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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
*4.5 Stars - I loved the dual perspectives in this book and found both equally intriguing (for once). I thought the exploration of what it would be like on the other side of the war for German families who seemed to have no choice harrowing and interesting. Jürgen Rhodes was my favorite character, his relationship with Sophie seemed so real. Highly recommend the audio book also, both narrators for Lizzie & Sophie did an amazing job.
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Excellent, as always, from Kelly Rimmer. I’ve come to expect intense relationships, connectable characters, interesting history, and amazing stories from her books, and The German Wife does not disappoint.
The story focuses mainly on two women: German Sofie, born and raised in Berlin, who moves to the US with two of her children in 1950. And Lizzie, born and raised on a farm in Texas, who has recreated herself as a homemaker to her well-off husband. The narration goes back and forth between the two of them, and varies between the past and present as the reader learns how the war years shaped the women differently.
Sofie and her family are not immediately welcomed into the community in the US, where her husband has been working on rocket science for the US government. Though Sofie speaks English as well as German, the rest of the German community largely does not. The American children are told to stay away from the Germans, and the Germans don’t speak their language anyway, so they largely band together. That is except for Sofie’s daughter, Gisela, and her family. A rumor almost immediately gets around that Sophie’s husband, Jürgen, was a member of the SS, and both sides ostracize the family.
Stop here for spoilers ***
But as the past reveals to the reader, Sofie and Jürgen didn’t exactly have it easy as the Nazi party rose to power in Germany. The flashbacks show how the party slowly infiltrated German life and the government, convincing people that their ways were right. The hate for Jewish people was brought to light, and it became obvious that this wasn’t a new enemy, but many people had simply been hiding their disdain for Jewish people by being polite for a long time. Slowly but surely, laws were passed that made life more difficult for Jewish people, until eventually it was impossible for any German to speak in favor of them, and against the Nazi government that was taking over.
Jürgen is offered a job working for the German government to build rockets, and he doesn’t want to take it. He sees the potential for his science to eventually be turned into war machines, but he has no choice. The Nazis make it clear that if he doesn’t come to work for them, he will not have another job and the family will be penniless. Over the course of years, leading up to and during the war, Jürgen works in this job, against his better judgement, to protect his family. At one point, he and Sofie make plans to run away, but there is a listening device in their home, and Jürgen is arrested and beaten so that he will comply.
As the hate for Jewish people continues, Sofie faces the reality that her best friend, Mayim, must eventually leave. Mayim had been living with Sofie and her family, as Mayim’s family was struggling to make ends meet, and Sofie and Jürgen were happy to have her. She helped with the children and was always a great friend. But as pressure mounts, Mayim must leave. She is eventually convinced to go to Poland, where she has citizenship, after her father is killed.
Sofie struggles as her two eldest children, Georg and Laura, grow. When they go to school, they are completely ensconced in Nazi propaganda. They learn to believe that Jewish people are dirty and horrible, and Georg especially struggles with his relationship with Mayim before she leaves. Sofie knows she has no choice. She cannot speak to her children against the Nazi’s policies and teachings, but it breaks her heart to allow her children to have their minds completely controlled by such horrible ideas. Eventually, Georg will be killed at 15, during the last weeks of the war, as his unit is expected to defend a city, but he is shot by an Ally. When she comes of age, Laura marries the son of one of Sofie’s former friends, and Georg’s best friend, Hans, and refuses to contact her family. Hans’s father, Karl, gave himself up to the Allies, but his wife, Lydia, and son Hans refuse to believe anything but the Nazi ideology. Laura does not join Sofie and her family in the US.
While Sofie tries her best to be positive about her new life in America, Lizzie is struggling with her brother, Henry. Henry served in Europe at the end of the war. It is later revealed that he was part of a group that liberated a concentration camp, and he saw the prisoners who were being kept there. He saw firsthand what the Nazis and SS were doing, so he is very against the Germans moving into his town, especially the family that is rumored to have been part of the SS. Henry has what was called in 1950 “combat fatigue,” or what we know now as PTSD. He eventually breaks down and shoots Jürgen in his own backyard. Jürgen lives, and Henry is found not guilty, but committed to a psychiatric facility.
