Elevrecension: Shadow of the Zeppelin

Shadow of the Zeppelin by Bernard Ashley.

This book was written by the prizewinning British author Bernard Ashley who was born in April, 1935. This book was written in 2014 and has 310 pages.

It’s a bit hard to say what genre this book belongs to, but I would say that this book is a historical novel. I think this is more of a historical novel because it takes place in the past, which is essential in a historical fiction. The way people act and behave is also different than we do today. We also know that the book takes place during WW1 which started in 1914 and ended in 1918, a century ago.

There are two main characters that the book is centered around. The main characters are the young boy named Freddie and the German soldier Ernst. It’s not clear how Freddie and Ernst look but there are some hints that suggest that Freddie is short, blond and wispy he’s also 12 years old. Ernst is an Ashkenazi Jew, which is mentioned in the book, and is of average height with brown hair. Freddie is patriotic, thoughtful and kind. He’s just your run-of-the-mill boy living in the early 20th century who helps his family by doing some chores. He also has a brother named William, but they call him Will. Freddie is not happy that his brother doesn’t want to join the army and he and his family gets harassed because of it. He's also not happy about the fact that he’s too young to join the army, even to young to lie about his age.

While in Germany or the German empire lives Ernst who’s young man in his twenties who is also very patriotic but sometimes questions what if the brits aren’t that evil as their government and their emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm ll, tells them and if the war is even necessary. He’s reserved and wants to be the hero of the German empire by doing, what seems like, stupid or dangerous things but he never pulls it off and thinks that he’s a coward. Then there are the side characters like Freddie’s older brother Will and his family. Ernst has a wife and a soon to be child, he also has friends.

The book takes place in the beginning of WW1, around 1915 in spring during the Blitz. The book plays out in three different places, at the British home front, the fighting front of France and even in the sky at the German air raids on London. Freddie’s family lives in a little town called Woolwich. Not to far from London and is described as a small town, friendly where everyone knows each other. The source of income in this town comes from the artillery factory just outside of the town, Freddie’s dad worked here before he got sick.

Then there’s the French fighting front where Freddie’s brother, Will, is. There are muddy trenches, artillery flying over the front lines, bombardments everywhere and dead bodies everywhere.

The book begins in England, at night. Freddie wakes up and runs up to the window and sees the, as he describes it, big and ghostly. Then it cuts to daytime. Here Freddie describes his thoughts about the war. We get to know that he’s very patriotic. He wants to join the army but can’t, simply because of his age. He’s also disappointed that his brother doesn’t want to join the army and fight for the country and that leads to him and his family getting harassed by the villagers.

He also mentioned how his brother changed since he started dating this girl called Amy.

Then we cut to Ernst whose in the crew hut sitting on his bunk. He has received a letter from his wife. She’s telling him that he's going to be a father soon. Then an officer comes in and gives an order order to Ernst and his crew. They are going to be deployed over London, to bomb the city. He’s surprised and afraid at the same time because he has only been in France and the North Sea and this will be his first time as a compass steerer. He then immediately regrets that he joined the Air Force. The book continues till the pivotal moment when Will and his girlfriend Amy attend a show in London. Then suddenly the bombs fall down and crash into several buildings. They try to run but the glass doors brakes and Amy gets glass everywhere on her face and gets serious injuries. Will then, to avenge his girlfriends misery, joins the army and gets send of to the French front.

I really like history, especially about WW1. So it was clear for me to choose this book.
I like the characters. Freddie and his family, Ernst and the soldiers. I can even say that Will is kind of relatable because the Germans were being demonized but Will knew that all that were lies and that it wasn’t Britain’s war to fight and how the war was unnecessary. The characters are well rounded and it's easy to sympathize with them, like Will, Freddie and Ernst. For example when Freddie gets bullied, because his brother didn’t want to join the war, and you could feel what he felt during that moment. Anger but also a will to defend his homeland. Or when Will’s girlfriend Amy gets the glass splinters all over her face.
It did also a good job at showing the Blitz, the homefront and the French front pretty well but you could notice that the gore and the violence was a bit toned down which did more damage to the story than good and didn’t catch the real horrors of WW1. The really good thing about this book is that it didn’t had any major historical flaws, it clearly showed how much research the author had put down to make the book as historical as possible. The structure of the story was also good and it was easy to follow the story and the language was easy and simple. There were some “old words” but when put in context it was easier to understand these words.

I would recommend this book to teenagers who also are interested in history. I would also recommend other books this author has written just because at how well made this book was and his style of writing and that he puts tons of research to make his book as correct as possible.

Overall, I liked this book. Everything was at its place. The story was well structured, didn’t have any major historical flaws, the characters were well rounded and easy to sympathize with. I actually had low expectations for this book but I was surprised at how good and polished this book was. The only downside was the lack of gore and violence which really didn’t portray the horrors of WW1.

I will give this book 4.5/5 Iron Crosses (Eiserne Kreuz).

-Kaiser Wilhelm ll in year 9.