65 pages • 2 hours read
Mark SullivanThe Last Green Valley
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “A Tale of Two Prisoners”
Part 4, Chapter 28 Summary
Each morning and evening in Poltava, a pony cart carries away the bodies of prisoners who died. Prisoners who volunteer for burial detail are given extra rations, but they are also more susceptible to disease. Emil refuses to work the burial detail. He begins to lose weight, and his pace mixing concrete slows.
In early November 1945, Emil hears the cooks complain about not having enough firewood. He begins bringing them armfuls of wood each day in exchange for one ruble. Later that day, the site superintendent at the hospital, Ivanov, approaches Emil and asks what he needs to triple his concrete production. Emil requests extra men to help him, more materials, more rations, and warmer clothes. Ivanov agrees to Emil’s terms and tells him that he will be shot if his production does not triple within a week.
After finding a shelter for refugees near the Reichstag, Adeline, Walt, and Will are sent to Gutengermendorf, a city in Soviet-occupied East Germany. They are assigned to stay on the farm of Peter and Greta Schmidt. Despite their initial skepticism, the Schmidts quickly like Adeline due to her hard work. Walt and Will enroll in the local school. One night, Will asks Adeline if their new home is the green valley they’ve been searching for; Adeline responds that it “is the green valley we are in today” (290).
On Saturday nights, the Schmidts watch Walt and Will while Adeline sleeps with the other village women in the local Lutheran church. Saturday nights are “vodka nights,” a reward for the Soviet soldiers for remaining sober the rest of the week. Because of the soldiers’ drinking, Saturday night is also known as “rape night,” when the Soviet soldiers are free to assault any German woman. The women sleep in the church for safety. As Adeline lays down to sleep in the church one Saturday night, she realizes that she forgot to read her Bible, but she questions the point of praying if God is not answering her prayers.
Part 4, Chapter 29 Summary
Two men are assigned to help Emil make concrete: Nikolas and an Uzbek man named Krull. Nikolas confides in Emil that he feels wrong and is having, he says, “nightmares and thoughts that won’t stop” (299). In December, Nikolas becomes ill. Krull attempts to escape from the camp, but the guards kill him. On Christmas Eve, Nikolas collapses while he and Emil mix concrete. Nikolas asks Emil if he can be forgiven for what he’s done, but Emil says no.
On Christmas Eve in Gutengermendorf, Adeline cooks dinner for the boys, the Schmidts, and the three Russian soldiers staying with them. During dinner, the Russian soldiers drink vodka. One of the soldiers, Captain Kharkov, speaks to Adeline in Russian so the Schmidts will not understand; he remarks that the Schmidts are now old and useless. After Walt and Will go to bed, Adeline goes to the Lutheran church to spend the night. The church is empty when she arrives. As she makes her bed, she realizes that Captain Kharkov followed her.
Part 4, Chapter 30 Summary
After Nikolas dies, Emil spends Christmas Eve completing the concrete quota. Emil leaves the hospital to line up outside the mess hall when he spots Corporal Gheorghe. Corporal Gheorghe explains that after Romania changed allegiances from Hitler to Stalin, he was sent to a prison camp in Ukraine. After escaping from multiple prisons, he was sent to the Poltava prison camp. He explains that he volunteers for burial duty because that is how he escaped from the first two prison camps.
Corporal Gheorghe implores Emil to join him on burial duty so they can escape together. Emil tells him that he can’t and then begins to recount the story of his meeting with Major Haussmann in Dubossary. The next morning, Corporal Gheorghe insists that Emil accompany him on burial duty. Emil explains that he is doomed because he decided to pull the trigger that night in Dubossary. However, Corporal Gheorghe sees “the hand of God” in that night (324), claiming that God sent Lieutenant Colonel Nosske to stop Emil. For the first time in four years, Emil believes that God heard his prayer that night. He begins to think of Corporal Gheorghe as “a strange and divine messenger of salvation” (324).
