Paul Beckermann is the narrator of this tale as he looks back on his life to his early years at the Bauhaus School in Weimar which he registered at as a pupil in 1922. First we should say he is created as one of a group of six fictional students who are placed in the genuine school, with genuine staff and teachers, with the evolving politics of both the area and the then Germany – the post war economic crash and the rise of Nazism and Hitler taking control of Germany with all the subsequent tropes, truths and crises of history. Bauhaus will move to Dessau, then Stieglitz near Berlin before being finally closed. Teachers not astute enough to run will end in the Camps.
The six pupils – from various places, the lads young (and lucky) enough to have avoided military service of the First War. All are interested in working in art, but choosing this highly unconventional place to study. They mix and are trained and influenced by some extremely creative and talented (albeit misogynistic) teachers. The novel will meld the impact of this together with the friendships of the six. Paul a painter (not necessarily a valued thing in the creative setting of Bauhaus), Walter Koenig, Jeno, Kaspar, Irmi and Charlotte. Kaspar and Irmi become a couple and break away from Bauhaus earliest. Peter will always be obsessed with Charlotte who will be interested initially in Jeno before living with Peter. She – forced into the female “role” of weaving will still be working and evolving the longest at the Bauhaus in Stieglitz as the School is finally destroyed. Walter is seemingly lacking the creativity of the others, and is sullen and difficult, more of an outsider. Gay, with a largely hidden interest in Peter, he will have an affair with Jeno (upsetting Charlotte) before moving onto a number of local Nazis – increasingly rising to power.
The novel will therefore meld the art, the politics and the torrid passions, loves and jealousies of the six as relationships grow, fade, evolve and collapse over the years. Bauhaus and its values are seen as an increasing challenge to the political right which means being there is increasingly dangerous – and with Walter’s links to leading Nazis the personal risk is potentially greater still.
Without acting as a “spoiler” all one can add is a key theme will be whether the six will recognise the dangers of the political situation – you might say why should they when so few did? They move on into their working lives, with the challenges to remain as artists in a failing economy – an issue for any artist at any time. Do they try and meet their dreams, or do they compromise? As the country lurches into extreme politics and then war what will the impact be on the six recognising that artists would come to be regarded as suspicious and potentially traitorous by the regime? Will they avoid the risks? Will the good aspects of their old friendships outweigh the personal competitiveness of their relationships and their artistic differences – to offer support that might keep the others safe as life becomes more dangerous?
First it is important to say that a pre-understanding of the politics of Bauhaus art and the political situation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s makes it much easier to appreciate the depths of this novel and the subtle nuances of the developing situation and the possible implications. Nonetheless Wood’s key skill is to create a group of young, largely self focused people – some not really very pleasant or admirable - and create an interest in continuing to read about them and the developing story.
A very interesting novel in what it says about art, history and politics. But it raises important questions too as to personal responsibility and the damage one can do by what ones does – or does not do – to, or for, others in your life. Well worth the read.

A little disappointing, this. Six students at the legendary Bauhaus modern art school act as guides to the heady times they had as students there, when it moved first from the title city of the Weimar Republic, to somewhere else, and then to Berlin itself, just before Hitler gets power. It was a chequered past, for it was never really loved by the "citizens" living alongside the students – and these pages prove why, for none of the characters are likeable. In fact they almost drove me to skimread – almost, mind – so I could find the Germany outside their stuck-up mindsets. It's evoked rather well, from the times of hyperinflation to the almost flapper world of the capital, but I felt rather cheated that such a unique time in European history was presented through the lens of boring, up themselves, druggy art students. The core of the book is supposed to be a mental flashback, a confession, from one of them now living in England in the 1960s, but even at that age he seems ignorant of how yawnsome his unrequited love, and everything else, might be. If he'd been less reluctant to get us all to the more interesting big reveals, which circle back to Weimar, and even more unique (sic) times, I'd have thought more highly of this novel. But as it is I really think those that lived through it all in real life deserved better.

