Men Who Love Hannah Vogel
By Rebecca Cantrell
This week’s question “why do fools fall in love?” is deceptively simple and completely impossible to answer. So, instead I decided to run through the fools who have fallen in love with Hannah Vogel. Considering her complicated lifestyle, it’s actually a fairly long list. I’ll try not to reveal any spoilers. And, since I just wrote a post where I cast the whole Hannah Vogel series at “My Book, the Movie,” I’ll paste in some pictures of the characters here (
Walter. He never even gets a last name, but he and Hannah were engaged when she was seventeen. They never married because he was killed at the end of the Great War. If he had lived, she probably would have settled down into as a German housewife and started raising kids.
Paul Keller. He was delivered into the hospital where Hannah worked as a nurse with serious injuries to his leg and shell shock. She helped nurse him back to health and he proposed. She gave it a lot of thought, but turned him down because she did not want that housewife life after all. They remained friends and he helped to get her a job at the newspaper. In spite of his rudeness in A Game of Lies, he is my personal favorite for Hannah.
Boris Krause. Hannah meets him in A Trace of Smoke. He’s a banker with a teenaged daughter. His wife died in childbirth, so he’s been alone for a long time. He’s a solid dependable guy who can still hold his own in a car chase or a gunfight. He’s charming and handsome and a good father. He’s probably the guy she should marry.
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| Aaron Eckhardt | Rufus Sewell | Sebastian Koch |
Lars Lang. Hannah meets him in A Trace of Smoke too. He’s a police kommissar who is also a member of the SS. Lars has the toughest journey of any of the characters so far. He’s devoutly loyal to Hannah, but he has a dark past, and a dangerous one. He is exactly the guy she shouldn’t get involved with, even though he has saved her life on numerous occasions (she’s saved his too) and they work well together as an espionage team.
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| Edward Norton | Michael Fassbender | Thomas Krettschman |
So, whom should Hannah pick? Whom would YOU pick? And, which actor should play each character? (casting ideas for Paul Keller are welcome!)
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I think Hannah should pick Paul Keller – seems that he would complement her nature.
As for me, I would pick…None of the Above. I would be completely happy with a single life. 😉
Paul has always been my favorite too. A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS (out next year, so this is a bit of a spoiler) is a tough book for him and Hannah. They have a lot in common and a shared history, so…
Hannah, too, does quite well with a single life. But complicated men just seem to appear around her.
Thanks for stopping by!
I would choose Lars Lang. I love the chemistry they have together and he has many secrets that Hannah can help him solve. He is truly devoted to her and has protected and loved her from afar for a very long time. While she may not be the housewife type she is someone who wants to develop a relationship based on who she is not what they want her to be.
Thank you, Dottie! I do love Lars too. He’s definitely taken up the most time and emotional energy of the author. 🙂
He’ll be back in the next one…
Definitely Lars Lang. Paul was rude & bitter in #3 (and married – or is the wife killed off? That marriage is inexplicable). Boris is dull. Hannah and Lars have the chemistry that makes the pages sizzle, and his complexity makes him the most interesting character of the three.
MBP, I think Paul deserves some slack! His personal demons will be addressed in the next book, A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS.
But Lars Lang is definitely where the intrigue is.
As a friend, I would tell her to to go with Boris, but as an author, Lars wins every time!
To my great surprise, I gotta go with Lars. Rebecca, you turned a creepy guy into the sexiest and most intriguing of the lot with deft tension and surprising vulnerability. Just finished Lies last night, and I can’t get it out of my head. Very well done! Can’t wait for Glass.
Thank you, Mary! Lars had the longest way to go, but he certainly got there in the end. A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS is a pivotal book for him, so stay tuned!
i’m still in love with boris and see sebastian koch playing him. lars needs a relative unknown, someone who could fill the role with the vulnerability it deserves. lars is one of the more tender hearted people i have read about in any work devoted to this era. his need to right the wrongs he’s committed, even with that last death warrant in his desk, speaks volumes. but, if i had to pick someone out of your line up i’d go with fassbender. he’s got such a sad demeanor, haunted, really.
i imagine hannah alone. writing these books in a cliffside welsh cottage with anton visiting her on occasion. she befriends victor klemperer and he becomes her inspiration.
oh, and for hannah herself, i really do love jessica chastain. she’s got such amazing class and grace and strength.
