
To Die in Spring
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.61
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Tim Bruce
About this listen
Distant, silent, often drunk, Walter Urban is a difficult man to have as a father. But his son - the narrator of this slim, harrowing novel - is curious about Walter's experiences during World War II, and so makes him a present of a blank notebook in which to write down his memories. Walter dies, however, leaving nothing but the barest skeleton of a story on those pages, leading his son to fill in the gaps himself, rightly or wrongly, with what he can piece together of his father's early life.
This, then, is the story of Walter and his dangerously outspoken friend Friedrich Caroli, 17-year-old trainee milkers on a dairy farm in northern Germany who are tricked into volunteering for the army during the spring of 1945: the last, and, in many ways, the worst, months of the war. The men are driven to the point of madness by what they experience, and when Friedrich finally deserts his post, Walter is forced to do the unthinkable.
©2015 Suhrkamp Verlag Berlin; translation copyright 2017 by Shaun Whiteside (P)2017 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
All the Light We Cannot See
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Zach Appelman
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
-
-
Afraid to Write a "Less-Than-Positive" Review
- By Elizabeth on 08-06-14
By: Anthony Doerr
-
City of Thieves
- A Novel
- By: David Benioff
- Narrated by: Ron Perlman
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over and co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival - and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.
-
-
Great story . . . too much lowbrow writing
- By Amazon Customer on 11-30-09
By: David Benioff
-
The Baker's Secret
- A Novel
- By: Stephen P. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only 22, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at 13, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again. In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back.
-
-
Help is really on the way
- By Georgia on 07-15-17
-
Zoli
- A Novel
- By: Colum McCann
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati, Colum McCann
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the traveling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As 1930s fascism spreads over Czechoslovakia, Zoli and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened by the world of books, which is often frowned upon in the Romani tradition, Zoli becomes the poster girl for a brave new world. As she shapes the ancient songs to her times, she finds her gift embraced by the Gypsy people and savored by a young English expatriate, Stephen Swann.
-
-
ENGROSSING!
- By Prof. Julie de Sherbinin on 11-03-20
By: Colum McCann
-
Suttree
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.
-
-
The River of Sewers, Stars, Life, and Death
- By Jefferson on 08-08-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
Hannibal Rising
- By: Thomas Harris
- Narrated by: Thomas Harris
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki. But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn. He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.
-
-
Good book, good narration
- By User33 on 12-25-06
By: Thomas Harris
-
All the Light We Cannot See
- A Novel
- By: Anthony Doerr
- Narrated by: Zach Appelman
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is 12, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
-
-
Afraid to Write a "Less-Than-Positive" Review
- By Elizabeth on 08-06-14
By: Anthony Doerr
-
City of Thieves
- A Novel
- By: David Benioff
- Narrated by: Ron Perlman
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over and co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival - and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.
-
-
Great story . . . too much lowbrow writing
- By Amazon Customer on 11-30-09
By: David Benioff
-
The Baker's Secret
- A Novel
- By: Stephen P. Kiernan
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Only 22, Emma learned to bake at the side of a master, Ezra Kuchen, the village baker since before she was born. Apprenticed to Ezra at 13, Emma watched with shame and anger as her kind mentor was forced to wear the six-pointed yellow star on his clothing. She was likewise powerless to help when they pulled Ezra from his shop at gunpoint, the first of many villagers stolen away and never seen again. In the years that her sleepy coastal village has suffered under the enemy, Emma has silently, stealthily fought back.
-
-
Help is really on the way
- By Georgia on 07-15-17
-
Zoli
- A Novel
- By: Colum McCann
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati, Colum McCann
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Zoli Novotna, a young woman raised in the traveling Gypsy tradition, is a poet by accident as much as desire. As 1930s fascism spreads over Czechoslovakia, Zoli and her grandfather flee to join a clan of fellow Romani harpists. Sharpened by the world of books, which is often frowned upon in the Romani tradition, Zoli becomes the poster girl for a brave new world. As she shapes the ancient songs to her times, she finds her gift embraced by the Gypsy people and savored by a young English expatriate, Stephen Swann.
-
-
ENGROSSING!
- By Prof. Julie de Sherbinin on 11-03-20
By: Colum McCann
-
Suttree
- By: Cormac McCarthy
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No discussion of great modern authors is complete without mention of Cormac McCarthy, whose rare and blazing talent makes his every work a true literary event. A grand addition to the American literary canon, Suttree introduces readers to Cornelius Suttree, a man who abandons his affluent family to live among a dissolute array of vagabonds along the Tennessee river.
-
-
The River of Sewers, Stars, Life, and Death
- By Jefferson on 08-08-13
By: Cormac McCarthy
-
Hannibal Rising
- By: Thomas Harris
- Narrated by: Thomas Harris
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck. He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him. Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki. But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn. He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.
-
-
Good book, good narration
- By User33 on 12-25-06
By: Thomas Harris
-
Himself
- A Novel
- By: Jess Kidd
- Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having been abandoned on the steps of an orphanage as an infant, lovable car thief and Dublin charmer Mahony assumed all his life that his mother had simply given him up. But when he receives an anonymous note suggesting that foul play may have led to his mother's disappearance, he sees only one option: to return to the rural Irish village where he was born and find out what really happened 26 years ago.
-
-
Masterful narration of a clever story
- By J. Lynn on 03-28-17
By: Jess Kidd
-
Bright's Passage
- By: Josh Ritter
- Narrated by: Josh Ritter
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Bright has newly returned to West Virginia from the battlefields of the First World War. Grief-stricken by the death of his young wife and unsure of how to care for the infant son she left behind, Bright is soon confronted by the destruction of the only home he's ever known. His hopes for safety rest with the angel who has followed him to Appalachia from the trenches of France and who now promises to protect him and his son.
