For a Handful of Books

S23E08

Reunion (by Fred Uhlman)

For a Fistful of Books, sees the "Saluzzo- Plana" Linguistic High School of Alessandria and the "Giuseppe Torno" Scientific High School of Castano Primo (MI) compete. The two classes will compete on the short novel The Rediscovered Friend by the German writer Fred Uhlman, published in 1971. Set in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and inspired by the writer's life, the book tells the story of the friendship between a Jewish boy from a bourgeois family, Hans Schwarz, and his classmate, the aristocrat Kostantin von Hohenfels. Soon, however, the strong bond that unites them is seriously compromised when Hans learns about the anti-Semitic ideas of Konradin's family and the admiration that the latter feels for Adolf Hitler. Only after the end of the war and the horrors of Nazism, far from Germany, Hans discovers the truth about his best friend, thus rediscovering the authenticity and value of that friendship.