Thanks, Mara! Boris is a good, stable, dependable guy. Did you see Sebastian Koch in ‘Black Book?’ He is very Boris-like in that.
Hannah may very well end up alone. She’s tough on men. 🙂
Loved the Victor Klemperer diaries. It’s such an evocative and real and detailed presentation of the times. And heartbreaking.
I just checked out Jessica Chastain. She could be Hannah! Thanks for the tip!
I was all about Boris until GAME OF LIES, and now I’m all about Lars. I think I said this on the movie blog, but I like that he lets her be herself, and they work well together. Not to mention the chemistry between them was so intense I was sure my book was going to go up in flames.
Would it be futile to ask to be kind to him in BROKEN GLASS?
(I’m sensing yes. Boo.)
Lars has a rougher time of it in BROKEN GLASS, I’m sorry to say. He has a very difficult path to follow in all the books, and I know that I would like to send him off to a nice peaceful hamlet in Switzerland to ride out the war as the chief of police involved in disputes no more serious than broken teapots. But that’s not going to happen.
Luckily, he’s pretty resilient. So far.
I just loved Lars. He’s dangerous, smoldering, passionate, & devoted in his odd way. I also think that he and Hannah have the same ideas in mind for a life, he can handle her not wanting to be a common housewife. Boris is dependable and a great package but just…. not enough spark. Paul reminds me of a Ryan Gosling type. Not glaringly handsome, but handsome in his own way.
As I read this series, in my mind I had Hannah pictured as Charlize Theron or Kirsten Dunst, but I liked your idea of Naomi Watts- she would be spot on. For Boris, perhaps Kyle Chandler. And Lars just seemed like a Daniel Craig. I also think that Henry Cavill would make an excellent Lars. I looooooove Henry Cavill (from The Tudors), and I certainly think he’s got that steely dark, passionate look in his eyes and could play cold and hot both as Lars would need. Who would play Peter Weill? Though his role would be small, I kept imagining Aidan Quinn, though he might be too young. And for Ernst Rohm, if only Ed Westwick were older, lol, he’s slimy enough to pull him off. Who do you have in mind for Ernst Vogel?
That Lars sure struck a cord, didn’t he? And to think I planned to kill him early in LIES. I’m glad he pulled through. 🙂
And he is less conventional than Boris, but also a lot harder to be in a relationship with.
You have such great casting ideas, BTW. I never even thought of Kyle Chandler. But this picture of him is SOOO Boris.
http://www.topnews.in/files/images/Kyle-Chandler.jpg
I think Charlize Theron and Kirsten Dunst are too tall to be Hannah. I like the idea of her being much smaller and more fragile looking than the men around her. I think Charlize could totally take most of the guys in the book in a physical fight, but Hannah has to use her wits because she’s just not that size.
Henry Cavill is a little young, but I think he could pull it off too.
For Ernst Roehm? James Gandolfini.
Ernst Vogel is tougher. It needs to be someone who is young (20), gorgeous, and an incredible torch singer. Ideas?
I agree about the height of Charlize and even Kirsten. It was more their faces, but I definitely think Naomi Watts is perfect. She seems breakable enough, she’s the right age and coloring, and a great actress to boot. Kyle Chandler is super hot, my husband (yeah I’m a girl, lol) is glad Friday Night Lights is over b/c I was always fawning over him 😉
Ernst Vogel, definitely a pretty boy. Chace Crawford or Zac Efron-ish. Or Nicholas Hoult.
Chace Crawford is PERFECT! I need to watch more TV. Can he sing?
Nicholas Hoult is perfect too (how can that be?). Can he sing?
Thanks for the suggestions!
Or this guy, though he’s 28 and may look too old. Josh Strickland http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3019489024/nm2397623
Casting:
Mads Mikkelsen, a Danish actor, for Boris
as seen in After the Wedding, he has that chiseled look and
the right coloring
Clifton Collins, Jr., an American actor, for Lars
as seen in Sunshine Cleaning and Extract
he has those intense dark eyes and the smaller frame
Michael Fassbender or Rufus Sewell!
For which one? Fassbender for Lars? Sewell for Boris? Or vice versa?
Or can they just both play either role and just about any other role. 🙂