{"product_id":"nachzehrerbooks","title":"Nachzehrer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn Nelson Keane’s harrowing but powerful novel, Canadian Gary Kurt Paine tells us he’s been transformed into such a creature (he calls himself a “soul-eater”) by what he suffered and witnessed as a prisoner of war during WWII. The story begins in 2018 with Gary’s obituary in the local newspaper. After living in a cardboard box under a bridge for the last forty years of his life, Gary has died at age 99. Our narrator is Gary’s best friend, a teacher who remains unnamed throughout the book. In 1978 the two met and connected when the teacher was on his way to his first job, and subsequently they spent time together almost every day. For the last year, Gary has been dictating his life story to his friend, and this is the account we now hold in our hands. In his own words, Gary tells us how he grew up on a farm in rural Ontario and became a pilot via some highly unlikely circumstances. As a young man he traveled to England (again via highly unlikely circumstances) where he joined the RAF and became an elite fighter pilot who accumulated many kills, flying his Hurricane into the Battle of Britain and taking part in bombing raids over Germany. But during one mission his plane was shot down, and Gary found himself stranded in Nazi-occupied France. Through good fortune he was discovered by a group of French resistance fighters who were in the business of making life difficult for the German occupiers. But Gary wanted to continue flying, and it was during an attempt to reach the French coast and a possible water route back to England that he was captured by the Germans. Instead of being incarcerated in a POW camp, Gary was taken to Berlin, where he was confined to Plötzensee Prison, which was being used by the Nazis as a torture and execution site for foreign spies and other enemies of the Nazi regime, including Germans accused of taking part in acts of resistance who were convicted as traitors. It was here, in a prison run by a lunatic where the condemned were dispatched, typically \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003een masse\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, by methods such as slow hanging and guillotine, that Gary suffered his transformation. The war ended, Gary survived and eventually returned home. But he had changed. He knew it, his parents knew it. Life had taken on a different complexion for a man, still relatively young, who has endured the worst that humans can inflict on other humans and who is no longer able to trust in his own sanity. Nelson Keane’s haunting novel, though relatively brief, contains multitudes. The meat of Gary’s story takes place in the scenes set in Plötzensee Prison. These are brutal and nightmarish and often viscerally repugnant, but absolutely compelling. The prison commandant is a monster with a vendetta. The entire narrative shifts into horror mode when he enters the room and sets his sights, once again, on Gary Paine. Like a bitter pill, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eNachzehrer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e does not go down easily. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Keane, Nelson","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Adult Fiction)","offer_id":46480819159264,"sku":"","price":9.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0330\/3125\/8248\/files\/Screenshot2024-10-19at1.01.02PM.png?v=1729353668","url":"https:\/\/agricola-street-books.myshopify.com\/products\/nachzehrerbooks","provider":"Agricola Street Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}