Let me add my vote to the "yesses" for this book. Hegi draws her characters with unusual depth. She populates the whole town with a mixture of people that anyone who's lived in any community can recognize, in mixtures of selfishness and selflessness that anyone who's looked into their own soul can recognize.

This is one of the most original and deeply "human" epics I've ever read. A must read.

I had to read and annotate this book for AP language/composition. It was the worst book I have ever read in my entire life.

Some books disappoint on a second reading, but not this one. When it came time for my book club to read this book I was very excited, because I remembered that I really liked it the first time I read it. And I was not disappointed. I think I liked this book at least as much the second time around as the first.

This is a story with two contrasting themes. One is difference. Told mostly from the perspective of Trudi, a dwarf, who feels how different she is from the members of her community on a daily basis. And she sees how difference in others is persecuted under the Nazis.

The other theme of this book is community. One thing I really liked about this book is how we come to know so many members of Trudi's community throughout their lives. We understand as well as Trudi does why certain members of the community do certain things, because we have known them almost as long as she has. Hegi does a wonderful job of bringing the whole community to life.

And she is more than equal to the task of describing what the advent of Nazism does to this small German community. She does not shy away from the people who enthusiastically embrace Hitler and his party, but she does portray in a more sympathetic way those who at least question Hitler's policies.

Rather than making a judgment call, though, based on how her characters respond to the Third Reich, Hegi seems more interested in demonstrating the range of responses that existed in a small town, and how those differing responses change the character of the town itself.

This was my book club's choice last month, and probably not a book I would have picked up on my own. But I enjoyed it. It was a little hard to read with a lot of German words stuck here and here, and a lot of characters to keep track of. But you were rooting for Trudi throughout the book. Got an understanding for what a small person goes through on a regular basis. It also painted a great picture of Nazi occupied Germany, and not only what Jews went through but how good German people did what they needed to, to survive and keep their families alive. I sometimes wondered what was going on in those towns outside the concentration camps and why they didnt ask what was going on..have a pretty good picture now why.

This book took me on the journey through a woman's life who just happens to be a zwerg (dwarf). She was an amazing character who experiences an extraordinary life in a small town in Germany. I often can't get through a book because of authors who have phony styles and try too hard. This book, however, is so REAL. It is beautifully written and anyone who disagrees has bad taste (in my not so humble opinion). I couldn't put the book down and at every moment wanted to immerse my mind in the intricate story of Trudi Montag. I stayed up until 4 in the morning 2 nights in a row, unable to stop reading.

The journey this story took me on is not to be missed. I am so grateful that I experienced it!

In Stones from the River, set in wartime Germany, in the fictional town of Burgdorf, Ursula Hegi sets the theme of her book early on through Trudi's mother, Gertrude. She allows her young daughter to run her fingers across the scars on her thigh, feeling the grains of gravel beneath, telling her, "People die if you don't love them enough." The grains of gravel paralleled the stones in the river (hence the title) - they were sins people committed that, like the ripples in water from a stone being cast in, showed their scar on the surface for only a short time and then disappeared, but the stones remain beneath, unseen, like the sin. Already one can see the relevance this will have regarding the upcoming events in the novel, regarding the atrocities under the Nazi regime.

Trudi is a zwerg girl, a dwarf, who at first puts her faith in prayer, wishing to grow taller. She is confident in the divine power and, especially after meeting another zwerg woman named Pia, a lion tamer, feels more positive about herself and the possibility of "normalcy." However, after four abusive neighborhood boys find her too different and repulsive to even rape and instead humiliate her and disrobe her, she loses all faith in prayer, and from then on seems to take nothing for granted, developing an early conviction of justice.

By the end of the novel, after the World War II horrors have come to light and Germany begins to put itself back together, Trudi and the allied forces are able to finally deal out their justice. As the Americans move in it is now the Nazi supporters which are the ones being investigated and ostracized, as they had done to the Jews and dissidents. Once again, the themes of the stones in the river/gravel beneath the skin are set upon the town. People try to forget and pretend like the atrocities of war didn't happen, though beneath the surface the effects are still potent and permanent, as Trudi is determined to remind people of it. Remembering her mother's quote, it was people's lack of empathy and compassion that allowed such a horror as the Holocaust to occur.

