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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
Really enjoyed this book. I found the different timelines all very compelling and they all came together well. I learnt a lot about the Great Depression in the USA and “Operation Paperclip”. This is a compelling story and definitely recommended!
The German Wife spans two timelines, the 1930's and the 1950's and follows the stories of Sofie and Lizzie. Two women, worlds apart but both facing hardships.
Sofie is the wife of Jürgen, who is an academic "offered" a job working on rockets during the rise of Nazi Germany. Sofie & Jürgen oppose the views of Hitler and don't want to join the ranks, but they are left no choice in order to protect themselves and their family. At the close of WWII Jürgen is recruited as a part of Operation Paperclip to move to America to work on their space program. Sofie joins Jürgen in 1950 but they have to face the rumours about their involvement with the Nazi party. They find themselves targets of gossips and violent acts.
Lizzie grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. After Lizzie and her brother lose their parents and the farm, they move to El Paso to seek work. It is her that Lizzie meets Cal, who offers to find her brother Henry work if he can enlist. Lizzie and Cal develop a friendship and later marry. In 1950, Cal manages the space program and Lizzie's brother Henry lives with them. He has struggled since returning from the war and isn't coping too well with the German's now living in their town.
The German Wife was a remarkably well researched book. I tend to read a lot of WWII historical fiction based in London & France, so it was a huge change to read something that focuses a lot on what happened within Germany during the war. Not everyone was complicit with the Nazi party, but they were not often left a choice. We see small acts of defiance from Sofie, Jürgen and other characters within the Germany setting.
Sofie and Lizzie were both extremely strong characters. They have both suffered severely during their lives and if they met under different circumstances, they would have had a strong bond. The dual timelines and perspectives really kept me engaged with the story. I found the timing perfect, I would finish a chapter but didn't feel like I wanted to stay with a particular character/timeline because something else compelling was going to happen. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Hachette Australia for gifting me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Sofie is the wife of Jürgen, who is an academic "offered" a job working on rockets during the rise of Nazi Germany. Sofie & Jürgen oppose the views of Hitler and don't want to join the ranks, but they are left no choice in order to protect themselves and their family. At the close of WWII Jürgen is recruited as a part of Operation Paperclip to move to America to work on their space program. Sofie joins Jürgen in 1950 but they have to face the rumours about their involvement with the Nazi party. They find themselves targets of gossips and violent acts.
Lizzie grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. After Lizzie and her brother lose their parents and the farm, they move to El Paso to seek work. It is her that Lizzie meets Cal, who offers to find her brother Henry work if he can enlist. Lizzie and Cal develop a friendship and later marry. In 1950, Cal manages the space program and Lizzie's brother Henry lives with them. He has struggled since returning from the war and isn't coping too well with the German's now living in their town.
The German Wife was a remarkably well researched book. I tend to read a lot of WWII historical fiction based in London & France, so it was a huge change to read something that focuses a lot on what happened within Germany during the war. Not everyone was complicit with the Nazi party, but they were not often left a choice. We see small acts of defiance from Sofie, Jürgen and other characters within the Germany setting.
Sofie and Lizzie were both extremely strong characters. They have both suffered severely during their lives and if they met under different circumstances, they would have had a strong bond. The dual timelines and perspectives really kept me engaged with the story. I found the timing perfect, I would finish a chapter but didn't feel like I wanted to stay with a particular character/timeline because something else compelling was going to happen. I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Hachette Australia for gifting me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
adventurous
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5. I found this one to be really unique as it's written from the perspective of an American and a German before, during, and after WWII. I'd never heard of Operation Paperclip before and found that additional layer of moral decisions to be fascinating. And the vantage point of a mother sending her children to the schools in that time and place... wow.
Hitler's rise to power and subsequent thoughts/comments by the German character, especially in the beginning, definitely felt parallel to some current events.
"...in fraught economic times like these, with men starving to death on the street, people cast their votes impulsively, out of desperation instead of reason and compassion. The Nazis know this, and they purposefully present a powerful front - that's why they love to hold military parades. That's what I fear the announcements about the terror plots are designed to do - to stir up more uncertainty and then to paint themselves as the only solution."
"Hundreds of these decrees were passed, one by one. This is how polite society gives way to chaos. The collapse that comes at the end of the process is a consequence of the slow erosion over time."
"But no one said it. No one could say it. We had so long been afraid of the consequences of dissent that even as the nation descended into madness, any moral call to rise up against the chaos went unheeded."
Hitler's rise to power and subsequent thoughts/comments by the German character, especially in the beginning, definitely felt parallel to some current events.
