Am I old enough to be claiming Alzheimers as a reason for this brain gap?

September 21, 2005 2:06 PM

I'm trying to remember the name of a book I read in Secondary 3 (Grade 9) about a German girl who loses all of her family in the bombing of Dresden (I think), meets up a boy who is escaping from the Hitler Youth and reforms her life with relatives in a major German city...

I have been trying in vain to Google the name of this book. All I can remember other than the vagueries of the plot (there's also a bit of a love story between the main girl and the boy she meets up with) is that the book's title is just the name of the girl. I think her name started with a "T" and I kind of remember that the name was not exclusively "German" sounding...

I read it back in 1997, and I doubt that the edition I read was published any earlier than the mid-80s.

Any help identifying the book mefites?

posted by elkerette to media & arts (4 comments total)

Fiction or nonfiction?
posted by arco at 2:15 PM on September 21, 2005

Sorry about forgetting that... I think it was fiction - although it may also have been based on the experience of the author.

If I recall correctly, it was translated from the original German.
posted by elkerette at 2:18 PM on September 21, 2005

Is it Tilla, by Ilse Koehn? There is not a copy in the library where I work, and I have not read this book to be able to say one way oth another, but the brief description sounds about right: "The lives of two teenagers become increasingly entwined as they pursue their few surviving dreams in post-World War II Berlin."

The Toronto Public Library apparently has a copy if you want to see for yourself.
posted by arco at 2:27 PM on September 21, 2005

That's exactly it! I knew the name started with a "T" but I kept Googling "Tillie" and "Talia"...

Thank you arco! :)
posted by elkerette at 2:31 PM on September 21, 2005