Stones from the River offers the reader insight and understanding into this important era of history, whose hometown experiences of prejudice, denial, and hysteria are not entirely unique. The novel traces the hardships of several families in Trudi's small town with varying degrees of emotional impact. The story seems to slump and meander at times, particularly in the beginning and ending of the book, which makes the overall experience anti-climatic. Patience is required. Instead the story's greatest strength lies in the middle, and it is this portion that makes the endeavor worthwhile.

after reading "the book thief" a 11 yr old told me she had never read a book from both perspectives told so well. (this girl is very wise) i ordered her stones from the river so she could read of trudy and her german town before,during and after world war 2. i read it when oprah recommded it many yrs ago and the book still hold my heart in its hands. it is quirky and funny without being silly. it is deep and wide without overwhelming the borders of a great story. an adult book for children to grow from.

There are few books I don't finish. I was looking forward to reading this book because it sounded like a great novel - fascinating characters, set in an inherently interesting time and place. Unfortunately, I found the writing dull and pedantic. The story is mostly told from the main character's point of view, but her voice does not change from infancy through adulthood. And there are sudden inexplicable shifts in point of view and in time, which work well in a short story or essay format but are annoying in a novel. I think her intent is to foreshadow, but telling us about a future act when the main character is still only 3 is not effective foreshadowing. And I kept remembering my 7th grade English teacher's direction to "show us, don't tell us" as to how different characters feel and relate.

It was with much disappointment that I finally decided that my annoyance with the writing style was too great. I gave up halfway through and returned the book.

I found this book very hard to get into, however, there were some very intriguing parts. I had to read this for school, and there were a few girls who absolutely loved it. Now that we have discussed it, if I were to read it again, I think that I would find it more captivating, but for now, I give it 3 stars.

Ursula Hegi has written an insightful and absorbing book. Stones From the River is magnificent. The story is beautifully told from the vantage point of one being born German, but tempered with the objectivity of one who was `different'--a Zwerg--and, therefore, always an outsider.

We see the world (Germany, 1915 - 1948) through Trudi's eyes, from childhood through womanhood: Trudi, the town storyteller, the keeper and purveyor of secrets. Trudi, whose imagination could stretch way beyond the confines of her stunted body.
Through Trudi's words we are given glimpse into what must be Hegi's own creative process (quoted in this next statement):
"The final design wouldn't happen all at once: there would be the rearrangement of it all,...a design would emerge...a story that would hold the entire world. It had to do with what to tell first--though it hadn't happened first--and what to end the story with. It had to do with what to enhance and what to relinquish. And what to embrace."

Trudi takes us into the lives of the people of Burgdorf, Germany, a community surviving the depression after WWI and torn by the passions of WWII. In this mainly Catholic town of traditions, highly held virtues were good manners, strict obedience to authority, unquestioning belief---belief without doubt--, the need for order, and if it meant not acknowledging unpleasantness,` keeping up appearances' to the extent of whitewashing events inconsistent with these values. You begin to understand what happened to a nation of basically good, hard-working people, struggling to regain self-respect after losing WWI. You begin to get a clear picture of how they were led astray and why, at least on the surface, they were quick to want to forget. As stated early on by Leo, Trudi's father: "Germans have a history of sacrificing everything for a strong leader...it's our fear of chaos" and then later, as Hitler was rising to power "...the German attraction for one strong leader, one father figure who makes you obey.... The silence of so many was born out of fear and from a lifetime of compliance, and the disbelief that the Germany they knew could be responsible for unthinkable acts of cruelty and violence.

We also see the war from the perspective of those being bombed by the Allies. I did not know that Dresden was firebombed or that men in trenches were buried alive by American tanks. Or, that America closed it's doors to Jews needing to immigrate, trapping them in Germany. Ugliness all round.