We also learn about Lizzie’s background growing up on a farm in Texas with her brother and parents during The Dust Bowl years. They fell into poverty during the drought. Henry even worked out a loan with the town’s judge, but was unable to pay him back over the two years of the deal. The judge must eventually take the farm. On the day of the black storm, Lizzie’s mother and father are out in their car, and still out when the storm hits. Lizzie’s mother protects his father in their open air car, and inhales too much dust. She dies overnight before she can be brought to a doctor, and Lizzie’s father goes outside the next morning and kills himself. Lizzie and Henry then sold what they could and went to El Paso to look for work. Henry eventually enlisted, and Lizzie eventually married a man she met while working at a hotel - a man who happens to work in the US rocket program for the military. Their marriage is not one of love or passion, but convenience. Though Cal is in love with Lizzie, she does not share his feelings. But Cal knows he can give Lizzie a good life with as much money as she will ever need, and Lizzie vows to be a good wife to him as much as she can. They sleep in separate bedrooms.
Finally, Lizzie realizes that she is not happy. She and Cal divorce, and Lizzie goes back to her hometown in Texas. She finds the judge, who owns the farm again. He sells the property to her for the price of the loan her brother once took out with him. She had Henry transferred to a facility nearby, and she goes home to her farm.
After everything that happens with Jürgen being shot, Sofie and her family begin to be more accepted. Sofie tells their full story to her neighbor, explaining how they were coerced throughout the war and had no choice, and Claudia and the other Germans begin to accept Sophie and her children. Sophie vows to continue giving America a chance, and to continue to work to give her children and other chance.
This book is about second chances, and learning the full story. Though Jürgen did horrible things through the war, he was pardoned by the US so that he could help with the space program, as his expertise was determined to be invaluable. Jürgen’s family gets to survive right along with him. The children were innocent. The hardest part about this book, for me, was to read about Georg and Laura. Those poor kids just didn’t know any better, and they really had no chance to learn any differently. Sofie and Jürgen couldn’t speak out or explain their views to their children, and they couldn’t take them away. I wish they’d been able to leave the country. But something I loved about the ending of the book was when Mayim contacted Sofie. Despite the odds, she survived the war. Her survival brought everything together.
The story focuses mainly on two women: German Sofie, born and raised in Berlin, who moves to the US with two of her children in 1950. And Lizzie, born and raised on a farm in Texas, who has recreated herself as a homemaker to her well-off husband. The narration goes back and forth between the two of them, and varies between the past and present as the reader learns how the war years shaped the women differently.
Sofie and her family are not immediately welcomed into the community in the US, where her husband has been working on rocket science for the US government. Though Sofie speaks English as well as German, the rest of the German community largely does not. The American children are told to stay away from the Germans, and the Germans don’t speak their language anyway, so they largely band together. That is except for Sofie’s daughter, Gisela, and her family. A rumor almost immediately gets around that Sophie’s husband, Jürgen, was a member of the SS, and both sides ostracize the family.
Stop here for spoilers ***
But as the past reveals to the reader, Sofie and Jürgen didn’t exactly have it easy as the Nazi party rose to power in Germany. The flashbacks show how the party slowly infiltrated German life and the government, convincing people that their ways were right. The hate for Jewish people was brought to light, and it became obvious that this wasn’t a new enemy, but many people had simply been hiding their disdain for Jewish people by being polite for a long time. Slowly but surely, laws were passed that made life more difficult for Jewish people, until eventually it was impossible for any German to speak in favor of them, and against the Nazi government that was taking over.
Jürgen is offered a job working for the German government to build rockets, and he doesn’t want to take it. He sees the potential for his science to eventually be turned into war machines, but he has no choice. The Nazis make it clear that if he doesn’t come to work for them, he will not have another job and the family will be penniless. Over the course of years, leading up to and during the war, Jürgen works in this job, against his better judgement, to protect his family. At one point, he and Sofie make plans to run away, but there is a listening device in their home, and Jürgen is arrested and beaten so that he will comply.
As the hate for Jewish people continues, Sofie faces the reality that her best friend, Mayim, must eventually leave. Mayim had been living with Sofie and her family, as Mayim’s family was struggling to make ends meet, and Sofie and Jürgen were happy to have her. She helped with the children and was always a great friend. But as pressure mounts, Mayim must leave. She is eventually convinced to go to Poland, where she has citizenship, after her father is killed.
Sofie struggles as her two eldest children, Georg and Laura, grow. When they go to school, they are completely ensconced in Nazi propaganda. They learn to believe that Jewish people are dirty and horrible, and Georg especially struggles with his relationship with Mayim before she leaves. Sofie knows she has no choice. She cannot speak to her children against the Nazi’s policies and teachings, but it breaks her heart to allow her children to have their minds completely controlled by such horrible ideas. Eventually, Georg will be killed at 15, during the last weeks of the war, as his unit is expected to defend a city, but he is shot by an Ally. When she comes of age, Laura marries the son of one of Sofie’s former friends, and Georg’s best friend, Hans, and refuses to contact her family. Hans’s father, Karl, gave himself up to the Allies, but his wife, Lydia, and son Hans refuse to believe anything but the Nazi ideology. Laura does not join Sofie and her family in the US.
