Something interesting happened recently. Four years ago, I wrote A Lightness in My Soul, a WWII novella about a boy who is taken to the concentration camp, Dachau, by American troops. My friend, Marion, had met an old man in a car repair shop and he’d told her his story as a teen. Despite my […]
Making Sense of 2025 Read More »
As most of you know, my husband and I moved to Europe in 2017. I’d spent 30 years in the US and we decided to live abroad to experience new things. Many new things. Meanwhile we have bought a house, not the new construction we had planned, but a farmhouse from 1900 in the West
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Last week I showed my amazing daughter-in-law, Mar, some of the historical spots of my WWII novel Surviving the Fatherland. She also helps me with marketing on Instagram and Facebook. It so happens that we live a five-minute walk from the places, my parents and main protagonists endured the war. We stopped by the old
Last Sunday, authors and guests met for a hike and some readings in an area known for its heathers and bogs. This was only the second event since Corona began and it felt amazing to be outdoors sharing my WWII novel WHEN THEY MADE US LEAVE. The great Michael Völkel entertained us with medieval music
Open-Air Reading, Award News and a New Release Read More »
Wer mehr über mich wissen möchte, kann z.B. den Artikel im Solingen Magazin oder das Interview beim Verlag tredition lesen. Interview bei tredition tredition: Was unterscheidet Ihren Roman von anderen? Annette Oppenlander: Der zweite Weltkrieg ist ja in der Literatur schon sehr gründlich behandelt worden, vor allem der Holocaust und die Erfahrungen der Soldaten. Meine
Im März 1945 wurde mein Vater Günter zum Volkssturm eingezogen. Er war damals 16 Jahre alt. Hitlers letztes Diktat an die Zivilbevölkerung befahl, das Vaterland zu verteidigen. Mein Vater sollte sich nach Marburg durchschlagen und von der Hitlerjugend trainiert und ausgestattet werden. Natürlich war dieser Befehl wie so viele davor glatter Wahnsinn, denn der Krieg
47 Tage – Neue Novelle über den Volkssturm Read More »
ZUR SOFORTIGEN VERÖFFENTLICHUNG Vaterland, wo bist Du? – Der preisgekrönte Roman nach einer wahren Geschichte Solingen, 30. Oktober 2019: Annette Oppenlander präsentiert in ihrem neuen Roman Vaterland, wo bist Du? einen selten behandelten Teil des dunkelsten Kapitels deutscher Geschichte: das Schicksal der Kinder im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Der in den USA zuerst erschienene und mehrfach preisgekrönte
Vaterland, wo bist Du? Der preisgekrönte Roman des Zweiten Weltkriegs Read More »
Last weekend I had the pleasure of participating in the fifth Literary Hike in the beautiful Vorwerk Park in Wuppertal. Under cloudy but dry skies eight authors and their roughly twenty guests walked and enjoyed beautiful settings together. At various picturesque sites throughout the park authors presented stories and poems. Since the German translation of
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Everywhere I go, I keep my eyes open for another story. It’s not even that I’m purposefully looking, it’s sort of an unconscious awareness that is ready to scream when something interesting crosses my path. You never know when you hit pay dirt. This time it happened on a strenuous hike in South Tirol—Northern Italy.
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I look back on 2018 with utmost gratitude. A year ago, my husband and father suffered strokes within the span of three weeks. I spent months worrying about their recovery, watched tentative steps grow into wobbly walks. Neither man is fully recovered, yet they are moving, talking and exercising. My father just turned 90 and
A Happy New Year to All Read More »