"...in fraught economic times like these, with men starving to death on the street, people cast their votes impulsively, out of desperation instead of reason and compassion. The Nazis know this, and they purposefully present a powerful front - that's why they love to hold military parades. That's what I fear the announcements about the terror plots are designed to do - to stir up more uncertainty and then to paint themselves as the only solution."
"Hundreds of these decrees were passed, one by one. This is how polite society gives way to chaos. The collapse that comes at the end of the process is a consequence of the slow erosion over time."
"But no one said it. No one could say it. We had so long been afraid of the consequences of dissent that even as the nation descended into madness, any moral call to rise up against the chaos went unheeded."
Based on the true story of Operation Paperclip - a controversial secret US intelligence program that employed former Nazis after World War II, The German Wife follows two women through the pre-war days through the mid-1950s. Sofie von Meyer is a German woman appalled by what is happening to her country. As her two best friends - one Jewish and one married to a Nazi Party member - are torn from her in different ways, Sophie and her husband Jurgen are forced to confront their own morality and what it means to be complicit in a system of oppression. In the United States, Lizzie and her brother are struggling in the Texas Dust Bowl. As the war progresses, Lizzie and Henry are also tasked with making difficult choices and figuring out where they belong. After the war, Lizzie and Sophie's paths cross and it leads to an uncomfortable and difficult confrontation. I loved the way the novel continued to escalate the tension - both through the war and after. It was very well-written, well-researched, and I learned a lot about Operation Paperclip, which was not something I was familiar with at all.
At first this book started out confusing with two main points of view using many different years and mixing those years up but after I got used to this I could concentrate on the story and the lives of these two women. A different aspect of how a German family survives the war and the lengths they went to to “save” themselves versus a Texas woman surviving the draught and “saving” herself in the end.
Thank you so much @htpbooks for the complimentary copy and @harperaudio for the complimentary ALC
I do not have the words to convey exactly how much I love this book, I both read and listened to it and can honestly say they are both amazing. If this is sitting on your TBR shelf I urge you to read it soon.
How far would you go to protect your loved ones? The answer, for most of us, is probably, ‘just about anything’. This book explores that question during one of the darkest times in history. I tend to see things in very black and white terms and every so often something, like this book, comes along to remind me that there are so many shades of grey. I know that I will be thinking about the characters, the situations they found themselves in, and their outcomes, for a long time to come. I read Kelly Rimmer’s, Truth’s I Never Told You, a couple years ago and loved it, after this one I can say without a doubt that she is now an auto buy author for me, and I plan to read her backlist.
“It’s not always the strongest trees that survive the storm. Sometimes it’s the trees that bend with the wind.”
I do not have the words to convey exactly how much I love this book, I both read and listened to it and can honestly say they are both amazing. If this is sitting on your TBR shelf I urge you to read it soon.
How far would you go to protect your loved ones? The answer, for most of us, is probably, ‘just about anything’. This book explores that question during one of the darkest times in history. I tend to see things in very black and white terms and every so often something, like this book, comes along to remind me that there are so many shades of grey. I know that I will be thinking about the characters, the situations they found themselves in, and their outcomes, for a long time to come. I read Kelly Rimmer’s, Truth’s I Never Told You, a couple years ago and loved it, after this one I can say without a doubt that she is now an auto buy author for me, and I plan to read her backlist.
“It’s not always the strongest trees that survive the storm. Sometimes it’s the trees that bend with the wind.”
This is a hard one to review personally. I ended up putting the book down at around 120 pages.
I love that there is so much historical aspects to this book however, it dragged the book down because there is almost too much of it. I think some readers might find this disjointed because we have all the flashbacks.
We have Lizzie in late 1920's to 1930s plus 1950's. We read about the Dust Bowl in Texas when in the earlier timeline.
We have Sofie in late 1930's plus 1950's. We read all about the Nazi's rise to power in the earlier timeline.
Again, I loved all the historical fiction but I thought this book would focus solely on Operation Paperclip in the 1950's and how German families immigrated to the U.S. after World War 2.
I still want to read Rimmer's other books and I am still interested in this book but all the bouncing around was too much for me right now. I hope to pick it up again someday and finish it.
I love that there is so much historical aspects to this book however, it dragged the book down because there is almost too much of it. I think some readers might find this disjointed because we have all the flashbacks.
We have Lizzie in late 1920's to 1930s plus 1950's. We read about the Dust Bowl in Texas when in the earlier timeline.
We have Sofie in late 1930's plus 1950's. We read all about the Nazi's rise to power in the earlier timeline.
Again, I loved all the historical fiction but I thought this book would focus solely on Operation Paperclip in the 1950's and how German families immigrated to the U.S. after World War 2.
I still want to read Rimmer's other books and I am still interested in this book but all the bouncing around was too much for me right now. I hope to pick it up again someday and finish it.
