All that I Am by Anna Funder

Posted by Ms K on September 21, 2025 in All | Leave a comment

Reading this book, against the current global political backdrop, hits you in all the places. In one breath you think how far we have come as people. In the next breath, you’re winded by your despair. It is chilling when you really let yourself go to places where the horrors of war and treachery are closer than you’d like.

Essentially this book is about German political exiles living in London but at the hands of Anna Funder it is a layered, complex gem that explores human connection and our responsibility to each other. If you have read Stasiland, you know (and will love) Funder’s deft literary touch and this one, is again, a fictional retelling of real events that puts you right inside the world brought alive in the pages.

Told in three voices and throughout two time periods, you learn about how far people will go to protect those they love and fight the force of violence and war.

When Hitler comes to power in 1933, a tight knit group of friends and lovers become hunted outlaws overnight. Within this group of friends are two female powerhouses – Dora and Ruth – who mesmerise with their courage and fearlessness, especially Dora. Her lover is Ernst Toller. United against the madness and horror of Nazi Germany, Dora, Ernst, Ruth (and her husband Hans) must run to find refuge in London where they continue to take extraordinary risk to continue their work in secret. This work is to share secrets, aid those in goal and in hiding and secret people across borders. But nowhere is safe and with one single barbarian act of betrayal, they are all completely ripped apart.

After the war, the story and voice of Ruth continues from where she is living in Bondi, some seventy years later. She exists surrounded by ghosts and regrets and heartbreak. At this point, you’ve probably figured out what happened to everyone else.

Apart from being an incredible read, this book really challenged my thinking about how we fight oppression and potential war and fake news. Do we use loud voices or the quiet ones that keep pushing for change. I’d like to think I could be Dora. When you have lost everything, bravery really is the only option I think, so I hope I could do her proud. Hopefully I will never need to find out.

But that is my two cents worth.