Trudi likens her ability to absort and retell the town secrets to her deep connection to the river that borders the town: seeing beneath the surface, knowing the undercurrents, the whirlpools that could take you down, the hidden stones.
Stones From The River is an eye-opening, fascinating, and skillfully told story: a "must read".

Ursula Hegi has written an insightful and absorbing book. Stones From the River is magnificent. The story is beautifully told from the vantage point of one being born German, but tempered with the objectivity of one who was `different'--a Zwerg--and, therefore, always an outsider.

We see the world (Germany, 1915 - 1948) through Trudi's eyes, from childhood through womanhood: Trudi, the town storyteller, the keeper and purveyor of secrets. Trudi, whose imagination could stretch way beyond the confines of her stunted body.
Through Trudi's words we are given glimpse into what must be Hegi's own creative process (quoted in this next statement):
"The final design wouldn't happen all at once: there would be the rearrangement of it all,...a design would emerge...a story that would hold the entire world. It had to do with what to tell first--though it hadn't happened first--and what to end the story with. It had to do with what to enhance and what to relinquish. And what to embrace."

Trudi takes us into the lives of the people of Burgdorf, Germany, a community surviving the depression after WWI and torn by the passions of WWII. In this mainly Catholic town of traditions, highly held virtues were good manners, strict obedience to authority, unquestioning belief---belief without doubt--, the need for order, and if it meant not acknowledging unpleasantness,` keeping up appearances' to the extent of whitewashing events inconsistent with these values. You begin to understand what happened to a nation of basically good, hard-working people, struggling to regain self-respect after losing WWI. You begin to get a clear picture of how they were led astray and why, at least on the surface, they were quick to want to forget. As stated early on by Leo, Trudi's father: "Germans have a history of sacrificing everything for a strong leader...it's our fear of chaos" and then later, as Hitler was rising to power "...the German attraction for one strong leader, one father figure who makes you obey.... The silence of so many was born out of fear and from a lifetime of compliance, and the disbelief that the Germany they knew could be responsible for unthinkable acts of cruelty and violence.

We also see the war from the perspective of those being bombed by the Allies. I did not know that Dresden was firebombed or that men in trenches were buried alive by American tanks. Or, that America closed it's doors to Jews needing to immigrate, trapping them in Germany. Ugliness all round.

Trudi likens her ability to absort and retell the town secrets to her deep connection to the river that borders the town: seeing beneath the surface, knowing the undercurrents, the whirlpools that could take you down, the hidden stones.
Stones From The River is an eye-opening, fascinating, and skillfully told story: a "must read".

Now I am usually a fan of Holocaust books, but I am currently contemplating burning this book. I have to read it for an honors english conference, and my friends and I are all in agreement; this is easily one of the worst books any of us has ever read. It is slow moving and the language isn't captivating at all. The tense changes and overabundence of characters makes the plot (or lack there of) hard to follow. There is also no oppurtunity to connect with the many characters of this book, therefore there is no emotional impact when bad things happen to them.
If you are thinking of reading this book, check yourself into an insane asylum. It's honestly horrible

"Stones from the River" is a very special book. As you already know, it traces the life of Trudi Montag, a dwarf, from her childhood in the aftermath of WWI to her life in a small German town during WWII. Trudi is a compelling character, who constantly fights people's attempts to marginalize her because of her difference. She's no saint--at times she can be cruel, hurtful, vengeful--and that makes her real. She spends her days delving into other people's stories; she becomes the consummate listener. One wonders why people tell her the things they do--do they foolishly forget that inside she's just another person?

But what really grabbed me in this book was Hegi's portrayal of the slow, insidious spread of Nazi power through this peaceful, boring town. There are always a few people who will jump on any bandwagon if they think they will get ahead. But Hegi has created a town of well-meaning, basically kind people who, through a mix of propoganda and intimidation, become passive in the face of the terrible power of the Nazis. Many continue to patronize Jewish businesses and socialize with their Jewish friends in the face of the Nazi's subtle pressure, but when spouses and children are threatened, their resistance crumbles. Trudi acts as though she has little to lose, even though love enters her life during the war, and with her gentle father they devise a way to hide Jews on the road to safety. They survive, but many don't. Hegi reminds the reader of the truly staggering losses suffered by the German people themselves, far worse than anyone living in Allied countries.

