Through Trudi's intimate ordeals, Ms. Hegi's novel similarly explores the way private grief can break out as political madness. All of this is rather a lot to heap on one fictional character. And some of the book's episodes do seem programmed, however gracefully, to make a point. At times, too, one feels that historical enormities have been scaled down to fit the cozy small-town context. Yet Trudi's fierce struggle to live her own life serves to ground her story in harsh realities.
Ugly heroines are rare in novels, rarer still in movies and fairy tales.
To recast Mr. Grass's Oskar as a woman was a daring and rewarding move. History rolls over the town of Burgdorf. Jewish neighbors are arrested and deported. Some emigrate and survive. Trudi and her father hide fleeing Jews in their cellar.