An interesting and well written book looking at a dark historical period from a different perspective. However, in the end I didn't feel it quite managed to capture the historical or the group tensions well enough to maintain my interest.
Thank you to netgalley and Pan Macmillan for a copy if this book

This is an academic love affair set in the tense political climate of 1920s Germany and written in the vein of The Secret History and If We Were Villains. The isolated setting, academic focus, and creative aptitude of the characters soon become sinister inclusions in this dark and foreboding narrative that unveiled as many secrets as mysteries it created. There is an unsettling tension that is maintained throughout and the rocky political time period, that becomes part of the background, only helps to heighten and disturb the events that occur.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Naomi Wood, and the publisher, Picador, for this opportunity.

Narrated in the 1960s in flashback by Paul Brickman (formerly Beckermann), a German artist living on the south coast of England, this novel charts the rise of the Third Reich from the early 1920s through the eyes of a group of Bauhaus students, and indeed through the fortunes of the Bauhaus itself.

The death of Walter Konig, one of the group, and an invitation to his funeral, prompts a journey of self-reflection, a confession, which Paul freely recognises will be only one of several possible versions of events.

Having said that, however, he then goes on to narrate events in what is on the surface a very factual manner - but it is only as the layers build up that we start to see what he has chosen to include and what he has left out, what he has glossed over, what he can only face up to as he strips away the layers of his own self-deception. His narrative hinges on his guilt about the death of one of the group, his erstwhile girlfriend Charlotte, in the Dachau camp. The tale opens with the group arriving as new students at the newly opened Bauhaus in Weimar in 1922 - there are Walter and Jeno, Kaspar and Irma, Paul and the androgynous Charlotte - Bauhaus babies. Charlotte is Czechoslovakian and Jeno is Hungarian. Paul is immediately attracted to Charlotte and they become close but the relationship remains platonic - Paul is inclined to favour a slow build.

Walter is in love with Jeno, Paul with Charlotte, and in the background, Irma with Paul although this has less bearing on the unfolding of events. While Paul waits for love to blossom between himself and Charlotte, and after Jeno makes advances to Walter in the Turkish baths, Charlotte and Jeno embark upon a relationship. And so the stage is set for a Greek tragedy driven by jealousy and doubt.

Over the years, the group fragments and reconfigures while in the wider world, the Bauhaus is condemned for harbouring undesirable foreigners, communists and Jews, and is raided, shut down, attacked, but manages to keep resurfacing in different locations, resisting. In contrast to the work coming out of this avant-garde setting is the jobbing work that Paul and Walter do for Ernst Steiner’s studio, churning out sentimental pastoral scenes by the yard on commission for wealthy Americans. Is this indicative of their moral relativism, which will have such an impact on Charlotte’s fate in later years? Relentlessly, in the background, revealed almost incidentally in Paul’s much more intimate narrative, is the rise of the Brown Shirts, the increasing food shortages, the spiralling inflation which renders their earnings valueless, the increasingly open hostility to Communists, Jews, foreigners on the streets.

Naomi Wood from the start evokes the atmosphere of Brideshead Revisited and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, with her tight-knit group of students in their own little rarefied world where all rules are made to be broken. For my money though, she doesn’t quite pull it off. The narrative remains too intimate to properly reflect wider events, so the novel is never entirely sure whether it wants to be a slow reveal of the events that led to Charlotte’s death, or a reflection of the rise of the Third Reich, and it doesn’t achieve either in an entirely satisfactory manner. Paul is a narrator blinded by his obsessive love for Charlotte, his suspicion of Jeno’s motives, his immature selfishness. His blinkered vision gets in the way of our perception of the historical events happening - or is it a reflection of how easy it was for people to fail to notice what was happening around them?

This is definitely a novel worth reading, but for those who are expecting another Secret History, my advice would be to take it on its own terms.

Naomi Wood had brilliant success with Mrs Hemmingway last year, and now moves from the world literature to the art world. The Hiding Game is primarily set in 1930's Germany at the famous Bauhaus Art School, where six friends are just starting out in their learning of the new ideas taught there.  Paul, one of the six is the main narrator, and there are also chapters from England where he chose to live after the war. As Paul and his friends continue their journey at the school and in life, allegiances change, betrayal and love divide culminating in tragedy and blame.

