After finished reading a biography of Bonhoeffer, this fictional account of Bonhoeffer gives life to such a wonderful person. Not to mention "Saints and Villains" is a high quality WW2 novel without any cliched elements like unrevaeling family secrets or over-the-top-romance. I truely enjoyed this straightforward and simple historical novel.

This fictionalized life of theologian Dietrich Bonhoffer has many parallels to what is going on in the US today. Sometimes we say, oh, I would have never gone along with what the Nazis did, I would have spoken up or worked to undermine and end the Nazi regime, as Dietrich Bonhoffer did. But how many of us are speaking up right now, as our rights are being abridged, right-wing minorities use religion to bludgeon the majority into conformity, immigrants are attacked, and disinformation wreaks havoc amidst a pandemic? Too many of us are silent in the face of extremism, unwilling to pay the price of living authentic Christian lives. This story is that of one man who was unable to reconcile his love of country with what his country was doing to "others" in the name of "purity" and nationalism. In order to live as a Christian, he chose to die as a martyr. It's a compelling story.

I will always love this book because it's the one that brought my wife, a Lutheran pastor, and I together. The first time we met we were out for dinner with mutual friends and I mentioned this novel I was reading about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, not knowing what a big deal Bonhoeffer was in Lutheran circles. I offered to meet her for coffee and loan her the book, a ruse that eventually worked. While I also love the novel for the story it tells, I'm grateful for other reasons!

Gripping, fascinating historical novel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life.

Paints a full, fascinating (and fictionalized) picture of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Somehow I didn't find it as compelling as I had hoped; maybe my expectations were too high? Or maybe the fictionalization is what didn't quite work for me, as I found myself occasionally distracted by wondering which people and details were factual. Though that's not a fault of the book, but of my reading preferences.

A truly excellent look into one of the most thoroughly tested and brilliant theological minds of the 20th century. Written with compassion and care.

Very very good. I am captivated.

A compelling read that intertwines a fictionalized version of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life with Nazi Germany's rise and fall. While I wonder how accurate Giardina's portrait of Bonhoeffer is, I remain impressed by her ability to create a character so filled with human frailty and noble passions.

I found this account of WWII to be very interesting. I haven't read many accounts of Hitler's reign from a German who was outspoken against Hitler. This book is very dense and that made it more daunting to get through.

Oh dear me, I am very glad I read this book. It was actually very different from what I expected. I think the aspect of the book that was most different from my expectations was also the one that I most appreciated, and that was how un-heroic Bonhoeffer's story was. Throughout so much of the book it was hard to believe both for me as a reader and it seemed Bonhoeffer as a character that any of the things he was able to do could have actually been a threat to Hitler's life. In a way the very incremental and disassociated aspects of the plot against Hitler's life remind me of the how social change work usually feels. It is hard to feel like the little ways that any of us resist tyranny or try to build a new society actually could ever or ever do add up to anything. And maybe they don't.

I of course also liked that Myles Horton had a cameo. And Giardina's weaving the Hawks Nest disaster into the story made me think of Maya Nye!

I know that the attention paid to Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime in Germany often overshadows many other egregious injustices, but when I read a book like this I can't help but think we must not let a day go by that we forget what happened during that Holocaust. It was useful and compelling to be with Bonhoeffer as layer after layer of the horror of the Nazi regime is revealed. It is impossible for me not to wonder: would I notice it, would I get it, how would I respond? Would I take action? Would that action be couragouse, foolish, useful?