German American Heritage
This is the key theme through the book and also the theme the author is most obviously invested in as her own heritage is German American. Germans immigrated to the United States primarily looking for a better standard of living. They found the idea of The America Dream incredibly attractive and also saw openings for themselves in industrial fields and in trades like baking and cabinet making. They tended to gravitate towards other German immigrants and consequently did not assimilate as much as they might have done. During the World Wars the German communities were vilified primarily because of their tacit support of Hitler's and his regime.
Identity
Many of the characters on the novel do not have a strong sense of identity. This is particularly true of Delphine whose own view of herself is actually erroneous; she identifies herself as a motherless daughter of the town drunk rather than the adopted daughter of a man who treated her like his own. Identity is also complex when it comes to Fidelis and his children as two sons clearly identify themselves as Americans whilst the other two feel German, causing a rift within the family.
The Contradictory Nature of People
All of the characters in the novel are paradoxical, as they have a collection of qualities that are seemingly opposite. Fidelis is a butcher, a job that appears brutal and unfeeling, but he also has a beautiful singing voice and is a reminder that "butchers sing like angels". Roy is portrayed as a worthless drunk but in fact was an honorable man who rescued an abandoned child from a miserable life in an orphanage, and is her defender to the end. Delphine has no idea how to have a mother-daughter relationship yet she manages to be both a daughter to Eva and a mother to Eva's children. Throughout the novel the human potential for complex contradiction is a key theme.
Family
The meaning of blood family versus chosen family is explored as a theme in the novel. Eva begins the book as Johannes' fiancée; she and her unborn child are taken on as family by Fidelis. His family is subsequently fractured when two of his sons go back to Germany with Tante and the family is never complete again. Delphine also has a complex family; she is rejected by her blood relative (her mother) and becomes the family of Roy who adopts her, of Cypriam whom she pretends to be married to and then to Fidelis, having become almost a member of his family through close friendship with Eva. She then acts as mother to Eva's children, throughout the novel the bonds of family that is created by choice are shown to be stronger than the family created by blood relationships.
