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About the Book

After moving from Germany to the US to work as a professor of biology, Catharina Coenen takes up residence in a second language to voice the questions she could not ask at home. To what extent was her grandfather implicated in World War II? What exactly did her grandmother, mother, and aunt live through? And why are women’s wartime stories so seldom told? Coenen peels back generational silences to walk alongside her grandmother as she comes of age during Hitler’s rise to power, watches friends disappear one by one, and flees bombing raids with her tiny daughters. Weaving reflections on language, biology, queerness, art, and memory, Coenen moves between the personal and the universal with stunning honesty and elegance.

Praise for Unexploded Ordnance: 

“A lyrical excavation of silence, memory, and the hidden traumas that echo across generations.”

— Brooke Shannon, Starred Review, Foreword Reviews

“Coenen, a German-born American botanist, has written an arresting collection of essays on what it means to live with political guilt, social trauma, and the unspoken memories not just of what Germany did in World War II, but of what was done to Germany during the conflict. . . . ‘The scientist in me pores over . . . data,’ she says. But the writer in her recognizes that sometimes you must come to terms with stories that cannot be pegged into a graph or spreadsheet. A memoir of unbearable honesty about a German woman reckoning with war, family, and forgiveness.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Coenen artfully connects her family’s personal experiences to larger traumas of the period. The result is a poetic and deeply felt exploration of the long shadow cast by the war.”

— Publisher's Weekly

“A work of tremendous emotional and intellectual heft. . . . In lucid and lyrical prose, Catharina Coenen pieces together fragments of her German family’s history through Hitler’s rise to power, WWII, and its aftermath. Writing in the English gives this poet and botanist a new language in which to explore the legacies of a people silenced by trauma and guilt. Coenen focuses on her family, but the narrative expands to include the universal realities of war. She channels her ancestors and witnesses with them the violences they both experienced and participated in, violences that will continue to reverberate through generations until they can be acknowledged and mourned. A beautiful and tenderly rendered debut.”

— Carmel Mc Mahon, author of In Ordinary Time

“What makes Unexploded Ordnance unusual is its range—you’ll notice it from the table of contents onward, this rat-tat-tat of memoir, history, biology, philosophy, linguistics. But what makes it so singular, so special, is how these disparate parts come together, come alive. I read it, entranced—it’s a book that should be impossible, yet here it is.”

— Menachem Kaiser, author of Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure

“A brilliant and wide-eyed collection of essays about the legacy (and inheritance) of trauma. Unexploded Ordnance is a bullet of a book; one that challenged my perception of what nonfiction can do—and be.”

— Jiaming Tang, author of Cinema Love 

“A triumph in gripping, masterful prose chronicling the lives of three generations of German women marked by war. What do we know when we know our mother’s, our grandmother's stories? With each perfectly nuanced essay, Unexploded Ordnance reminds us of the silences we must choose to break. A poignant and unforgettable debut!”

— Ani Gjika, author of An Unruled Body

“What happens to the body after trauma? To the bodies of those descended from trauma? What becomes of desire that has been subsumed?

“These are the questions that arise from this staggering collection of essays, one that brilliantly examines the legacy and inheritance of trauma in three generations of German women. The hurts and silences, ambitions and dignities of grandmothers, aunts, mothers, and daughters take center-stage, giving voice to a range of experiences that feel both timely and timeless. As Coenen reflects on how she came to her own queer identity, she does not shrink from examining her family’s past, sharing stories that implicate the suffering caused by her grandparents’ Nazi ties as a powerful act against secret-keeping.

“Unexploded Ordnance invites the reader to think, perhaps for the first time, about the intersection of science, immigration, choice, and memory. Coenen’s perspective as a biologist informs how she brings the personal and political together, allowing the reader to see as a scientist, but through an artist’s gaze. And yet, beneath the strength of her voice—frank, tender, wise—there is a way in which her expertise disappears into the work itself.

“Coenen also challenges our perception of what nonfiction can be. Her approach shows both an urgency and a formal inventiveness. No two essays feel the same, and yet there is a powerful sense of cohesion in the reading experience, as well as a sense of awe—the essays are themselves small grenades thrown against walls of silence, denial, and shame. If it is the duty of the scientist to explore the natural world, Coenen does it beautifully by turning her focus to our most basic makeup: the stories we carry in our genes. We are all beneficiaries of her courage and determination.”

— Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing Judges Grace Talusan, Jiaming Tang, and Ilan Stavans

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharina Coenen is a German immigrant to northwestern Pennsylvania, where she teaches biology at Allegheny College in Meadville. Her creative work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in The Southampton Review Online, Appalachian Heritage, Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere.

BOOK DETAILS

Paperback ISBN: 9781632064059 • $17
Publication date: Oct 28, 2025
5" x 7.125" • 288 pages
Adult Nonfiction: War / Essays / European / German / LGBTQ+ / Women Authors
Rights: World All Languages, Audio