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A review by wellwortharead
The Living and the Lost by Ellen Feldman
3.0
This story takes place in the aftermath of the war, in the rubble that is left of Berlin. Siblings Millie and David who had escaped to America when they were still kids are now grown and have returned to Germany in service of the United States. Millie is weeding out the Nazis from publishing and David is helping the displaced persons.
Though they hope to find out what happened to the rest of their family and you would think such hardships would draw them closer they have secrets from each other that keep them apart, even as room mates sharing an requisitioned flat. Millie seemed quite cold and unfeeling at first. It was difficult for me to like her, although it eventually became clear why she harbored such ill will towards the Germans even though she herself was one of them.
I mostly enjoyed the story but there were times when it veered off towards secondary characters and plot lines that it did temporarily lose my interest and gave me the urge to skim. It could just be that I have finally had my fill of World War II novels or it could be that this story just didn't flow as well as it could. This is normally my favorite time period for historical fiction so I was really excited to read this book.
I received an advance copy
Though they hope to find out what happened to the rest of their family and you would think such hardships would draw them closer they have secrets from each other that keep them apart, even as room mates sharing an requisitioned flat. Millie seemed quite cold and unfeeling at first. It was difficult for me to like her, although it eventually became clear why she harbored such ill will towards the Germans even though she herself was one of them.
I mostly enjoyed the story but there were times when it veered off towards secondary characters and plot lines that it did temporarily lose my interest and gave me the urge to skim. It could just be that I have finally had my fill of World War II novels or it could be that this story just didn't flow as well as it could. This is normally my favorite time period for historical fiction so I was really excited to read this book.
I received an advance copy