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jhscolloquium's reviews
904 reviews
Devil Is Fine by John Vercher
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Quiet Librarian by Allen Eskens
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Cradles of the Reich by Jennifer Coburn
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The story opens in April 1939. Gundi Schiller, a twenty-year-old university student, and her widowed mother, Elsbeth, have gone to see their regular physician but find that he has summoned SS-Oberfuhrer Gregory Ebner (an actual historical figure who was the physician overseeing the Lebensborn homes) to participate in the consultation. Gundi’s heart drops when he confirms that she is in fact pregnant. In another time and place, Gundi would be overjoyed to carry the child of Leo Solomon, the young Jewish man she loves. But it is an increasingly treacherous time in Germany. Gundi and Leo are both members of the Edelweiss Pirates, a real resistance group, and Gundi has been able to use her Aryan beauty to clandestinely further their efforts. She knows the consequences if their activities are discovered. She is also cognizant of the law prohibiting relationships with Jews and what would likely happen to her, their child, and Leo – who has gone missing – if the Nazis learn Leo is the father. Anna Rath was a real German who was paraded through Nuremburg, after having her head shaved, for merely intending to marry a Jew. Gundi can only imagine how much worse the penalty would be for bearing the child of a Jew.
Gundi is humiliated and appalled when Ebner’s examination grows increasingly violative and includes racial screening methods such as assessing the color of her skin and eyes, and using calipers to measure her skull, the distance between her eyes, etc. Ebner delightedly declares that she is the first women to ever achieve a perfect score, and she will be sent to the real Heim Hochland, “a very special maternity home for German girls, where you will receive top-notch medical care.” Gundi quickly learns that declining an invitation from a Nazi officer is not an option. To protect both Leo and her mother, who has spent the last decade working as a file clerk at the Reich Chancellery and whose allegiance is unclear to Gundi, she names her homosexual friend, Erich, as the baby’s father. By doing so, she is extending protection to him, as well.
Author Jennifer Coburn says she found the character of Hilde Kramer the most difficult to craft. “I wanted to examine a young woman’s path to becoming a true believer without making excuses for her heinous acts.” But in order to do so, she had to “embody” a young woman who would have considered Coburn and her Jewish family “untermenschen” (subhumans). The fictional Hilde is based on Hildegard Trutz, a “Hitler Girl” who happily became pregnant by a German officer and enjoyed her stay at a Lebensborn home before voluntarily relinquishing her child to a German adoptive family. She later recalled her time as part of the Lebensborn Society “the best in her life.”
Indeed, Hilde is a largely despicable character. At eighteen years of age, her parents are pressuring her to find a husband. She wants desperately to be an actress but is aware that she is not considered beautiful by German standards. She has a figure “like a can of evaporated milk.” The middle child, she feels she falls short when her parents compare her to her successful older brother and deceased younger sister, who was a classic beauty. But Hilde is ambitious, if not very bright and incredibly naïve. Opportunity presents itself when her father, an SS officer who needs to build goodwill with his superiors, invites Obergruppenfuhrer Werner Ziegler, Himmler’s right-hand man, to dinner. In her Bund Deutscher Madel – the girls’ division of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) – uniform, Hilde dominates the dinner conversation, including claiming to have participated in Kristallnacht, and manages to impress Ziegler enough to secure a secretarial position in the Frauenschaft, the National Socialist Women’s League. She is convinced she is on her way to greatness and fixated on Ziegler. She becomes intent on seducing him, but in her fantasy, she will have his baby and they will raise the child together. Her scheme succeeds in part. When Hilde does, in fact, become pregnant, she happily goes to Heim Hochland where she is convinced that if the other girls and staff knew the identity of her baby’s father, they would envy and revere her, and she would receive special privileges. She is haughty and lazy, frantic to see her plans come to fruition, and will do anything necessary to achieve her goals.
Finally, Irma Binz is a forty-four-year-old former nurse who served in battlefield hospitals during World War I and was left traumatized by her experiences. Since then, she has remained adamant about her nursing career being behind her. But her personal life implodes and the future she planned is no longer a possibility, so she accepts an offer from a fellow nurse, Marianne, to serve at Heim Hochland. For Irma, it represents not just a chance to start over. It is also an opportunity to use her skills again, but under happier circumstances, helping usher babies into the world rather than, in far too many instances, watch wounded soldiers depart from it. Coburn describes Irma as being like many other Germans who “decided to keep their heads down, focus on their lives, and assume that reports of persecution of Jews and other minorities were exaggerations from the Lugenpresse, the so-called lying press.”
The three women meet at Heim Hochland in a fascinating, but frequently horrifying tale. Gundi is terrified about the approaching day when she will deliver her precious baby, praying fervently that the child will bear no resemblance to Leo. She feels guilty about her desire to bear a child who shares her perfect Aryan features because she truly loves Leo and his family who welcomed her warmly into their midst, never judging Leo for loving a gentile woman. She learns that their circumstances have become quite dire, even though she has no idea of the extent of the atrocities taking place and worries that they will never be reunited so that Leo can know his child.
Hilde does not endear herself to the other girls or the staff, considering herself superior to them because she is carrying Ziegler’s child, and believes she will be able to convince him to leave his wife once the baby arrives. When her plans go awry, she deviously and ruthlessly plots an alternative way to remain at Heim Hochland. It requires deception and Hilde has no qualms about callously using anyone and anything to get what she wants. Will her conceit ultimately be her undoing?
