Kempowski's All for Nothing has everyone one could want in a literary classic

The long and short of it is that Walter Kempowski's 2006 novel, All for Nothing, has everything a reader of literary fiction could want or hope for in a book: historical veracity, family and human drama, fully rounded characters who face various moral and ethical dilemmas, clearly delineated characters and sharply defined setting, crisp pacing, highly dramatic action, excellent writing line by line without excess or flourishes. OK, maybe there's not much humor - this is a grim time and the novel focuses on how various families and individuals face this time of political crisis - but that's more than made up for by our empathy with these characters, even though some are highly unsympathetic. The last few chapters, as all of eastern Germany seems to be moving in an endless caravan of cars, horse-drawn carts and carriages, and people afoot with all their belongings in tow on sleds or packed on their back, everyone heading west in fear of the approaching Russian army coming from the East, but with no idea as to what they will find ahead of them, as many cities have already been destroyed by bombings and the families whom the refugees expect to meet may themselves have moved further inland, or worse. These scenes - with their harrowing descriptions of the trudge forward along a rutted, snow-clogged path with many dead bodies - the young and the old - and dead horses left behind to freeze or rot - add a gruesome cinematic element to the novel, as if it needed anything more. Why this novel has not found a wider readership is beyond me; sometimes, it takes time to recognize a classic. Spoiler alert: I am a little puzzled by the end of the novel, with the 12-year-old Peter as the only surviving member of the von Globil family; it's particularly surprising that the village Nazi enforcer, the officious Drybowski, gives up his seat on a launch to Peter, allowing Peter to be one of the last to escape by sea ahead of the Russian advance; is Peter's life in some way similar to Kempowski's? I will later read the intro essay to this novel, which may provide light on that issue.