The Lilac People
A Novel
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4.4 • 16 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Finalist for the New England Book Award
"Reminiscent of Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See . . . Heart-stopping in its suspense and dramatic reveals." —The Boston Globe
A moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies, all while protecting the ones he loves
In 1932 Berlin, a trans man named Bertie and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin’s thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond. But everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The Institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation.
In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies’ vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation is to flee to the United States.
Brimming with hope, resilience, and the enduring power of community, The Lilac People tells an extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an unknown moment of World War II and trans history.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The Lilac People is a formidable piece of historical fiction about survival and the risks transgender people take just by daring to be themselves. Trans man Bertie spent World War II hiding from the Nazis on a remote farm while awaiting their eventual fall from power. But when a trans concentration camp inmate shows up at his door days after the war, fleeing further persecution from the Allies, he learns that he’ll have to flee, too, if he wants to live as himself ever again. While The Lilac People is fiction, author Milo Todd’s details of the heartbreaking experiences of queer people at the hands of the Nazis and Allies are harrowing, thanks to their extraordinary historical realism. Todd carefully balances these devastating themes with exquisite flashbacks to Bertie’s life in Weimar-era Berlin, showcasing the joy of a historical moment of liberty. The Lilac People is a beautifully crafted tale of the peaks of queer freedom and the horrors of its backlash.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Todd debuts with a stirring chronicle of trans and gay trailblazers in Weimar Germany who were persecuted by the Nazis. In 1933 Berlin, Berthold "Bertie" Durchdenwald, an assistant at the progressive Institute for Sexual Science, is proud to receive his purple "transvestite card," which lets him live openly as a trans man. But his rights rapidly erode as the Nazis rise to power, raiding the city's gay clubs and torching the Institute. Bertie and his lover, Sofie Hönig, flee to a farm in Ulm, where they hide for the duration of the war. During the Allied occupation, they find a trans man named Karl Fuchs collapsed in their field. He tells them that he was imprisoned at Dachau and is now fleeing from the Allies who are jailing gay and trans people. Facing continued discrimination, the trio decide to immigrate to the U.S. To do so, however, Bertie and Karl must hide their hard-earned identities. In one particularly poignant scene, Bertie burns their photo albums and transvestite cards, while bitterly reflecting on the Nazis' book burning and destruction of evidence pertaining to the Holocaust. In Todd's hands, this vital chapter of LGBTQ+ history comes to life, as the characters find a means to survive through found family. This timely historical drama hits hard.
