A few years ago I started to read a certain German novel and, what with one thing and another, didn’t get to finish it. Neither do I remember the title or author, but would like to try the possibility that someone here might recognize it from the premise. If so, then with a little more luck I’ll be able to find it somewhere so I can finish it.
There’s not a whole lot I can tell you about it, but it was set in East Prussia towards the end of the second world war, and takes place (or starts out) in the home of a minor noble family. The father is away, either fighting in the war or deceased, so there’s only the mother and one son of around the age of fourteen. The mother has, or had, dreams of owning a bookstore, perhaps frustrated by the expectations of her class. The son has a tutor who comes to the house, who at one point tells him about the Allied bombing raids that have leveled Königsberg, his birthplace.
IIRC the protagonists can look out on the road from their windows and can see that people in the region are already starting to flee westward.