-
-
Interesting story with pleny of action.
- By kwestrope on 01-26-16
By: Josh Ritter
-
The Road Back
- A Novel
- By: Erich Maria Remarque
- Narrated by: Graham Halstead
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After four grueling years, the Great War has finally ended. Now Ernst and the few men left from his company cannot help wondering what will become of them. The town they departed as eager young men seems colder, their homes smaller, the reasons their comrades had to die even more inexplicable. For Ernst and his friends, the road back to peace is more treacherous than they ever imagined. Suffering food shortages, political unrest, and a broken heart, Ernst undergoes a crisis that teaches him what there is to live for - and what he has that no one can ever take away.
-
-
Great Successor to All Quiet on the Western Front
- By BARRY on 02-20-19
-
The Revolution of Marina M.
- By: Janet Fitch
- Narrated by: Yelena Shmulenson
- Length: 30 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear before being betrayed in turn.
-
-
*****WOW*****
- By Ella Geller on 11-15-17
By: Janet Fitch
-
Pray for Us Sinners
- By: Patrick Taylor
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A British Army bomb-disposal expert goes undercover to try to identify the source of the bombs being used by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in Pray for Us Sinners, a thrilling novel by New York Times best seller Patrick Taylor. In Belfast in 1973 the Troubles are raging. Two Ulstermen. Two sides. On one, British Army bomb-disposal officer Marcus Richardson; on the other, Davy MacCutcheon, Provisional IRA armourer who has been constructing bombs since his teens. Both men are committed to their causes until events shatter their beliefs, leaving each with a crisis of faith and an overpowering need to get out - but with honour.
-
-
The Troubles
- By J. Lindsey on 02-24-15
By: Patrick Taylor
-
The Devil of Nanking
- By: Mo Hayder
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey, Simon Vance
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-chilling characters of Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder's The Devil of Nanking, takes the reader on an electrifying literary ride from the palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins to deep inside the secret history of one of the twentieth century's most brutal events: the Nanking Massacre.
-
-
The Best of Britain's Mystery Writers
- By Alicia A. Jenson on 08-27-05
By: Mo Hayder
-
The Last of the Seven
- A Novel of World War II
- By: Steven Hartov
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A lone soldier wearing a German uniform stumbles into a British military camp in the North African desert with an incredible story to tell. He is the only survivor of an undercover operation meant to infiltrate a Nazi base, trading on the soldiers’ perfect fluency in German. However, this man is not British-born but instead a German Jew seeking revenge for the deaths of his family back home in Berlin.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Bob K. on 10-24-24
By: Steven Hartov
-
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven
- By: Chris Cleave
- Narrated by: Luke Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1939, and Mary, a young socialite, is determined to shock her blueblood political family by volunteering for the war effort. She is assigned as a teacher to children who were evacuated from London and have been rejected by the countryside because they are infirm, are mentally disabled, or - like Mary's favorite student, Zachary - have colored skin.
-
-
Absolutely No
- By Sara on 05-09-16
By: Chris Cleave
-
The Wettest County in the World, or Lawless
- A Novel Based on a True Story
- By: Matt Bondurant
- Narrated by: Erik Steele
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County during Prohibition and after. The brothers played a central role in a major conspiracy trial and its violent end. In 1935, Sherwood Anderson, working on a magazine story, finds himself driving along the dusty red roads trying to find the brothers and break the silence that shrouds Franklin County.
-
-
Just outstanding!
- By Rich on 08-18-12
By: Matt Bondurant
-
The Last King of Scotland
- By: Giles Foden
- Narrated by: Mirron E. Willis
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan is called to the scene of a bizarre accident: Idi Amin, careening down a dirt road in his Maserati, has hit a cow. When Garrigan tends to Amin, the dictator, obsessed with all things Scottish, appoints him as his personal physician. So begins a fateful dalliance with the African leader whose Emperor Jones-style autocracy would transform into a reign of terror.
-
-
Worst Production Ever
- By James on 01-24-07
By: Giles Foden
-
Bog Child
- By: Siobhan Dowd
- Narrated by: Sile Bermingham
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him - his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what - a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.
-
-
Hidden gem
- By Shrewsie Shrew on 12-21-18
By: Siobhan Dowd
-
Elmet
- By: Fiona Mozley
- Narrated by: Gareth Bennett Ryan
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this atmospheric and profoundly moving debut, Cathy and Daniel live with their father, John, in the remote woods of Yorkshire, in a house the three of them built themselves. John is a gentle brute of a man, a former enforcer who fights for money when he has to, but who otherwise just wants to be left alone to raise his children. When a local landowner shows up on their doorstep, their precarious existence is threatened, and a series of actions is set in motion that can only end in violence.
-
-
Strains credibility
- By DM on 01-06-18
By: Fiona Mozley
Critic reviews
What listeners say about To Die in Spring
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hank Williams
- 02-25-25
Decay of the third reich
The writer clearly states the plight of his father’s generation without pulling any punches regarding its stark fatalism. The complete disintegration of the landscape and the fabricated purpose of an entire people is brought to life just so the reader can watch it all rot away.
Masterful prose in this English version, and the story retains the cutting defeat that Nazism built for itself, a defeat not only of its disgusting motives but of its own people. Very glad to read any author of the period who doesn’t attempt to impose a foolish lost cause myth.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!