1922, Paul rebels against his father, a manufacturer, and goes to study art at the newly opened and radical Bauhaus school in Weimar. there he falls in with a disparate group of fellow students whose lives, loves and art are influenced by the Bauhaus, Germany between the wars and the rise of the Nazis.
Although I found the first third of the book difficult to engage with, by halfway I was really interested. I think this had a lot to do with the way that Weimar Germany was depicted and the slow, insidious rise of the Nazi party. The deprivations of life in 1920s Germany were depicted well, hyperinflation was astonishing. Although the fate of each student was mapped out from the start, story was still gripping and ultimately very sad. ( )

The author and publishers timed this right. A book with a group of Bauhaus students at its centre published last year, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the still influential school of art. We'd been intending to take a short holiday in Germany to take advantage of the various exhibitions and celebrations of the centenary. We planned it, pencilled in some dates but somehow never got round to organising it. Pity, it will have to be postponed to a future, unknown, date isolation, lockdown, virus and travel permitting.

Six new students of varying backgrounds arrive and make friends. Their friendships develop. They fall in and out of love. Their studies progress, or don't. Kandinsky, Klee, the Albers have walk on parts. All amidst the political developments in Germany of the twenties and thirties. The collapse of the Weimar republic, the rise of the Nazis and the chancellorship of Hitler. A progressive institute like the Bauhaus, progressive in social attitudes as well as art, was doomed in those circumstances. The lives and backgrounds of the six protagonists draws out the tensions not only between them but in society more widely. As to be expected things don't end well.

The story is told through the eyes of one of the six, Paul Beckermann. Though he carries the story he is not a particularly endearing character. Distant, full of suspicion and doubt it makes you wonder what the other five see in him. But doubt especially is a key element. With a threatening and dangerous political situation developing with unexpected rapidity and all you want to do is get on with your life you have doubts in yourself. What course of action to take? And that is the nub of the book.

Written by a tutor in creative writing at the UEA it is cleverly constructed and carefully written. The denouement is signalled early on. The question is by what route we get there. But with a less than engaging main character there is no real sense of involvement in the outcome. Nevertheless, when we do eventually get to visit Weimar, Berlin and Dessau the characters will be at the back of my mind.

One little question that came to me whilst I was reading was that there are six principal characters. Three men and three women. The author, a woman, chooses to tell the tale through one of the male characters. Not unusual by any means. But I just wondered what led her to make that decision? ( )