Published By: Union Square & Co
Pages: 288
Released On: 19/01/2027
On the eve of WWII, two sisters find themselves on opposite sides of politics in Hitler’s Berlin. One Follows the Führer, the other flees Germany. A child remains their last secret bond.
Gerda is thirteen when Hitler takes office; her sister Ilse, eleven. While Gerda grows disillusioned by Nazism, Ilse becomes a fervent follower.
At fifteen, Ilse is recruited for Year on the Land—catchphrase “Children, Kitchen, Church”—a rural indoctrination program designed to boost the Aryan birth rate. There, she falls in love with a boy from a nearby camp and becomes pregnant. When the boy is expelled, Ilse begins to fear consequences.
Months later, as Gerda and her husband are preparing to leave the country, Ilse surprises her at the train station with a basket. As the train pulls away, Gerda opens the basket and is shocked to discover…a baby. Years after the war, Ilse confronts her schoolgirl self—naively caught up in fascism’s false promises—and resolves to track down her sister. What will happen when she finds the daughter she gave away?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
There are 60 chapters in this book, making each one on average 4 1/2 pages long, although some are only one or two pages. I liked this as I’m not a fan of long chapters.
It opens so strongly that you you know it’ll be a powerful story.
As an English woman, in my experience you don’t get many war books about the German people, not in a positive way anyway, they’re always depicted as the villains to England’s heroes. But I’m sure that the majority of German civilians were as against the war as anyone else, and so whilst not every characters in this is anti-war, it was nevertheless still fascinating to read about Germans during the war in a positive light.
It was also interesting but uncomfortable to read about German civilians who did support Hitler. Because in hindsight, you find it impossible to think that anyone could support what he was doing.
My main issue is to do with the pacing and the format. I thought at first it was flitting every old chapter between now and when the sisters were little girls. But then it changes, so it wasn’t a reliable rhythm. And then it changed and we weren’t talking about the two girls at all, but it wasn’t always clear. And that made the pacing feel weird. Some bits were slow but others were almost glossed over.
I do admit, overall it was fast to read. It’s a relatively short book anyway but it was quick to read.
My other issue I had was regarding the emotional depth. It’s about the war, it’s meant to be emotional, and yet it felt a bit shallow. I expected to have my heart broken, the parts of it that looked as if they were going really deep, suddenly ended and that was that.
There were elements of magic in it, but overall there were a few too many issues. Not deal breakers, and it would wouldn’t stop me recommending it, but some were quite overpowering.
This is my first of Helen’s books and whilst I didn’t find it perfect, I did enjoy it. I think if you’re looking for a war book with a difference then you’ll really enjoy it, but it didn’t have the impact I was hoping for.