This is a thought-provoking book. Inevitably, when we think of the Holocaust, we wonder "Could it happen again?" Read "Stones from the River" for the answer.

"Stones from the River" is a very special book. As you already know, it traces the life of Trudi Montag, a dwarf, from her childhood in the aftermath of WWI to her life in a small German town during WWII. Trudi is a compelling character, who constantly fights people's attempts to marginalize her because of her difference. She's no saint--at times she can be cruel, hurtful, vengeful--and that makes her real.

But what really grabbed me in this book was Hegi's portrayal of the slow, insidious spread of Nazi power through this peaceful, boring town. There are always a few people who will jump on any bandwagon if they think they will get ahead. But Hegi has created a town of well-meaning, basically kind people who, through a mix of propoganda and intimidation, become passive in the face of the terrible power of the Nazis. Many continue to patronize Jewish businesses and socialize with their Jewish friends in the face of the Nazi's subtle pressure, but when spouses and children are threatened, their resistance crumbles. In a sense, Trudi has little to lose, and with her gentle father they devise a way to hide Jews on the road to safety. They survive, but many don't. Hegi reminds the reader of the truly staggering losses suffered by the German people themselves, far worse than anyone living in Allied countries.

This is a thought-provoking book. Inevitably, when we think of the Holocaust, we wonder "Could it happen again?" Read "Stones from the River" for the answer.

This was excellent. A love story set in Germany during World War II; it is about the lives of a community, a woman, the war--all of it. The main character is wise and insightful. Her descriptions of life around her, all that is ugly and beautiful are full, crisp. This book is complex, engaging, and surprising.

I read this book perhaps 10 years ago. It is still my favorite novel. It is so beautifully written, and the main character has stayed with me all these years. I need to reread it:)

I loved this book. The story was great, but what really effected me was how Hegi wove the growth of discrimination in Nazi Germany into the story. She gives life to what really happened, one step at a time, in villages throughout the country and how the Nazi's managed to slowly take over the sensibilites of people who had never had a reason to hate their Jewish neighbors. It is a wonderful book. I highly recommend it.

I found it interesting that like 'Middlesex' this book follows the story of a family told over many decades and told by an unusual narrator, in this case a girl born a dwarf. The major differences are that while 'Middlesex' was terribly written I couldn't put this book down because Ursula Hegi writes interesting, complex characters that behave in believable ways and that the reader really cares about. The post the WWII years I found to be rather anti-climatic but that is a small gripe. Overall, a really well told, epic novel.

I loved this book. The main character was wonderful--and caught you up in that whole sorry era. She provided positive spin for the book.

Written in 1994, and set in the small (fictional) German town of Burgdorf from 1915 - 1951, this compassionate novel centers on Trudi Montag, a bright, observant, and articulate young woman who is also a zwerg, a dwarf. Born to a mentally ill mother who dies when Trudi is three, Trudi is at first bewildered by her small size, hanging from doorframes to "stretch" her arms and legs, praying that she will become more like other children, and believing that if she is truly good, God will help her.

Though a circus dwarf once comforts her by describing a fantasyland filled with gold and jewels, where everyone is a zwerg, Trudi finds that real life is not so magical. She is physically and emotionally assaulted, and, as a teenager, watches in horror as the Nazis come to power and assault and later "deport" her Jewish friends, who are now considered "different." Trudi's experience of her own "otherness" makes her a sympathetic friend and active supporter of the local Jews, and Hegi evokes great power by connecting the overwhelming Nazi horrors with the life of one small person in one small community. Through Trudi, Burgdorf's citizens come alive--those who befriend her and those who reject her, those who support her efforts to help the Jews and those who don't, and those who pity her and those who are inspired by her.