Naomi Wood has chosen a really interesting period to set this book, as political changes were taking place in Germany, the economy was poor and mistrust was an undercurrent. The Bauhaus Art School went against the political feeling of the time, it was seen as communist in its ideals, and was not popular among the habitants of the towns it was based. So unpopular was it, that it closed three times and moved to three different German towns; Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin.  Having said that, it was one of the most influential art schools of the modern era with a prestigious teaching staff like Kandinsky and Klee, and whose ethos was adopted by art schools in Europe and America. Naomi Wood really brings the feeling of the period, the tension, and the cultural climate to life with her detailed knowledge of that time. The descriptive prose, the attention to the natural world is like an artists palette of colour in words, a real feast for the senses.

The six friends were all very different, and quite a strange unit. Paul was the painter which was a hard discipline at Bauhaus as they were trying to get away from painting being a fine art, and the highest of disciplines. Charlotte was also a painter but great with weaving and producing sculptures, as was Irmi, whilst Walter, Jenö and Kaspar also specialised in sculpture from everyday products. They were also from very different social backgrounds, Walter and Kasper coming from money. What they all had in common, especially in their first year was their idolisation of their teacher, Johannes Itten, whose spiritual teachings they took seriously.  This relationship did make me think of Donna Tartt's A Secret History in parts, as they became immersed in Itten's teachings,  and in their own relationships which became obsessive, causing jealousies in the group.

I  found Charlotte the most interesting character. As a female she had to overcome many obstacles to become a serious artist, women were seen as only be able to make decorative art and not taken seriously. This becomes apparent when on the second year the friends all pupils requests for their preferred discipline, and Charlotte finds herself in weaving, rather than painting or metal work. Irma also had the same problems but was more comfortable with them than Charlotte, who even went to the lengths of cutting off her hair and wearing men's clothing to be taken more seriously. Paul is at the heart of this group friends, the one who seems to be at the centre of the group when there are betrayals and arguments, and as they eventually implode he is the one who can't forgive. He wants to prove himself independent to his father, earn his own money for his fees as he doesn't come from a rich family. He never seems totally happy, I saw him as the real tortured artist struggling for money whilst following his talent. He only seemed happy, ironically, when he was earning money helping to produce traditional works of art, when his talent as an artist was appreciated in a job he kept secret from the Bauhaus where he would be criticised for this.

The Hiding Game  is a story of art, love, jealousy, obsession, and treachery set against the backdrop of the Bauhaus School.  I love reading books set in the art world, and I found this to be beautifully written, with attention to detail and diverse characters that fitted the period, and enabled many issues of that period to be discussed. A fascinating and intelligent read, that I completely fell in love with, and a book that I highly recommend.

Paul Beckermann is the narrator of this story which starts with him arriving to study at the Weimar Bauhaus, a celebrated art college and a hotbed of modern art in the 1920s. He quickly makes friends with the other main characters; Walter, Jeno, Kaspar, Imri and Charlotte and the rest of the novel is about their lives and relationships set against a background of increasing chaos in Germany and the rise of Adolf Hitler.

The Bauhaus is an unconventional art college with equally unconventional staff so strange behaviours and general eccentricity seems to be the norm. Figurative painting is rubbished and there is a lot of emphasis on understanding the essence of things. The students respond by doing equally daft things like dressing up or starving themselves in order to get a better picture of reality. Paul seems to be infatuated with Charlotte but he doesn't seem able to tell her and she often seems lost in a haze. Later, much later, when the Bauhaus has moved to Dessau this haze is replaced by cocaine. Walter does some bad things and turns out to be a bit of a Nazi, several people might possibly be gay, the German mark is constantly devalued and the country is on the slide.

