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A review by kwdibble419
Distant Signs by Anne Richter
3.0
Distant Signs by Anne Richter is the story of Marget and Hans. In alternate chapters and timelines, we follow their childhoods, marriage and life after WWII, but before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In chapters featuring their parents we learn something of the heartbreak and loss of the war itself. The atmospheric setting instills a further sense of gray gloom as East Germany's people suffer under the government's communist regime.
We meet Margret and Hans shortly after the Berlin Wall was erected. And although the Wall itself is never addressed in the book it is clear that life is hard for many, except the political elite, which includes Margret's father. Hans' family is not so lucky, with his father disabled from the war and his mother working long hours to care for them while tending the farm and gardens.
This is truly a story of ordinary people living ordinary lives. But while we are privy to their thoughts and actions there is little background to put the story in context. It could have been set in Stalin's Russia or Franco's Spain, except for the occasional references to German culture and tradition. It ends with the couple's daughter living in France, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we never hear about the momentous event directly.
A stark contrast is drawn between characters as we learn each story in individual chapters separated by years. The differences in Margret's life and Hans' life illustrate the differences that nearly break them. They struggle mightily to understand one another and their marriage is strained, their relationships with each other's families are strained, even their children don't seem to evoke an emotional connection. The story is a thought-provoking study of relationships, and how people can be affected by family, the changing political tides and their social standing.
Distant Signs is a melancholy, perhaps heartbreaking story, with a glimpse of hope that things will improve, that life will move on and that our children's fates don't have to be the same as our own.
Thank you to MMB book tours and Neem Tree Books for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.
We meet Margret and Hans shortly after the Berlin Wall was erected. And although the Wall itself is never addressed in the book it is clear that life is hard for many, except the political elite, which includes Margret's father. Hans' family is not so lucky, with his father disabled from the war and his mother working long hours to care for them while tending the farm and gardens.
This is truly a story of ordinary people living ordinary lives. But while we are privy to their thoughts and actions there is little background to put the story in context. It could have been set in Stalin's Russia or Franco's Spain, except for the occasional references to German culture and tradition. It ends with the couple's daughter living in France, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we never hear about the momentous event directly.
A stark contrast is drawn between characters as we learn each story in individual chapters separated by years. The differences in Margret's life and Hans' life illustrate the differences that nearly break them. They struggle mightily to understand one another and their marriage is strained, their relationships with each other's families are strained, even their children don't seem to evoke an emotional connection. The story is a thought-provoking study of relationships, and how people can be affected by family, the changing political tides and their social standing.
Distant Signs is a melancholy, perhaps heartbreaking story, with a glimpse of hope that things will improve, that life will move on and that our children's fates don't have to be the same as our own.
Thank you to MMB book tours and Neem Tree Books for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.