In the Lutheran church in Gutengermendorf, Captain Kharkov attempts to assault Adeline. She pulls out a knife. Adeline returns to the Schmidt house on Christmas Day. Despite trying to enjoy the holiday with Walt and Will, Adeline realizes that Captain Kharkov might retaliate because she rejected him. She informs Greta that she and the boys must find another place to live.
Part 4, Chapter 31 Summary
Adeline receives a new work assignment as a cook for Soviet officer Colonel Vasiliev. She is allowed to shop at a commissary for ranking Soviet officers, which exposes her to the full extent of inequality under the Communist system. In addition to buying Colonel Vasiliev’s groceries, Adeline uses money of her own to purchase extra food for her sons. On her way home, Adeline stops at the International Red Cross and adds her name to a list of people who were separated from loved ones during the war, hoping it will help her reunite with Emil.
Part 4, Chapter 32 Summary
In February 1946, Corporal Gheorghe is assigned to work alongside Emil in the cement shop. Emil is feeling better both mentally and emotionally since Corporal Gheorghe altered his thinking about the night in Dubossary. Corporal Gheorghe urges Emil to be grateful for his situation and think of his family, claiming that God will protect him if he does.
For days, Corporal Gheorghe and Emil wait for a storm so they have an opportunity to escape. Emil dreams that the two of them attempt to escape on a train, but Corporal Gheorghe falls and Emil dives after him. One morning, Emil learns that Corporal Gheorghe was sent to a high-security camp on the Sea of Azov because of his previous escape attempts.
In early March 1946, a Russian guard takes Emil and several other men to a rail yard to collect a new shipment of lime. After hours of work, Emil takes a bathroom break and spots another train that is headed west. While the guard is distracted, Emil hides in a hopper car full of coal on the westbound train.
Part 4, Chapter 33 Summary
Adeline feels a renewed sense of protection from the Soviet soldiers now that she is working for Colonel Vasiliev and no longer feels in danger of being assaulted. One night, Adeline leaves her new home to bring Greta a block of baking chocolate. As she walks through town, she realizes that she has not prayed in over a week.
On the way home from the Schmidts’ house, Adeline is stopped by Lieutenant Eloise Gerhardt, a member of the Soviet secret police. When questioned, Adeline admits that she illegally purchases food from the Soviet officers’ commissary for her sons and the Schmidts. Lieutenant Gerhardt tells Adeline that she will not be sent to prison if she agrees to keep track of Colonel Vasiliev’s purchasing habits and unusual activities. She urges Adeline to accept that Emil is likely dead.
Part 4, Chapter 34 Summary
Emil finds an empty hopper car and hides in it. During one stop, he hears Soviet soldiers checking the hopper cars for an escaped prisoner, but they give up before getting to his car. The train arrives in Kiev, Ukraine. Taking inspiration from Corporal Gheorghe, Emil sneaks into a locker room for rail station workers and steals new clothes. He hops trains for days, finding shelter and food in the train stations, until he is captured by local police in Chelm, Poland. Emil is transported to a prison camp where he plants crops until he is transferred to the bakery.
In June 1946, the prison camp is set to close; Emil intentionally misses the train that will take prisoners to a new camp. He is kicked out of the camp and left to fend for himself. He thanks God for his good fortune. He walks to the village of Pulawy, Poland, and buys a train ticket to Rzepin. During a train stop in Poznan, Emil notices a group of German prisoners who are being transferred to Braunschweig in the British Zone in West Germany. He slips in among the prisoners and claims to be a soldier who fought for the Wehrmacht.
Part 4, Chapter 35 Summary
Adeline has grown increasingly hopeless about seeing Emil again. On Christmas Eve 1946, that hopelessness turns into anger and then defiance. Adeline cooks dinner for Colonel Vasiliev and his officers; as she leaves, she is stopped by Lieutenant Gerhardt, who questions her about Vasiliev’s activities. Lieutenant Gerhardt warns Adeline that the border between East and West Germany is hardening every day, telling her that she should think twice before attempting to escape to West Germany.