So far so good, and this might seem a ripe area for storytelling if only Paul could get his narrative together. The trouble is that half the time he doesn't quite seem to know what's going on around him and things often degenerate into a kind of blur. He doesn't notice stuff about the other characters and then he's vaguely surprised when Charlotte, who he dotes on, goes off with Jeno. There is an incident in the bath house and it's easy to guess what happened but it takes Paul a long time to read what's going on. Imri clearly fancies him throughout but he misses that too. As a kind of nihilist central character who feels very little or at least is perceived by other people as lacking feeling and opinions he doesn't bring the story to life. After he has moved to England he seems vaguely interested in telling the story of what happened but he can't be bothered to go back to someone's funeral as if that might reopen old wounds. As an older man, he still misses Charlotte - although they did manage a short and passionate relationship after she left Jeno - but he also feels some measure of guilt about his part in what happened to her. There's no real sense of an ending or resolution either.

All this adds up to a lack of passion in the novel. Naomi Wood seems more excited about the artists who taught at the Bauhaus and their methods than she does about the students and, at times, it's really hard to care about what happened at the something or other party and who went off in a sulk with who. The fasting and the bath house incident are dragged out and while they may be significant their relevance is never really drawn out in the plot as a whole. It's hard to care about them either after a while. Paul starts off as a love crossed student with an infatuation but becomes a bit of a bore by the end churning out a few regrets as he lives the life of a relatively successful artist in England. If he'd only done a few things differently, or studied and reflected events more incisively then this might have been a better novel relating to the slow burning rise of fascism in Germany and the capacity of the artistic types to fiddle while the fire was lighting! Sadly, it never manages to do that but, perhaps, if you're a big fan of the Bauhaus movement you could just enjoy it for those elements.

(The Hiding Game is published by Pan Macmillan. Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advance copy in return for a fair review.)

Paul Beckermann, an artist now living in England, looks back to the 1920s when he lived and studied at the Bauhaus. This is a story of friendship, love and betrayal against the backdrop of Weimar Germany's descent into Nazism. Paul's knowledge of subsequent events informs the telling of the story, imbuing it with sadness and regret. It also explores human beings' failure to see what is in front of us, how we feign ignorance instead of admitting what we must surely know. It evokes the idealism of the Bauhaus and the darkness of encroaching Fascism vividly.

Having read and loved Mrs Hemingway I was excited to see this one on NetGalley.

This was a fascinating book, and I learnt a lot about Bauhaus, about art in general and also about the economic and social situation in Germany between the wars. It's a credit to the author, however, that you don't feel that you're learning - it doesn't feel forced.

None of the protagonists were particularly likeable, but again, that doesn't detract from your enjoyment of the book.

Highly recommended.

The Hiding Game follows four Bauhaus students from the early 1930s right up to the present day. We follow them from Weimar, to Dessau and Berlin and then to London. A tangled love affair and death stalk the book, whilst the maelstrom of mid twentieth century German politics swirls around them. I couldn't put the The Hiding Game down, the story of the students pulled me on, the history of the Bauhaus had me fascinated and macabre horror of watching the creeping rise of the Nazis added an extra frisson.

I really liked the idea of this book, it just sadly didn't live up to my expectations. The story follows Paul, a young artist in the Bauhaus school in Weimar in the 1930's, and his friendship with his intellectual and talented friends. It is narrated from the point of view as the older Paul, who deeply regrets his part in his girlfriend's death during the Second World War, which is revealed as the book goes on and the school is moved to Berlin and changes drastically in the face of the horror of Nazi Germany. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the school and the work the artists did there, and there were some beautiful images used, but unfortunately the story fell a little flat for me and I didn't think the ending rewarded the reader enough. However I am not always a fan of books set in this time period, so for someone else this could be a brilliant read.

A perfectly woven story of youthful exuberance, art, love, obsession and betrayal. All set against the backdrop of a Germany in turmoil as it faces the rise of fascism and the art school that this new Germany sees as insidious.and representing all that they wish to eradicate.

The Hiding Game was a bit of a curate’s egg for me. The interplay between the characters - unpicking the relationships of the artists at the heart of the Bauhaus - was successful, and the growing sense of dread as the political situation worsens is well drawn out. However, the sense of the art that’s so integral to the piece was, to me, rather clunky. It reminded me of books by Patrick Gale where you are immersed in the world of art or music and are fascinated by the detail... but in this case I was left waiting for it to get on with the next plot or character development.

