Floating in My Mother's Palm

by Ursula Hegi
4 Stars
Setting: Germany
192 pages
Published 1990

Ellie's Review
This is an interesting book about a girl growing up in Germany post-war. It's more like a collection of short stories of people in the town than a novel with a continuous plot.

Book Summary
Floating in My Mother's Palm is the compelling and mystical story of Hanna Malter, a young girl growing up in 1950's Burgdorf, the small German town Ursula Hegi so brilliantly brought to life in her bestselling novel Stones from the River. Hanna's courageous voice evokes her unconventional mother, who swims during thunderstorms; the illegitimate son of an American GI, who learns from Hanna about his father; and the librarian, Trudi Montag, who lets Hanna see her hometown from a dwarf's extraordinary point of view. Although Ursula Hegi wrote Floating in My Mother's Palm first, it can be read as a sequel to Stones from the River.