While Sofie tries her best to be positive about her new life in America, Lizzie is struggling with her brother, Henry. Henry served in Europe at the end of the war. It is later revealed that he was part of a group that liberated a concentration camp, and he saw the prisoners who were being kept there. He saw firsthand what the Nazis and SS were doing, so he is very against the Germans moving into his town, especially the family that is rumored to have been part of the SS. Henry has what was called in 1950 “combat fatigue,” or what we know now as PTSD. He eventually breaks down and shoots Jürgen in his own backyard. Jürgen lives, and Henry is found not guilty, but committed to a psychiatric facility.
We also learn about Lizzie’s background growing up on a farm in Texas with her brother and parents during The Dust Bowl years. They fell into poverty during the drought. Henry even worked out a loan with the town’s judge, but was unable to pay him back over the two years of the deal. The judge must eventually take the farm. On the day of the black storm, Lizzie’s mother and father are out in their car, and still out when the storm hits. Lizzie’s mother protects his father in their open air car, and inhales too much dust. She dies overnight before she can be brought to a doctor, and Lizzie’s father goes outside the next morning and kills himself. Lizzie and Henry then sold what they could and went to El Paso to look for work. Henry eventually enlisted, and Lizzie eventually married a man she met while working at a hotel - a man who happens to work in the US rocket program for the military. Their marriage is not one of love or passion, but convenience. Though Cal is in love with Lizzie, she does not share his feelings. But Cal knows he can give Lizzie a good life with as much money as she will ever need, and Lizzie vows to be a good wife to him as much as she can. They sleep in separate bedrooms.
Finally, Lizzie realizes that she is not happy. She and Cal divorce, and Lizzie goes back to her hometown in Texas. She finds the judge, who owns the farm again. He sells the property to her for the price of the loan her brother once took out with him. She had Henry transferred to a facility nearby, and she goes home to her farm.
After everything that happens with Jürgen being shot, Sofie and her family begin to be more accepted. Sofie tells their full story to her neighbor, explaining how they were coerced throughout the war and had no choice, and Claudia and the other Germans begin to accept Sophie and her children. Sophie vows to continue giving America a chance, and to continue to work to give her children and other chance.
This book is about second chances, and learning the full story. Though Jürgen did horrible things through the war, he was pardoned by the US so that he could help with the space program, as his expertise was determined to be invaluable. Jürgen’s family gets to survive right along with him. The children were innocent. The hardest part about this book, for me, was to read about Georg and Laura. Those poor kids just didn’t know any better, and they really had no chance to learn any differently. Sofie and Jürgen couldn’t speak out or explain their views to their children, and they couldn’t take them away. I wish they’d been able to leave the country. But something I loved about the ending of the book was when Mayim contacted Sofie. Despite the odds, she survived the war. Her survival brought everything together.
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Find this review and more on my blog at Worlds Unlike Our Own.
Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
When Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’ husband Jurgen, a scientist, is offered a senior position in a rocket program run by the Nazi party, it initially seems to be the answer to their financial troubles. They soon realize the true motives behind the program, and though they strongly oppose the Nazi ideology, it is made very clear that Jurgen has no choice but to continue with his work or the entire family will be at risk. Fast forward towards the end of the war, when Jurgen and many other German scientists are taken to America and granted a pardon in exchange for working for their fledgeling space program. Sofie arrives with her children to join him in Alabama, hoping to leave the horrors of recent years behind for a fresh start, but the local community is less than welcoming of the German families. When rumors of what the Rhodes family was involved in during the war begin to spread, they are placed under intense scrutiny and the hostility turns into outright hatred.
Ever since I read The Warsaw Orphan last year, I’ve been waiting for Kelly Rimmer’s next book, and this was certainly a gripping and thought-provoking read. Operation Paperclip was something I was familiar with from reading about WWII and its aftermath, so it was interesting to read a book that not only featured it, but was largely narrated from the perspective of a German family directly involved in it all. I’ve only come across this type of WWII narrative once before, with Daughter of the Reich a couple of years ago, so I was quite excited for this one.