Throughout the novel, Hegi shows the power of storytelling to influence lives. Trudi works in her father's pay-library, and she is the community's best known storyteller, creating entertaining and lively stories that teach lessons, especially during the war years. But Trudi is no Pollyanna--she also uses her storytelling as a weapon against those who offend her, wreaking her own brand of personal vengeance. As the novel evolves, her childhood companions come and go. Some remain stalwart friends, and some change with the times. She matures emotionally, falls in love, and becomes part of the community's rebuilding after the war.

Hegi, who lived in Germany until she was eighteen, includes the small details of German life that bring the community and Trudi to life. Her depiction of war-time horrors is honest, and the stories of Trudi's Jewish friends are heart-breaking in their realism. Despite the sadness inherent in the times, however, Hegi is often lyrical in her celebrations of happiness, and Trudi's stories are often enchanting. Incorporating universal themes of love and hatred, life and death, strength and weakness, and acceptance and rejection, Hegi creates a novel that is as powerful on its second reading as it is on its first. n Mary Whipple

I read this book before 9/11 and was horrified by the depiction of how the Germans in Trudi's town were led down the path to acceptance of the dehumaninzation and destruction of their neighbors. Most became obsessed with self-preservation at any cost and eventually either spied on, or were spied on by, each other. Even within their own homes their lives became very careful and circumscribed. I thought that could never happen here. Now I think I must read this book again.

I just finished this extraordinary book, thanks to several friends who insisted that it mustn't be missed. It takes place in a small German town between 1918 and 1944. The characters are well-drawn and complex, and the writing tells so much without being explicit or manipulative.

I was afraid of having my heart wrenched by another painful retelling of the sadistic destruction of lives by the Nazis. Instead, I began to truly understand the phenomenon that resulted in a sort of collective breakdown of human feeling (or perhaps just a reversion to the untamed darker side of human nature), through the eyes of a most sympathetic protagonist and member of this small town.

The best way to teach is through gifted storytelling, when the listener is so caught up in the story and characters that he or she forgets that there may be a lesson inside it. I could not put this book down, and part of me continued to live in that small town for days after I turned the final page. Hegi is a master. I think this book should be required reading for every student, politician, and citizen of the world.

A fascinating look at Germany between the wars, at prejudice, at love, at religion, at fear, at hypocrisy, at humanity. Ursla sometimes is a show off her brilliance with her narrative descriptions, a bit over the top at times, but well worth the time. Artistic license, I guess. This book should become a classic.

Gertrude "Trudi" Montague is the resident freak, gossip, and historian of her small German town....and probably in that order. Born a Zwerge, or dwarf, Trudi has struggled with her inability to grow all of her life. With few friends--except for those also outcast for their differences--from the time she could talk Trudi discovered that acceptance could be gained by the sharing of special information, or secrets, that she gleaned from the patrons of her father's pay-library. With the death of her mother when she was very small, Trudi and her father Leo lead a rather solitary existence...and their pay- library is very much the focal point in this novel. The author does a wonderful job of chronicling the life of someone who is different...and the hurdles that face them. It takes meeting another small person who is very comfortable with her size, the persecution of others who are different during World War II and finding a love of her own before Trudi finally finds acceptance in who she is. After all, she notes near the end, it would take forever to get used to another body.....
A beautifully written story in which Hegi writes eloquently of the challenges faced with being small, while describing in fluid detail the German town that Trudi calls home and the people who inhabit it; all against the backdrop of her beloved river Rheine. A little slow, but the story does gather some momentum...not a novel for the thrill-seekers.


DYB

The topic of World War II is very common in literature. The topic is very moving and emotional for the reader. But in most books, in story is told from the viewpoint of a Jew who was in a concentration camp. This is where Stones from the River differs. This story is told from a young German woman growing up through out the war. She does not agree with the stereotype that the German Nazis place on the Jews. She experiences all aspect of the war, and suffers just as badly as the soldiers on the front. The civilians have to deal with the food shortage, and the bombing. But one thing the soldiers don't have to deal with is the prosecution of the Jews in the town, who often are close friends of the family. She, as well as others in the town, learns how to adapt in extremely new conditions, and the hardships of loss of family and friends. As this young girl transforms into a lady, she begins to appreciate the differences, but fears stereotypes. This way that the author wrote is book is truly amazing, and unique. Hegi presents the story matter from a German's point of view, and shows the great divide between the people who support the Nazis, and those who decide to risk their lives to save those who do not deserve their awful fait.

