Summary

The Faithful Spy is a remarkably accurate historical and biographical work in the form of a graphic novel. The novel follows the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian, pastor, writer, professor, and spy. His parents shaped his early life with their love of God, love of learning, and passion for excellence. A childhood loss is introduced and framed as Bonhoeffer’s first faith struggle and it will not be his last. As he grows and matures, many faith questions, especially moral questions, become central to who he is.
As a young adult, Dietrich leaves Germany and spends time learning in America, where he forms important friendships and also experiences injustice for the first time. Exposure to the Jim Crow era South and the seemingly contradictory vibrant Black churches become markers for Dietrich as he discovers what the Church truly is and how he believes it should function in the world.
Alongside Bonhoeffer’s story, we read the story of Germany, a proud, vibrant country that descends into chaos and tragedy. The author masterfully lays out the Germany of pre-World War 1 (then known as the Great War) and how the effects of losing that war led to economic failure, political upheaval, religious apostasy, and social discontent. These effects create a whirlwind with a power vacuum at the center that a man named Adolf Hitler was eager to step into.
As Hitler comes to power, Bonhoeffer, with a unique perspective born of his travels and his faith, sees the writing on the wall and is outspoken against the Nazi Party. He is especially outspoken against the Natzification of the Church. Bonhoeffer founded and led a seminary that was eventually shut down by the Gestapo.
Eventually, Dietrich felt convicted to abandon aspects of his moral code to defeat a great evil. He decides that his deception will be an act of faith and begins spying as a double agent, working within German spy agencies while seeking and acting toward the end goal to bring about the downfall of Hitler and the Nazi party.
There were three separate attempts made on Hitler’s life by the group Bonhoeffer worked with and they all failed. Bonhoeffer ended up in prison, where he became pastor to the prisoners. He wrote books, comforted many, wrestled with doubt, clung tightly to God, made the conscious decision to stay in prison, then was ultimately executed 2 weeks before the prison was liberated.
Best suited for readers 12+.

Mom Thoughts

What an incredible story! This read could be considered a historical, faith-based, biographical, adventure. The author takes great care with the accuracy of his retelling, going as far as to always note with an asterisk if the quotation from a character is a true quotation or not. The book includes pages with sources and he does a masterful job of condensing down the broad life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer without losing the vast scope of his life.

When I first opened the book, my first impression was that this is less of a graphic novel and more of an illustrated notebook. The pages are filled with small text in a nontraditional font (which may cause difficulties for some readers). The style is highly engaging, using dense pages crammed with information without being tiresome or overwhelming. The story is compelling while the presentation style encourages the reader to spend time on each page instead of barrelling through a detail-rich experience.

The story is largely set in wartime, so it’s appropriate to have illustrations of battle scenes, but I found them done in a straightforward manner with no extraneous shock value added. There are no dead bodies depicted, though there are skulls and bones. While red ink is used in some illustrations, there are no upsetting, bloody, or exceedingly violent images. Truly, for a graphic novel set in a historically bloody time, the illustrations are tame and gave me no cause for concern.

That being said, the story itself is for mature readers. The book uses advanced vocabulary (“austere”, “virtuoso”, “pragmatic”,etc.) and covers complex ethical and theological concepts (moral warfare, racism, nationalism, fascism, governmental manipulation, pastors baptizing to Hitler rather than to God, killing one to save others, executions, covert operations, assassinations, the wickedness of man, the passivity of the church, and radical, costly obedience). I would recommend this for readers in 6th grade and up, depending on the child’s exposure to this period of history. This book doesn’t lend itself to the read-aloud setting but could be tweaked to do so.

Overall, the book was a great read. The story is a true page-turner and it is told with a high standard of accuracy. This would be a great book to include while covering this time period in a history class or for students who enjoy reading about this period in history. The story and presentation are engaging for reluctant readers while also appealing to competent readers.

Language: none

Questionable behaviors: This is a spy novel. The men in this book are trying to kill another man. There is deception and scheming. Nothing is done flippantly, but there are definitely moral questions to be considered.

Sexual content: none

Theological ideas: Bonhoeffer wrote many theological books and the concepts of these books are mentioned in the novel. Ideas like “good war”, “duty to God versus duty to nation”, “the church as a revolutionary force”, “costly discipleship”, and others are discussed.

Political themes: When exposed to racism in the South during the time of Jim Crow laws, Dietrich is inspired to fight injustice and oppression. The author uses the phrase “systematic racism” one time when referring to the oppression of Black people in the American South during this period in history.

This review was written by Good Book Mom contributor, Anna. To learn more about Anna, click HERE.

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At A Glance

 Number of Pages Number of Chapters
176 none

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