Set in rural Germany, in the tumultuous summer of 1933, The Greater Good follows the townspeople of Braugarten in their struggle to preserve their idyllic society. Before the ever-lengthening shadow of the “new Chancellor,” the characters grapple (often comically) with the precepts of exceptionalism and conservatism. The writing is effervescent and buoyant, told in the present tense, first-person plural, which immerses the reader in the collective thinking of a town council, which (at times) seems decidedly unequal to the task. Often witty and laced with black humor, The Greater Good is at its core a reflection upon individual freedom and integrity.