An interesting but flawed novel. Worth a read, but not essential.

I love an historical novel so was really keen to read this book. I don’t think anyone can fail to be ignorant of German 1930s history nor the Bauhaus. It certainly makes for an interesting backdrop to this story of friendship, love and betrayal.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Paul, an artist who trained at the Bauhaus, and the five friends he makes in his first few weeks. It goes back and forth over the next few decades, showing the fallout from the decisions they made.

I loved the way the story unfolded and I really enjoyed the book. However I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if it wasn’t for the setting of the Bauhaus and the historical period. The characters were all so flawed that I’m not sure I really cared about any of them.

Gosh ! Easily the best book I’ve read this year. Evocative and heartbreaking it captures perfectly the Bauhaus school and the naivety of that heady time between the wars.

The spectre of Nazi Germany looms across the book and hindsight makes the experience quite demanding and traumatic.

The characters are hypnotic, you will fall quite in love with Charlotte and Paul, Walter and Jeno and you will hate them at some point for being so blind and so self obsessed.

A must read

Enjoyed this book and the world of Bauhaus artists between the World Wars. For a full review go to https://joebloggshere.tumblr.com/post/186672767211/the-hiding-game-by-naomi-wood-this-novel-set

Naomi Wood is a very skilled writer - her prose flows like a river, beautiful sentences with wonderful word choices. Her words are lyrical, beats pulsing through the page, all playing in harmony to make the reading a joy. I suspect I'd get pleasure reading her to-do list.

When I finished The Hiding Game, I put it down and decided I enjoyed it. I read it fast, 'cover' to 'cover' (doesn't work with e-books) in a couple of days, which is very quick for me (certainly helped by being on holiday!). The problem is that when I considered why I enjoyed it, it was all entirely down to the writing. When I reflected on the story, my main thought was, "Is that it? Not much happened there."

The basic story is six friends meet at the Bauhaus during the rise of the Nazis. I knew it was abolished by the Nazis as the contemporary, degenerate, style conflicted with their preference for the neoclassical. However, this didn't come across strongly - the thrust of the book was on the friendships - and as things turned sour, it seemed Naomi hardened on those friendships instead of pursuing what it must have been like living in fear of those days; I never got the sense of being in that period, the tensions and distrust. My main complaint was when that fear was ratcheted up, the book ended abruptly - the conclusion seemed rushed, the betrayals insignificant.

I did enjoy the art descriptions, that was very nicely done, even the story was well executed, but I felt the plot needed more tension, stronger betrayals, and more sense of time&place. I'll definitely look out for future books from Naomi, she's got a strong future ahead of her.

3 for the plot, 5 for writing - 4 overall - a very enjoyable read with a few flaws.

Book supplied by Netgalley for an honest review.

The Bauhaus a place to study art like no other. 6 people meet there and become great friends and lovers. But, Germany is no longer a safe place for those who are different or foreign.
We see how these people were pulled apart by life at the time and how their futures held great trag day and loss.
A story of love and pain. Read and enjoy and get an insight to life at this time.

The Hiding Game by Naomi Wood
I am a member of an Art Book Club and am keen to suggest this book as our next novel. It is set in the 1920’s in Germany when the effects of rampant inflation are causing widespread hardship. The novel focuses on the lives of six young people who are studying at the Bauhaus school of art. One of them, Paul Beckerman, supplements his finances by creating made to measure art. His girlfriend, Charlotte is completely under the spell of her tutor, Master Itten, and attempts to pursue high art by existing only on black bread and water and shaving off all her hair.
The story is told through the eyes of Paul Beckerman who left Germany for life in London and, when he is informed that Walter, one of their group has died, he thinks back over his time at the Bauhaus and his lost love the enigmatic Charlotte. The book is very well written and diligently researched but the characters did not engage me as fully as they could have done. Many thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

An ok read. Well written, well developed characters. But sadly I found the story a bit weak.
Thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review