Summary of After Midnight
Nineteen-year-old Sanna moves from Cologne to Frankfurt in 1936. She hopes to escape the watchful eye of her aunt, who reported her to the Gestapo after she made an innocent remark about Hitler. Sanna leaves behind Franz, her cousin and lover, and moves in with her half-brother and his wife. But Sanna soon learns that politics remains inescapable in Nazi Germany: her half-brother is a blacklisted writer, her best friend Gerti is in love with a man considered ‘half-Jewish’ under the racial laws, and Franz is wanted by the police. As the dangers surrounding them intensify, Sanna and Franz contemplate fleeing Germany.
Reasons to read After Midnight
Written in the 1930s, After Midnight offers an honest and often satirical portrait of everyday life under the Nazi regime. Although the protagonist is not especially interested in politics and simply wants to enjoy life, she finds herself trapped in the absurd and frightening reality of a dictatorship. Drawing on her own experiences in Nazi Germany, Irmgard Keun wrote the novel in exile after her books were banned by the regime. Other novels by Keun include The Artificial Silk Girl and Gilgi, One of Us.
Setting: Frankfurt – Cologne (Germany)
Book set in Germany: Frankfurt am Main and Cologne
Browse more books set in Hesse – Explore more books set in Germany
Original title: Nach Mitternacht
Year of publication: 1937
Nr of pages: 144
