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A review by jacki_f
The Beast's Garden by Kate Forsyth
4.0
I was completely immersed in this saga about a German girl living in Berlin during World War 2 and her relationship with an Abwehr officer. If you enjoyed [b:The Nightingale|21853621|The Nightingale|Kristin Hannah|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1422580224s/21853621.jpg|41125521] or [b:The English Girl|18108586|The English Girl|Margaret Leroy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1383885900s/18108586.jpg|25430995], this will be right up your street.
Ava is our heroine: half Spanish, half German, she is very much a non-Aryan beauty. Growing up her best friend is Rupert, the Jewish son of her mother's best friend. The book opens on Kristallnacht, the famous night in November 1938 when there was a co-ordinated attack on Jews across Germany. Two key things happen as a result of that night: Rupert and his family come to live with Ava's family and Ava meets a handsome Abwehr officer named Leo. Ava is sickened by the Nazi party and vows to resist in any way that she can.
Kate Forsyth has a doctorate in fairy tale studies (not quite what you expect when you make the enquiry "is there a doctor in the house"?), and she has based her plot on an early version of Grimm's "Beauty and the Beast" fairytale. Clearly I am too tainted by Disney because these parallels were lost on me and I don't think it added anything - if anything, it contributed to the ridiculous final sequence which is easily the weakest part of the book.
The book's strength however is the extensive research that the author has done and the way that she integrates so many real people and events into the plot. Through Ava, Rupert and Leo's stories she gives us a broad view of many facets of Germany during the war: the hardships suffered by everyday citizens, the resistance efforts from both Jews and Germans, the horrors of the Concentration Camps, the efforts to assassinate Hitler. I have read several books recently about the experience of being in London during the Blitz but I think this might be the first I've read about the experience of being in Berlin as it was bombed and destroyed.
Kate Forsyth has an unusual writing style which can veer between florid and familiar. I almost abandoned this book after the first chapter because I worried that everyone was going to speak like they were out of a Barbara Cartland novel. At other times she uses descriptors like "that silly back-and-fro dance one sometimes does when trying to pass someone in the street" which feel like they come from an email rather than being true to the style of the book. Nevertheless, the storyline is so strong that you (mostly) stop noticing the writing style as you get caught up in what is happening.
Incidentally, I'd advise you NOT to read the plot description on the book's cover or the synopsis above, both of which contain huge and disappointing spoilers.
Ava is our heroine: half Spanish, half German, she is very much a non-Aryan beauty. Growing up her best friend is Rupert, the Jewish son of her mother's best friend. The book opens on Kristallnacht, the famous night in November 1938 when there was a co-ordinated attack on Jews across Germany. Two key things happen as a result of that night: Rupert and his family come to live with Ava's family and Ava meets a handsome Abwehr officer named Leo. Ava is sickened by the Nazi party and vows to resist in any way that she can.
Kate Forsyth has a doctorate in fairy tale studies (not quite what you expect when you make the enquiry "is there a doctor in the house"?), and she has based her plot on an early version of Grimm's "Beauty and the Beast" fairytale. Clearly I am too tainted by Disney because these parallels were lost on me and I don't think it added anything - if anything, it contributed to the ridiculous final sequence which is easily the weakest part of the book.
The book's strength however is the extensive research that the author has done and the way that she integrates so many real people and events into the plot. Through Ava, Rupert and Leo's stories she gives us a broad view of many facets of Germany during the war: the hardships suffered by everyday citizens, the resistance efforts from both Jews and Germans, the horrors of the Concentration Camps, the efforts to assassinate Hitler. I have read several books recently about the experience of being in London during the Blitz but I think this might be the first I've read about the experience of being in Berlin as it was bombed and destroyed.
Kate Forsyth has an unusual writing style which can veer between florid and familiar. I almost abandoned this book after the first chapter because I worried that everyone was going to speak like they were out of a Barbara Cartland novel. At other times she uses descriptors like "that silly back-and-fro dance one sometimes does when trying to pass someone in the street" which feel like they come from an email rather than being true to the style of the book. Nevertheless, the storyline is so strong that you (mostly) stop noticing the writing style as you get caught up in what is happening.
Incidentally, I'd advise you NOT to read the plot description on the book's cover or the synopsis above, both of which contain huge and disappointing spoilers.