The twentieth century was one of the worst for the whole of Europe as the struggle for supremacy among different states turned the continent into a warfield where history’s deadliest wars – the World Wars – were fought. More than this, Germany went through the worst time ever. Books have written it umpteenth times in interesting ways. But none of the books tried to paint a common German’s life through the annals of history. If there is any, it may find itself dwarfed in front of the latest by Thomas Harding who has just released his book ‘The House By The Lake’.

The House by the Lake reveals the story of Germany through the inhabitants of one small wooden building: a nobleman farmer, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, a widow and her children, a Stasi informant. Read an extract from the new book by Thomas Harding.