New! On Opa Nobody...

Conan Stuart in Connect Statesboro , 3/20/08 (Statesboro, GA):

"Opa Nobody is good, folks....In the beginning, I couldn't bring myself to believe Heina's tale when I first heard the gist of it. I mean, really, how convenient is it that a modern activist would find out that dear ol' Granddad was a German anti-Nazi activist? That's like the premise behind some Oscar-nominated film. Cue the dramatic score. But it is clear that Huber's done her homework. There's more research present here than in some of the history books I had to read in college. And the really impressive thing? If she doesn't know what happened, she writes what she imagines might have happened....There is never a hitch between these two moments. Fiction and nonfiction flow together so easily under Huber's control that it looks easy to accomplish.
In most creative nonfiction, the author has endured something or come to a realization that they feel would resonate with an audience of readers. But Opa Nobody was written from an entirely different mindset. It is a search for answers from a man who is no longer alive, so the author has had to resurrect him in words to get what she needs. Reading this book is like eavesdropping on some time-warped conversation between a dead grandfather and his living granddaughter. It's hearing the questions she would ask to the one person she feels ever had a change of understanding her life, if only he weren't silenced forever.
Opa Nobody is a masterful book and is a testament to the talent of its author. After reading this, there will be many people impatient for Sonya Huber's next work. I am."