Adeline, Walt, and Will go to the Schmidts’ house to celebrate Christmas. Peter remembers that a letter for Adeline was sent to their address; Adeline notices it is from the International Red Cross. The letter states that Emil is in a displaced persons camp in Alfeld, inside the British Zone.
Part 4 Analysis
Part 4, titled “A Tale of Two Prisoners,” traces Adeline and Emil’s experiences while they are separated. Emil is imprisoned in the work camp at Poltava, where he mixes concrete to rebuild the hospital. Emil also experiences a sort of mental imprisonment, unable to cope with his willingness to murder Jewish people in Dubossary. Though Emil reminds himself that there is no God and therefore nobody to punish him for his sins, the narrator says that “the pains in his chest [will] not go away, and the black thoughts that envelop[] him [will] not subside” (300).
Emil is forced to work with Nikolas in Poltava. Like many of the men in the prison camp, Nikolas falls ill and eventually dies. As he dies, Nikolas asks Emil if he can be forgiven for the violence he perpetrated, to which Emil responds, “I can’t forgive you, Nikolas. I can’t even forgive myself for what I’ve done” (302). Emil underscores his mental torture in his inability to forgive himself despite not murdering anyone.
Though Adeline is not literally imprisoned, her life with Walt and Will in Soviet-held East Germany functions as another form of prison. Adeline, like many of the other single women, faces the constant threat of sexual assault at the hands of Soviet soldiers. In addition to the fear of bodily harm, she once again finds herself at the mercy of the Soviet dictatorship. Adeline is consistently harassed by Lieutenant Gerhardt, a member of the secret police. As Lieutenant Gerhardt warns, even minor infractions such as buying extra food for her family could land Adeline in jail for crimes against the state. Life under the Soviets operates as a form of perpetual imprisonment.
Adeline and Emil’s relationships to their faith are a crucial aspect of Part 4. Though Adeline has acknowledged The Importance of Faith in the past, she struggles with her faith the longer Emil is gone. On Christmas Eve, as Adeline prepares to sleep in the local church to avoid being assaulted by Captain Kharkov, she feels “torn between wanting to go down on her knees and pray and fearing to pray because she would not be heard or heard in the wrong way” (307).
Emil’s absence stretches into another year, further chipping away at Adeline’s ability to believe that he will return. Adeline questions the value of holding on to faith: “Her mother had never given up, and her father had never come home. Emil’s mother had given up on ever seeing her husband again, and he’s shown up on her doorstep, alive but broken” (349). Adeline’s thoughts reflect the hopeless situation that she faces, particularly as she considers the possibility that Emil will return as a changed and “broken” man like his father.
While Adeline struggles to maintain her faith, Emil experiences a drastic change in his relationship with God. After being reunited with Corporal Gheorghe in Poltava, Emil tells him about the encounter with Major Haussmann in Dubossary. Corporal Gheorghe becomes a mentor to Emil as they debate Emil’s lack of faith. For Emil, God did not listen to his prayers that night in Dubossary; he was simply lucky to be stopped by a Nazi officer before pulling the trigger. Corporal Gheorghe argues that Emil should see proof of God in the fact that a soldier stopped him: “You did not have to kill because you did the right thing. Can’t you see the hand of God in that, Martel? Bringing that officer to stop you from murdering three Jews” (324).
Emil’s discussion with Corporal Gheorghe causes a shift in the foundation of his beliefs:
For more than four years he had blamed, then denied God for making him decide to kill those Jews. But now, he could see the work of a greater power in all of it. He didn’t have to kill that night because he had refused to do the wrong thing in the first place (324).
While he originally vowed to rely on himself and survive whatever came his way in the prison camp, Emil’s renewed faith inspires him to seek opportunities for escape. Emil takes advantage of an opening when he is taken to a railyard to collect a new shipment of lime for the prison camp. After hiding in a hopper car on a train headed west, Emil is finally freed from Poltava, confirming for him that “through a man’s unrelenting heart and God’s mysterious grace, dreams really can come true” (345).
