The Seventh Circle is a historical fiction novel written by Thomas Bauer. Fussen was a quiet town far removed from the hustle and bustle of Berlin, Frankfurt, or the other big German cities. The little Bavarian enclave lay near the border of Austria and had been there since the ninth century, where its renown was based on the violin and lute-making industries passed on through generations. Karl Weber was the son of a local merchant, Franz Weber, whose dry goods shop enabled the family to live a life of some comfort. While Franz hoped that Karl would follow in his footsteps and eventually take over the family business, Karl had different dreams. His vision for the future lay in academia, and he was most happy studying literature.

A handsome youth, students of both genders sought out his attention, but while he enjoyed the company of the young women he met, Karl was sexually attracted to men. The one who he believed would be the love of his life, however, was found not at the university, but home in Fussen. Hermann Schrecht, son of the owner of the Castle Hotel, sat down to share a beer and chat with him one evening, and the two began falling in love. And, for a while, their growing relationship went under the radar, until a photograph of the two found its way to the authorities. Karl Weber would be arrested on the basis of the picture and his subsequent confession and would spend the next six years in concentration camps as Hitler waged war against the rest of the world, and Germany seemed to go insane.

In his foreword, Thomas Bauer mentions the memoir of Heinz Heger, The Men With the Pink Triangles, and indicates that “any similarities to my novel and his memoir is intentional.” I reread that as I was reading the story as The Seventh Circle often feels like a memoir. It’s a powerful story that held me spellbound as I once again read of the atrocities of the concentration camps, this time from the perspective of the gay inmates. The Seventh Circle is a beautiful read that brought to mind the works of Hermann Broche who was himself an inmate in a concentration camp and whose Sleepwalkers Trilogy and the father-son dichotomy resonate in this tale of generations and German culture. Karl’s story is every man and woman’s story; his experiences and ability to retain his humanity throughout the brutal and dehumanizing machine that was the Nazi experiment and the camps shine out throughout this work. And Bauer’s caution as expressed in his Foreword, decrying the rise in hate crimes and his need to “again raise the ghosts of our not too distant past,” is eloquently addressed throughout this stunning and accomplished work. The Seventh Circle should be on every thinking person’s must-read list. One that will make readers stop and consider what is going on right now. It’s most highly recommended.

The Seventh Circle is a work of fiction in the historical fiction, interpersonal drama, and cultural fiction sub-genres, and was penned by author Thomas Bauer. This deeply emotive work is intended for mature reading audiences and does contain scenes of graphic violence pertinent to the time period, as well as moderate scenes of a sexual nature. We find ourselves in the middle of the Nazi regime in Germany, where our young protagonist breaks the official laws of the country by having an affair with another man. Forced to wear the pink triangle and suffer the horrors of life in a concentration camp, we follow Karl through the many struggles he faces.

Author Thomas Bauer has crafted a heart-breaking and accurate account of some of the lesser-known victims of the Holocaust in this beautifully penned but truly tragic true-to-life story. One of the things which I really admired about the work was the tenderness with which its protagonist Karl is treated by the narrator, and how this juxtaposes against the unstoppably cruel behavior of everyone else whom he meets during the powerful regime of the Third Reich. The attention to detail in the historical scenes and settings gives a fully cinematic experience to each event, from the earlier moments in a small town right through to the death march to Dachau and beyond. What results is a visceral reading experience which is painful in places, but necessarily so, and I cannot recommend The Seventh Circle highly enough for those wishing to educate themselves on humanity’s past. A truly compelling read.