The story was narrated over two timelines, one during the war and one after, but it was also from the perspective of two women in vastly different circumstances. Sofie Rhodes and her family are placed in the terrible position of having to choose between the safety of their young family and going along with the demands of the Nazis and their policies even though they are fiercely against it. This arc was marvellously written and as a reader, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them as they were forced to go against their own morals and play the role of an ideal family in Nazi Germany, even if it meant having to turn away and cut ties to people closest to them. While they may not be directly involved in any of the atrocities, they didn’t do anything to stop it either and the guilt haunts them long after the war.
The other arc follows Lizzie, whose husband is Jurgen’s boss at the rocket program. She is the sister of a WWII veteran and her brother came back from the war a different person. Having already lost her parents during the Dust Bowl, she considers all Germans criminals and hates the idea of having them in the neighborhood. Personally, I didn’t like her arc much. While I do see her angle that the German scientist got away with war crimes just because their skills were needed, her view that all Germans must be Nazis was quite extreme. She came off as very self righteous with her hatred for the new families, having no idea what they may have gone through, but judging all of them without ever having experienced anything like it. Lizzie’s chapters started off as an interesting look at the war from another angle, but eventually turned into the most irritating parts of the book for me. Her feelings were justified, but she refused to see things from another perspective along with being willfully blind to her brother’s condition and actions, and just reading the same thing chapter after chapter was annoying.
The German Wife was a fast-paced and well written book and so much research must have gone into this. I thought the ending was nicely done, and the author’s note after is one not to be missed. She raises some very interesting questions about accountability and what other options Sofie and Jurgen might have taken that should be reflected upon after reading this book. I would highly recommend this book, not only for fans of the genre, but for all readers!
Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
When Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’ husband Jurgen, a scientist, is offered a senior position in a rocket program run by the Nazi party, it initially seems to be the answer to their financial troubles. They soon realize the true motives behind the program, and though they strongly oppose the Nazi ideology, it is made very clear that Jurgen has no choice but to continue with his work or the entire family will be at risk. Fast forward towards the end of the war, when Jurgen and many other German scientists are taken to America and granted a pardon in exchange for working for their fledgeling space program. Sofie arrives with her children to join him in Alabama, hoping to leave the horrors of recent years behind for a fresh start, but the local community is less than welcoming of the German families. When rumors of what the Rhodes family was involved in during the war begin to spread, they are placed under intense scrutiny and the hostility turns into outright hatred.
Ever since I read The Warsaw Orphan last year, I’ve been waiting for Kelly Rimmer’s next book, and this was certainly a gripping and thought-provoking read. Operation Paperclip was something I was familiar with from reading about WWII and its aftermath, so it was interesting to read a book that not only featured it, but was largely narrated from the perspective of a German family directly involved in it all. I’ve only come across this type of WWII narrative once before, with Daughter of the Reich a couple of years ago, so I was quite excited for this one.
The story was narrated over two timelines, one during the war and one after, but it was also from the perspective of two women in vastly different circumstances. Sofie Rhodes and her family are placed in the terrible position of having to choose between the safety of their young family and going along with the demands of the Nazis and their policies even though they are fiercely against it. This arc was marvellously written and as a reader, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them as they were forced to go against their own morals and play the role of an ideal family in Nazi Germany, even if it meant having to turn away and cut ties to people closest to them. While they may not be directly involved in any of the atrocities, they didn’t do anything to stop it either and the guilt haunts them long after the war.
The other arc follows Lizzie, whose husband is Jurgen’s boss at the rocket program. She is the sister of a WWII veteran and her brother came back from the war a different person. Having already lost her parents during the Dust Bowl, she considers all Germans criminals and hates the idea of having them in the neighborhood. Personally, I didn’t like her arc much. While I do see her angle that the German scientist got away with war crimes just because their skills were needed, her view that all Germans must be Nazis was quite extreme. She came off as very self righteous with her hatred for the new families, having no idea what they may have gone through, but judging all of them without ever having experienced anything like it. Lizzie’s chapters started off as an interesting look at the war from another angle, but eventually turned into the most irritating parts of the book for me. Her feelings were justified, but she refused to see things from another perspective along with being willfully blind to her brother’s condition and actions, and just reading the same thing chapter after chapter was annoying.
The German Wife was a fast-paced and well written book and so much research must have gone into this. I thought the ending was nicely done, and the author’s note after is one not to be missed. She raises some very interesting questions about accountability and what other options Sofie and Jurgen might have taken that should be reflected upon after reading this book. I would highly recommend this book, not only for fans of the genre, but for all readers!
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes