Unexploded Ordnance

Coenen, a professor of biology at Allegheny College, debuts with a lyrical and heartbreaking essay collection about her German ancestors’ experiences of WWII. In “Red Currants,” she recounts her grandmother Lotte’s solidarity with a Jewish friend who was banned from the recreation area they both frequented after the Nazis came to power. She also reveals how one day, Lotte’s “sweet” male friend (code for gay at the time) was suddenly taken away by the Gestapo. Coenen sees herself in her grandmother’s stories, describing her own experience of falling in love with a woman while being married to a man. “Dropped Stitches” discusses how Elfriede, Lotte’s older daughter, suffered an ear infection that the doctor warned her to keep secret lest the government declare her “feeble of mind” and place her in a euthanasia program. Later, Lotte revealed to Coenen that she believed Elfriede developed mental illness because the infection “perforated her brain.” Throughout, Coenen artfully connects her family’s personal experiences to larger traumas of the period. The result is a poetic and deeply felt exploration of the long shadow cast by the war. (Oct.)