All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner

Its crowdedness serves as a reminder: The greatest acts of heroism are not always done alone. Like the network it describes, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days is stronger for its decentralization. The archival quality of the book, its enumeration and cataloging of sources, is both surprising for a biography-too rarely the site of literary innovation-and affecting.

She does this stylishly, sometimes presenting events in chronological lists or highlighting fragments from her research as stand-alone text. Donner quotes passages from her sources at length, letting the reader dwell on facts rather than galloping through them. They also add nuance to the question of what it means to resist. These other stories have the effect of opening up the book and turning what might have been a narrowly constructed biography into a much broader reflection on political action. supported by archival documentation from four countries, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days is a mesmerizing story of an American woman who travels to Berlin to teach and study, falls in love and champions a successful resistance group that was very effective in thwarting Hitler and assisting Jews. Its crowdedness serves as a reminder: The greatest acts of. Like the network it describes, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days is stronger for its decentralization. All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days is a finalist for the 2022 Governor Generals Literary Award for nonfiction. She also, cleverly, compensates for what we don’t know about Harnack with what can be gleaned about her many acquaintances. The archival quality of the book, its enumeration and cataloging of sources, is both surprising for a biographytoo rarely the site of literary innovationand affecting. Donner had access to material only family could find.

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner