Adding on: Annette playing the piano is what had Heiner fall in love her her. By the end, the piano became a symbol of their relationship. (SPOILER)
broken beyond repair. Annette avoided playing the piano (aka ignored the problems of their relationship) bc of her trauma. Then, later, her left wrist gets crushed when a building collapsed. She can never play the piano again. Also, later in the novel, Heiner's location gets bombed and he loses his hearing. His left ear completely loses hearing, while his right eardrum is on the verge of losing hearing as well. They are told both their disabilities were irreversible, but with hard work and dedication to their rehabilitation, they can at least regain some functions to their hand/hearing to at least have a normal life. By the end of the novel, after extensive work and determination, Annette relearns how to play the piano despite the fact her left hand struggles and easily gets sore. Heiner also stabilizes his right ear with their help of a hearing aid, and can hear Annette's playing again after 5 long years.
Gosh you are a saint for typing this ... you have my ultimate gratefulness forever
OMG?? This is so sweet wtf
I don't want to get too ooooh deep into it (and keep editing my comment) but the piano is the symbol of her and Heiner's love.
Annette dearly loved the piano. She thought she wad good at it too. But after the revolutionary war, she began to doubt if she was any good at it or did ppl only praise her bc she was the daughter of Rosenberg? (Aka was her love with Heiner ever real? Did she see everything through rose colored glasses). She then completely avoids playing the piano, gets nauseous and sick just being near the piano (aka ignoring the cracks of her relationship with Heiner, fears him). Then the rest of the stuff I mentioned earlier happens.
You even get a more blatant hint at the end of the novel. Annette finds out when and where Heiner fell in love with her, and she tells him the song he heard when he first saw her playing the piano, it was called "My Beloved Oppressor".
Thank you for typing this up but… what a BS ending- I have a hard time seeing how they get there when the story is being fairly well written now?
He abused the hell out of her and psychologically destroyed her out of some misplaced hatred of her instead of the system she ignorantly benefited from…
They didn't get together until the side stories. Up until the very last chapter of the official story, Annette tells Heiner that they can't be together while Pandia is not at peace and still needs him. She says she can't be with him but will wait for him.
Interesting… I’ll see how it all plays out!
I think it’s BS that she’s waiting for an abusive shit like him but I do like the writing now so maybe there will be some new layer that changes things
The novel also covers it a bit that Heiner suffered extreme physical and mental torture when he was captured by Franka when he was still young. He ends up being the only survivor. However, his psyche was broken at that point. The only reason he survived is bc he clung onto the angelic image of Annette. While being burned, marked, branded, whipped (and maybe even sexually abused), he'd whisper Annette's name. Yes, it's not fair or right that he took out his anger on Annette, but I hope that explains why his image of her is so warped and why he clung to the "savior" image of her so desperately.
After finding out the true horror of Heiner's past, Annette realizes she never asked or wanted to find out about Heiner's history or what he went through. Even when the two of them were happy. She'd been such a shallow girl that was content with Heiner living up to her happy ideal. And this actually is the root of Heiner's resentment towards her. His main fear is that Annette can't accept who he is- a broken, ugly, and imperfect man. Subconsciously, he hopes that he's wrong, that she will love him regardless. That her love is sincere. But that wish is dashed when Annette never wanted to face him or ask anything of him. In Heiner's mind, Annette treated him like furniture. Just there. There love isn't equal. She is his entire world, but he means nothing to her. She easily shut her eyes and ears, and his existence in her life becomes nothing. If it weren't for his ex-friend that spilled the beans about why she's so important to Heiner, she never would've know bc she didn't care enough to know.
We are close to the part when Annette finds out the truth about Heiner's past. And it's around this part Annette's feeling towards Heiner changes a bit bc she knows her existence to Heiner is so much more important that she realizes. He almost dies for her when trying to find her, but once her survival is assured, when she completely healed, he let's her go. Bc of this, Annette feels just how desperate and sincere Heiner loves her.
The later half of the novel mostly focuses on Annette healing and becoming emotionally strong. After the war and hospital scene, we don't see Annette and Heiner interact again until the last few chapters.
I liked the ending bc Heiner does grovel for forgiveness but the story is about Annette accepting Heiner on her terms. The official story ends ambiguously, in that Annette says she loves Heiner but they are too toxic for each other right now. They both need to being apart for while and grow and mature. She will wait for him, and when time permits, perhaps they will be together again. The end.
However, for those that WANT them to be together, there are the side stories that skip forward a few years and jumps into when the two have healed enough to be with each other again. So depending on your taste, you can end the novel the way you prefer.
Thank you for taking the time to explain it all! That does make me think about it differently— this still doesn’t make me enjoy them together but the ending does seem refreshing as long as she’s framed as being the one completely in power of this
I’ll stick to it
I ended up reading the ending of the novel and SPOILER
They are so gosh darn cute. Heiner is so whipped. He literally worships the ground she walks on and Annette is the one that has to reign him in bc she knows its not good for them for him to put her on a pedestal. It was really sweet and cute reading about their domestic life. When they fight now, it's about normal couple stuff. Like Heiner squeezing her tummy rolls bc he likes the fact he's the reason she's gaining weight (he makes sure she eats 3 heavy meals a day) or Annette not taking her coffee with him bc she's mad at him. They've gotten comfortable teasing each other too. Heiner likes to carry her (to bed for sexy timez) and Annette dryly comments she has legs and can walk, but Heiner says he can't wait for her bc she's a slow poke. And Annette teases Heiner saying he must really like her bc his ears still get red whenever she flirts with him.
Lol one scene I thought was hilarious is Annette got all sulky bc Heiner ended up leaving her alone to take a call, so she drank 3 out of the 4 bottle of beers that they bought and got tipsy. When Heiner returns, he stops her from opening the last bottle and in the middle of him trying to stop her, Annette whines to Heiner that he must not want to have sex with her. Heiner chokes and is like how drunk are you? What are you on woman??? And then proceeds to show her how much he really, really likes her. The next morning, Annette realizes Heiner held back a lot during their first marriage (cuz yes, they get married again). He treated her like fragile glass whenever they slept together before. With her gaining weight (bc he cooks and feeds her) and her gaining vitality back, Heiner feels comfortable go all out. Girl could barely walk bc they kept going at it all night. Not that Annette minded.
Adding on: Annette playing the piano is what had Heiner fall in love her. By the end, the piano became a symbol of their relationship: Broken beyond repair. Annette avoided playing the piano (aka ignored the problems of their relationship) bc of her trauma. Then, later, her left wrist gets crushed when a building collapsed. She can never play the piano again. Also, later in the novel, Heiner's location gets bombed and he loses his hearing. His left ear completely loses hearing, while his right eardrum is on the verge of losing hearing as well. They are told both their disabilities are irreversible, but with hard work and dedication to their rehabilitation, they can at least regain some functions to their hand/hearing to at least have a normal life. By the end of the novel, after extensive work and determination, Annette relearns how to play the piano despite the fact her left hand struggles and easily gets sore. Heiner also stabilizes his right ear with the help of a hearing aid, and can hear Annette's playing again after 5 long years.
With hard work, both them were able to reclaim something they thought they couldn't fix. The have scars and wounds that will never heal, but it doesn't mean their love for each other/piano is anything less. It would've been easier for Annette to give up playing the piano. But in the end, it was worth fighting for. She worked past her trauma of the piano, rekindled the love she had for it, and her life is all the more fulfilling bc of it.