Over all the book, "Stones from the River," was a very good read, I have already recommended it to some of my family members. Although it was long I got through it, and I enjoyed it because it is very historical. It lets us know what the Germans' point of view was during world war 2, and that all of them weren't Nazis. It really lets us, as Americans, sample the tastes of the feelings that are exhibited through these fictional characters, that although they may not have existed in person, they represent those who did exist and what they themselves felt during the horror of World War 2. Trudi Montag is the main protagonist, and her obstacles that she faces throughout the book, like hiding jews in her cellar to being interrogated by the nazis, are things that the german people had to withstand for nearly a decade with Hitler in power. But this book doesn't just focus on the life pertaining to the war, it also emphasizes regular life and regular experiences, like Trudi's first kiss which she never thought she would have. I think we all can relate to this aspect of the book. That is why I like this book, It taught me about life and about history, and YAY it wasn't froma text book:)

"Stones from the River" is the story of a Zwerg, or dwarf, girl born to a mentally unstable mother and a loving father injured in WWI. The Zwerg girl's name is Trudi, short for Gertrud-- the name she shares with her mother. Trudi grows up in Burgdorf, Germany and lives through both of the World Wars. Trudi is rejected as a child, and begins telling stories so that people will want to spend time with her. She makes a few friends along the way, but most of the people in her town either pity her and feel superior to her. Some fear her for her ability to draw out other people's secrets while never sharing her own. The author, Ursula Hegi, tells Trudi's story from the time she is born, to when she lives through her mother's illness and later death, her troubles growing up, as she sees Hitler rise to power and hides Jews in her basement, and ends the novel with the days following Trudi's father's death.
The novel contained a lot of detail, and for the most part was well written. Oftentimes, however, the plot became dull and uninteresting. The author uses detail well, but sometimes uses comparisons in a way that does not clearly connect it to the emotion, event. And Trudi's strange vision throughout the book confuse the readers. The book was worth reading once, but I would not recommend it as an addition to your library.

Ursula Hegi seems to have a wonderful grasp on human nature. The struggles and decisions that the characters have to deal with all give the story a sense of realism. Readers are drawn into a fictional world that has problems and difficulties similar to their own. The desire to be accepted by one's peers, the internal battles between what is easier and safer to what is right and ethical, and the guilt or pain of loosing a loved one, all of these are things that everyone has felt at one time or another. This book shows how other people would realistically deal, or not deal, with these problems. Of course, the setting for the story is during WWII, so obviously there are more serious consequences to what decisions they make.

This is a beautiful and entrancing book and is definitly something that everyone should read.

I have read this book for my English II class and I personally did not think it was the best book I have ever read. Every other review I have read on this site said the book was perfect and said it was like Dickens' works in a way, but I am not very fond of him either. This book if about a dwarf named Trudi who is living in a small German town before, during, and after World War 1. The book had many characters and most of them seemed to have the problems, but some parts of this novel had very interesting suspense. I feel that Ursula Hegi did a good job of writing this novel that helps show the horrific situations that occurred during the Holocaust in Europe. Hegi does hide some small details in like 1 sentence that are major later in the book, which I thought made the book a little more fun to read. I also feel that she spent too much time on something simple that could have taken a few minutes to type. This is where I think that she is like Charles Dickens, she spends 2 or 3 pages explaining how Trudi walks down to the river, as if she would be able to type a chapter on how a butterfly flies through Trudi's town.

This would not have been one of my choices for a novel, but I am a sophmore and I am sure older people wrote the rest of these reviews, but I am sure Ursula Hegi could have knocked off about 100 pages from this novel and it be just as good, it just seemed that she put a lot of extra stuff in it that were not needed.

Stones From The River gives a new perspective to what went on during World War II in Germany. It was not exceptionally graphic in describing the abuses of the Jews during this time, but gave enough detail to provide an accurate picture of what had to be endured, which provoked thought and more sympathy than any history book. More importantly, it also gives the reader the opportunity to see the division that occured between non-Jewish Germans. Most Americans have the uninformed and inaccurate belief that all German citizens were Nazi supports and devoted followerws of Hitler. In fact, many Germans risked their lives to secretly defy Hitler by hiding Jews or helping in other ways. It was very much like the Underground Railroad, but has received less publicity in America.
The main character, Trudi Montag, has her own personnal struggle during this time period as a dwarf who is shunned by her society. She must learn to let go of all of the trauma that has occured in her life because of her size, just as Germany must learn to overcome the war and forgive each other. Trudi morphes from a librarian who uses gossip as a weapon against those who hurt her to a messenger of truth who refuses to accept lies about Germany's past when the war is over.
Overall, it is a story about overcoming life's obstacles and treating them like stones in a river, which leave an impact but do not stop the river from flowing onwards. This can be applied to Trudi, Germany as a whole, and any reader who picks up this book.

Overall I feel that this book's compelling story allowed the reader some leeway in predicting the outcome of this novel while at other times it was rather obvious what would occur. The author, Hegi, combines fictional characters in a non-fictional setting. In my opinion, the reader is left with the feeling of some insignificant closure by the end of the story. My English teacher warned us that "There were no insignificant characters," which gave me plenty of problems at the beginning when I was introduced to an entire town of unrecognizeable German names. My inability to remember all of the members of Burgdorf, (the town in Germany where this story takes place) taunted me throughout the novel and I found myself constantly looking back to the first few chapters trying to figure out who a seemingly unrelated person was. Also as a hopeless romantic, I felt compelled by the main character, Trudi's attempts at finding love in world that often rejected her because of her dwarfism. I found it slightly unrealistic that the story began at age she could not possibly remember yet she was able to convey thoughts and feelings that a toddler could not verbalize. Though I thoroughly enjoyed this book at times, I am not able to give this book five stars due to my inabilty to comprehend the book's ending and motivations of some of the main characters.

Reading Stones From the River, by Ursula Hegi, I have experienced a range of emotions. First reading the book, I felt there was no point to the book because it took forever for the plot line to unfold. It started with the main character Trudi a drawf that wanted to grow. She was a child of a old vetron and a mental mother. Reading about Gertrud, Trudi's mother, I was thinking why is my school making us read a book a about a crazy lady. As the book's plot line started to undfold I started to enjoy the book a little more. There were alot of characters introduced that at first I thought they had no erelivence but Ursula did a nice job tiring these characters in the plot. For example, Rhainer Bilder was a plump child that went missing because of his differences his parents did not bother to look for him. Later in the novel he comes back to write an artical about a crime that happened in the town, but instead of saying the crime was the guilty man's flaut he said it was the town that made him commit his crime. The novel brakes the barrier that differences are a bad thing. Ursula does a great job expressing Trudi feelings about her differences and the differences of others. I especially like how she incorporated the plot of WW2 and the jews. Ursula tells the details and the effects of the war in a non-direct way by telling the experiences through Trudi's stories. In closing, I am on the fence whether or not I liked this book, but it helps people learn lessons about life.

This novel was unique in the way that it presented a story that was set in the perspective of a dwarf girl growing up in Germany during World War II. As the story progressed, the main character matured as she aged and eventually accepted herself as a being different from other people in her town. The town itself seemed to become a part of the reader's own life as the reader learned the secretes of all the people, both Jews and Nazis. This fiction story is believable in the way that it expresses common emotions that all people understand and in the way the era of the war is described from the views of the soldiers, Jews in concentration camps, and the very people living in the town. The main character, Trudi, managed to survive the war even though she was a dwarf and may have been considered an "eater", but she went through many hardships including the death of many loved ones and watching her town slowly deteriorate into sadness and struggle.

