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Summary
Summary
Whom do you trust, whom do you love, and who can be saved?
It is 1943--the height of the Second World War--and Berlin has essentially become a city of women.
Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier's wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.
But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets.
A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit. A young woman doing her duty-year is out of excuses before Sigrid can even ask her any questions. And then there's the blind man selling pencils on the corner, whose eyes Sigrid can feel following her from behind the darkness of his goggles.
Soon Sigrid is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.
In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this stunning debut about the battle between good and evil, Gillham puts a fresh spin on the horrors of WWII by focusing on civilian German women to reveal that, amid the many adherents of the party line there were a handful of unsung heroes. We first meet Sigrid Schroder in 1943. She is an unassuming stenographer stuck in a loveless marriage and living in Berlin with her sour, difficult mother-in-law. But her life is not as common as it seems, for she has a lover, a Jewish lover, and if that were not risky enough, Sigrid becomes entangled with a neighbor who is helping to shelter Jews. As the war progresses, and Sigrid's husband is sent to the Russian front, she's drawn deeper into a world where trust is a hard-won commodity. The line between what is "right" and "wrong" becomes harder to define as Sigrid, confronted with increasingly more horrifying realities, finds her resolve constantly tested. Gillham's transcendent prose ("Looking into her eyes is like staring thorough the windows of a bombed-out building"; "The words both murdered her and made her whole"), powerfully drawn characters, and the multilayered dilemmas make his first literary effort a powerful revelation. Agent: Christy Fletcher and Rebecca Gradinger, Fletcher & Company. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In his debut about 1943 Berlin, Gillham uses elements common to the many previous movies and books about World War IIfrom vicious Nazis to black marketeers to Jewish children hiding in attics to beautiful blond German women hiding their sexuality inside drab coatsyet manages to make the story fresh. The blond beauty is Sigrid, a stenographer living alone with her unpleasant mother-in-law while her husband, Kaspar, serves on the eastern front. Sigrid's Berlin is a grim city full of suspicious, fearful citizens barely coping with shortages and almost nightly air raids, people not above turning each other over to the Gestapo for unpatriotic behavior. But Sigrid is mostly consumed in pining not for Kaspar but for Egon, the Jewish black markeeter with whom she carried on a passionate affair before he went into hiding. At first, Sigrid resists when Ericha, a rebellious teenager living in her building, involves her in an underground network hiding Jews, but iconoclast Sigrid soon finds that her experience as Egon's occasional "bagman" serves her well as she delivers supplies and humans to a safe house. At the same time, she befriends new neighbors, two sisters and their wounded-officer brother, Wolfram, whose impeccable German credentials are not what they seem. Sigrid finds herself wondering if a particular Jewish woman with two daughters in hiding might be Egon's wife. But when Egon reappears in her life, she doesn't bring up her suspicions. Instead she hides him in her neighbors' apartment, an awkward situation given that she has recently begun what she considers a purely sexual affair with Wolfram. The wounded and embittered Kaspar's return only complicates the situation. With her underground activities as intricate as her love life, Sigrid can trust no one, yet must trust a dangerously wider circle of acquaintances until the hold-your-breath suspense ending. World War II Germany may be familiar ground, but Gillham's novelvividly cinematic yet subtle and full of moral ambiguity, not to mention riveting charactersis as impossible to put down as it is to forget.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Berlin 1943, in the midst of war, offers little comfort for the women left behind. Sigrid, a seemingly dutiful wife to a husband serving on the Russian front, copes with a tedious job, a hostile mother-in-law, rationed food, air raids, and the fear of stepping out of line. There is always someone eager to denounce a neighbor for an unguarded moment or outburst. Sigrid has her secrets but holds them close: a Jewish lover from the recent past, and a random event that draws her into a chain of people hiding and protecting Jews. Even though her naivete takes her to dangerous places, she is wise enough to be cautious. Life becomes more fraught when Sigrid's wounded husband returns. Gillham tells a gripping story centered around strong and remarkable characters, some of whom are not quite what they seem to be. Scenes of wartime Berlin are powerfully described, and the lot of the ordinary citizen is artfully shown. Gillham's romantic and suspenseful novel, commandingly written and believable, should be widely read.--Hoover, Danise Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Acclaimed author Gillham's latest novel is set in Germany during World War II. Thrust into Berlin in the midst of a war-torn economy, listeners are introduced to Sigrid -Schroder, the wife of a German soldier. Trapped in a loveless marriage and living with her unappeasable mother-in-law, Sigrid moves about her daily routine of work and attending the cinema to avoid being home. She is drawn into the Resistance effort when a former lover comes back into her life. Filled with intrigue, romance, passion, drama, and suspense, the story will have listeners riveted from minute one. Suzanne Bertish, a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a Broadway actress, does an excellent job of bringing the various characters to life. The narration is smooth and easily understandable despite Bertish's employing a German accent to add authenticity. VERDICT Fans of war dramas will enjoy this title. ["This is an exemplary model of historical fiction generously laced with romance, suspense, and exciting plot twists," read the review of the Putnam hc, LJ Xpress Reviews, 7/12.-Ed.]-Stephanie Charlefour, Garden City P.L., Canton, MI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
