31st May, 2025 in Recommended Reads

Demmin by Nick Nichols

“Ellie Vogel walked into the darkness beyond the river, carrying with her everything that remained of Demmin—not just memory and grief, but the stubborn, defiant insistence that even from the greatest horror, something might yet survive.” The novel, Demmin, by Nick Nichols, explores part of the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi propaganda that all of Germany’s people must fall in tide with that regime by the distribution of a means of mass suicide. In spite of this internal strife in tandem with the external turmoil of the looming Russian troops, a young couple, Ellie and Wil, seek to survive by leaving the remains of their war-torn hometown in hopes of discovering a more peaceful life together. Demmin depicts the struggles of all those encouraged with this decisive decision and the sorrowful ease it holds over its protagonists, family members, and general society that pains them throughout the novel.