I disagree with the reviewers who found this book a slow start. I was hooked from the first page. Anyone who's read Dickens should be used to juggling a large cast of characters. Trudi is a wonderful protagonist, but the story of Germany from WWI to WWII is too big, requiring a huge cast to tell it properly.

From the beginning of this book I fell in love with the character of Trudi, the "zwerg", or dwarf woman. Her story spans the WWI and WWII era in a very small town in Germany. Trudi's childhood tugs the heartstrings as she is rejected by other kids for being different and finds her solice and ultimately her niche in the stories she tells and the events she witnesses in the town in the course of her life. Her view of the world captivates the reader as you hear her thoughts and sense her feelings during a difficult time period where beloved neighbors were persecuted for their faith and taken away, bombs were dropped and Nazi witch hunts reigned. During the same time Trudi is coming to terms with how different she is, she is also helping others who are being killed for it. At its conclusion this book leaves you wanting to know more about Trudi and the woman she becomes.

I am not going to describe the plot, since you can read it on the jacket of the book, but it was very well developed. I felt I understood the characters very well and I cared about some of them. This is a great story for a book discussion. I don't think I have ever read a novel about the people of a German village during the time of Hitler. I highly recommend this book

I finally got around to reading this book! And I can say I AM glad that I did! While the book started out very slow for me- trying to become acquainted & care about the character of Trudi, a dwarf. I found the first 150 pages long and a bit boring. However, once the story got going, I was very glad I finished it.

The plot of the book is a bit hard to describe in simple terms. Basically it's the story of Trudi's life: her childhood, her relationship with her parents, her struggles with her size, her difficulty in making friends, and what her life became when WWII came about. I very much enjoyed when the book came to the central plot which was life during WWII in Germany among both the Germans & Jews. When the ending of the book came about, after nearly 525 pages, I felt like I'd read something of a epic.

I will warn readers that there are a lot of characters in the book, and especially in the beginning I wished I'd made a list of who's who. Mainly because of the German names (Mr. & Mrs.) which made it difficult at first to follow if you didn't know. One other greivance was that in the first 100 or so pages it annoyed me greatly that Trudi was only 3, 4, 5 and she literally spoke and thought like a 20 year old. It was quite the irritant. Ms. Hegi really should have edited that part that make it fit a child's mind. Overall though, I am glad I stuck it out and did enjoy the journey back in time with vivid characters & lives.

I had to read this book for summer reading. I am a Junior in high school and i love to read but this this book was just awful and hard to read.the dialogue in this got so far off the what the characters were saying that it was tough to remember what situation the charaters were in. THe only interesting points in this book was during WWII and that started half way through the book. The book is so sad that it is hard to read because you know that Trudi Mpntags life really does not amount to a happy ending. Like I have said this is definitely not the best book I have ever read.

I picked up this book without at first knowing that it was an Oprah pick or that it took place in Germany - coincidentally I'm staying in an apartment in small-town Germany at the moment and this was one of the few English books on the bookcase so I thought I'd give it a whirl. There is something compelling about this book - maybe it's the chance to get inside the head of a Zwerg which doesn't present itself very often, or maybe it's because it offers a well-written glimpse into WW2 from the point of view of those living through it which sadly wasn't offered to me in my European History classes either in high school or in Germany. Or maybe, it just really offers me a chance to glimpse inside the minds of the people walking around me who speak little to no English while I speak no German. I'm not sure. I do know that I found myself rushing through this book at times, staying up until 5am because I couldn't wait to find out what happens to Hans-Juergen or Georg, but just this morning as I was finishing the book, I found myself immensely annoyed and frustrated with Trudi. Annoyed with her desperate yearning to be liked, her endless gossiping, the way she tried to pretend Jutta's daughter was her own. And thus only the four stars. If not for anything else, pick up a used copy of this book to get a finely-woven story about a small German town before, during and after the war, and to remind yourself of the unspeakable horror that took place there.