The Women of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

I've read many books set in WWII. But, this one is different.
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

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies

This is a great example of  an intriguing cover and title, but the book not quite living up to their potential.

image from LibraryThing

The story takes place in Wales right after D-Day. It follows Esther, a Welsh girl, and Karstan, a German prisoner of war. It sounded like a book you could curl up with and loose yourself in. Unfortunately, I just wasn't able to do that. It moved rather slowly. There seemed to be gaps in my understanding of what was happening, or things I should have already known, or I just was skimming too much! Esther's father is a very nationalistic Welsh shepherd who would much rather be working in the slate quarry. But, due to a strike years before and failing economy, he is stuck with his sheep. Esther is also stuck - she has been proposed to by Rhys as he was getting ready to leave for war. She quickly turns him down. Then in the opening scene of the story, she is attacked by her English date. She tells no one and as the story plods through you discover that she is pregnant - long before she ever admits it to herself. The village is the new home of a POW camp for captured Germans. Karstan appears here after he surrenders. He is also trapped; by the fence, by his understanding of English and his deep realization that Germany will loose the war, by the hopes of his mother and the hero status of his WWI father.

As the book slogs through time the characters slog through their unwanted lives.

For a WWII book about the winning side - there is very little euphoria, very little hope. Instead it's like Esther's ride to Ireland on the train for an abortion. As they arrive in town and she sees the extent of the bombing and destruction she imagines all the places she will never see, all the experiences she will never have all the possibilities that no longer exist because the war has changed them - not only the landscape - but who they are.

So, it's hard to recommend this very strongly. There are some beautifully written passages - but the pace is as slow as the winters in the war!