural horror with historical
fiction but here she also adds a cautionary note about the danger of ordinary, good-natured
people being drawn into webs of evil. The execution however left me unimpressed
– the language and style struck me as quite bland, and the werewolf/Nazi
metaphor was promising to begin with but then became increasingly obvious and unsubtle. This was an entertaining evening’s read but
not much more than that.
- Kindle Edition
- September 29, 2022 by Amazon Original Stories
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