It isn't about the war as much as what happens before and after. What lengths would you go to for survival? What would you do to uphold the 'truth'? What is our moral responsibility and what if that understanding is different for those around you?
Marianne made a promise to her husband and her best friend to look out for the wives and children of the resistance in Germany. With that off the cuff statement her life took on a purpose - and a set of blinders dictated by her 'rightness.'
Marianne's first task after the war is to find the wife of her dear friend Connie Felderman - Benita, a farm girl more focused on pretty things than politics. But as the wife of a dead soldier who was hung for his attempt to murder of Hitler - she is expected to also be politically driven. Martin, Benita's son joins Marianne's son and two daughters at the castle.
The second family that Marianne saves is Ania Grabarek and her two sons. They were discovered in a displacement camp and were not known directly by Marianne - she knew of Ania's husband that is all.
These three fatherless families figure out how to live in a castle with no running water or electricity. And do so successfully, until they don't. Until Marianne's clear understanding of black and white clangs against both Benita and Ania's history and reality.
But, the book doesn't end there. Rather it jumps ahead to the 1990s when the castle becomes a museum honoring the resistance. Marianne is invited to return for a speech and friendships are reconnected in a different light.
This is a thought-provoking book of what happens after. What are we left with as we look backwards at the war - and how does that impact our world today.
I would highly recommend this one too!!!
#summer2018book3
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