Bonhoeffer’s observations strongly influenced the development of his political will: during the Nazis’ anti-Semitic propaganda campaign, he recognized many of the same misinformation strategies and other abuses. Though slavery was formally abolished, the hatred and disenfranchisement of blacks continued unabated.
During his several-year stint in America, and particularly here, Bonhoeffer saw firsthand the cruelty imposed on African-Americans by white Americans. One of the major life events Giardina focuses on is Bonhoeffer’s time on Gauley Mountain, Kentucky, where he worked in the coal mines. His story suggests that all people have a capacity to recognize injustice and do great good, showing that no one can claim to have never perfectly obeyed a moral code. Bonhoeffer is often depicted as deeply depressed and full of crippling self-doubt. Rather than depict Bonhoeffer as a model of virtue in the modern world, Giardina shows that he was quite ordinary, yet morally and intellectually complex. The novel begins in his childhood, backgrounding his eventual foray into political activism in his difficult upbringing and family, and rigorous, self-driven education. An outspoken opponent of the Nazi party from its inception, Bonhoeffer was known for his magnanimity and deep love for humanity. Saints and Villains makes use of what little information is available about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life. It won the Boston Book Review’s fiction prize and was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. Though fictional, the novel has been praised for the historical accuracy of its core plot. The novel explores the complex moral challenge Bonhoeffer grappled with as he balanced his acute awareness of the atrocities the Nazis were committing with his will to stay alive. American author Denise Giardina’s novel Saints and Villains (1998) is a speculative retelling of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and religious scholar who plotted to assassinate Hitler and was caught and executed at Buchenwald during the final weeks of World War II.
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