A review by alana_loves_books
The German House by Annette Hess

4.0

It’s 1963 in Frankfurt, Germany and war is a distant memory. The lively Bruhns family restaurant is thriving and twenty-four year old Eva Bruhns is on the cusp of her adult life. She’s begun working as a translator and is considering marriage to her wealthy beau, Jergen. When she’s hired by a volatile investigator to translate the testimonies of Polish prisoners for a war crimes trial, Eva’s life begins to open up. Jergen wants a housewife and is not happy with her choice to work, but Eva finds she must take this job to give a voice to the voiceless. In their heartbreak and despair, she uncovers clues from the past and finds out that her own family played a role in the war. She must reckon with it, trying to understand how such a horror could have occurred and how many lies were told so people could go on living with themselves. The more Eva questions the past, the more she questions her future. // Hess’s prose is spare and straightforward but no less impactful for its simplicity. At first Eva and Jergen were mysteries to me, but as Hess unwound their stories, they became more clear. This book was deeply emotional as so many sought forgiveness, revenge, justice and meaning in all the tragedy. Hess balanced the complexity so well—there were light moments to counter the heavy ones. And Eva learns what we all have to learn eventually; when you shine a light into the darkest corners of our pain, it’s then that the healing can begin.