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    Everyone loves to tell fun, engaging, and imaginative stories. Go ahead and make a social story or...

The German Wife [Audiobook]
The German Wife [Audiobook]
Debbie Rix | 2022 | History & Politics, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book is a departure from my usual but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I usually read crime/thriller books but I do have an interest in the World Wars and this sounded like something a bit different so I took a punt and I definitely wasn't disappointed.

With strong characters, a riveting story line blended between real events and fiction, this book had me hooked from the very beginning to the very end. It's a story of love and survival set amongst the horrors of World War II. It's told from the German perspective and provides an illuminating insight into what life was like for a German SS Officer sent to Dachau in order to further his medical experiments and his wife. I'm not going to lie, this is a tough read in parts as you would expect from the subject matter but it's not overly gratuitous.

This book is filled with moral dilemmas and whilst I didn't want to like or sympathise with any of the main characters, I found myself torn and asking myself the question "what would you have done in the same situation?" I absolutely do not condone in any way, shape or form, the horrors inflicted by the Nazis on their fellow human beings but this book does make you question what you would have done had you been in their shoes. I would hope to think that I would make different choices in the beginning but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

This is a story about love and hope amongst horror and fear and one that I would recommend to others who enjoy this genre.

I must give a shout out to the narrator, Tamsin Kennard, her voice absolutely drew me in completely and was perfect for this book.

Many thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Send For Me in Books

Sep 7, 2021  
Send For Me
Send For Me
Lauren Fox | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Send For Me is an emotionally charged look at the lives of three generations of women: Klara, Annalise and Clare. Annalise is German, a Jew living in Feldenheim at a time when it was dangerous to be Jewish - whether you were a practicing Jew or not. After years of persecution, Annalise, her husband and her toddler daughter, manage to get permission to leave for the USA. But she has to leave her parents behind.

This was a different take on other books set at this time, and I liked that about it very much. I haven’t read many books about those who managed to escape the Nazi regime and immigrate to safe countries before the Holocaust really began. But it’s no less saddening for that. Annalise desperately misses her parents, and life is so utterly different in the US.

The story swaps between Annalise and her granddaughter, Clare, whose life couldn’t have been any more different. Clare has the much more liberated life of an American woman - whether that’s what she really wants, remains to be seen.

I really enjoyed seeing the juxtaposition between a 1930s immigrant and a modern young woman. Annalise’s fear of being in a big city with no English is palpable - I panicked along with her. It must be so scary to move somewhere that’s completely different to your own life experience, and not even have a common language - something that people have always had to endure for their own safety throughout the ages.

This is a really moving novel, made more so when I learnt that the letters between Annalise and her mother Klara were real - just that the names were changed.