And each day at Heim Hochland reveals to Irma just how maniacal and heartless the Nazi regime is. She is dismayed when she arrives and discovers that Marianne lied to her about the “apprentice mothers” residing there who are, rather, prostitutes, essentially. They accept gifts of jewelry and other items from the German soldiers and sneak into town to party on nights when there are no soldiers to entertain at the home. Marianne reveals herself to be a true believer in the program, which further causes Irma to consider her feelings about the work they are doing. She cares about the pregnant girls she cares for, especially Gundi, and is kind to them, unlike some of the other nurses. But her conscience prohibits her from embracing the Reich’s ideals, unaware that she will soon be given the chance to tangibly demonstrate just where her allegiance lies and what she genuinely believes in.
Cradles of the Reich is a gripping, well-paced story comprised of alternating narratives detailing the three main characters’ perspectives. Coburn intersperses scenes revealing how Gundi became involved in the resistance and her sweet, but dangerous romance with Leo. Likewise, Irma’s history and how she came to make one mistake she now regrets is described. Those interludes are deftly timed to hold readers’ interest and provide context to the events currently unfolding. Gundi and Irma are both likable and sympathetic, each caught up in situations they could not have envisioned in part because of their choices and behavior, but also because of the forces at work in Germany over which they have no control, but are intent upon not falling victim to. Hilde is thoroughly unlikable, yet pitiable because she is a product of her upbringing and the environment in which she was raised. She is fueled by deep-seated insecurities and feelings of inadequacy that drive her obsessive need for attention and validation. Understanding those aspects of her personality, however, does not render her sympathetic or excuse her narcissism and unrestrained desire for power and status. Readers will likely be satisfied with the manner in which Coburn wraps up her story. Coburn surrounds the three characters with an intriguing cast of supporting players, some of whom are instrumental in the surprising plot developments that Coburn cleverly injects into the story.
Historical fiction fans in particular will find themselves engrossed in Coburn’s illuminating and suspenseful tale. Coburn says she loves historical fiction because it provides a way to learn about history “through the more intimate lens of personal relationships” and that is precisely what Cradles of the Reich accomplishes. The Lebensborn program, although a lesser-known part of the Reich’s horrific legacy, was carried out in approximately thirty locations where approximately twenty thousand children were born. The details remain sketchy because when it became clear that they were losing the war, the Nazis burned the records. Accounts of what actually transpired are contradictory, but it is beyond doubt that the Nazis established a concerted effort to propagate a generation of German citizens they considered superior to all others while simultaneously murdering millions of innocent individuals who did not conform to their definition of worthiness to live.
Cradles of the Reich would be an ideal book club selection because of the themes it examines, including the many ways throughout history in which women and children have been targeted and victimized. Coburn hopes readers will think about and discuss the “social environments that allow women’s bodies to be politicized and commoditized.”
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book and to Sourcebooks Landmark for a hardcover copy.
Gundi is humiliated and appalled when Ebner’s examination grows increasingly violative and includes racial screening methods such as assessing the color of her skin and eyes, and using calipers to measure her skull, the distance between her eyes, etc. Ebner delightedly declares that she is the first women to ever achieve a perfect score, and she will be sent to the real Heim Hochland, “a very special maternity home for German girls, where you will receive top-notch medical care.” Gundi quickly learns that declining an invitation from a Nazi officer is not an option. To protect both Leo and her mother, who has spent the last decade working as a file clerk at the Reich Chancellery and whose allegiance is unclear to Gundi, she names her homosexual friend, Erich, as the baby’s father. By doing so, she is extending protection to him, as well.
Author Jennifer Coburn says she found the character of Hilde Kramer the most difficult to craft. “I wanted to examine a young woman’s path to becoming a true believer without making excuses for her heinous acts.” But in order to do so, she had to “embody” a young woman who would have considered Coburn and her Jewish family “untermenschen” (subhumans). The fictional Hilde is based on Hildegard Trutz, a “Hitler Girl” who happily became pregnant by a German officer and enjoyed her stay at a Lebensborn home before voluntarily relinquishing her child to a German adoptive family. She later recalled her time as part of the Lebensborn Society “the best in her life.”
Indeed, Hilde is a largely despicable character. At eighteen years of age, her parents are pressuring her to find a husband. She wants desperately to be an actress but is aware that she is not considered beautiful by German standards. She has a figure “like a can of evaporated milk.” The middle child, she feels she falls short when her parents compare her to her successful older brother and deceased younger sister, who was a classic beauty. But Hilde is ambitious, if not very bright and incredibly naïve. Opportunity presents itself when her father, an SS officer who needs to build goodwill with his superiors, invites Obergruppenfuhrer Werner Ziegler, Himmler’s right-hand man, to dinner. In her Bund Deutscher Madel – the girls’ division of the Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth) – uniform, Hilde dominates the dinner conversation, including claiming to have participated in Kristallnacht, and manages to impress Ziegler enough to secure a secretarial position in the Frauenschaft, the National Socialist Women’s League. She is convinced she is on her way to greatness and fixated on Ziegler. She becomes intent on seducing him, but in her fantasy, she will have his baby and they will raise the child together. Her scheme succeeds in part. When Hilde does, in fact, become pregnant, she happily goes to Heim Hochland where she is convinced that if the other girls and staff knew the identity of her baby’s father, they would envy and revere her, and she would receive special privileges. She is haughty and lazy, frantic to see her plans come to fruition, and will do anything necessary to achieve her goals.
Finally, Irma Binz is a forty-four-year-old former nurse who served in battlefield hospitals during World War I and was left traumatized by her experiences. Since then, she has remained adamant about her nursing career being behind her. But her personal life implodes and the future she planned is no longer a possibility, so she accepts an offer from a fellow nurse, Marianne, to serve at Heim Hochland. For Irma, it represents not just a chance to start over. It is also an opportunity to use her skills again, but under happier circumstances, helping usher babies into the world rather than, in far too many instances, watch wounded soldiers depart from it. Coburn describes Irma as being like many other Germans who “decided to keep their heads down, focus on their lives, and assume that reports of persecution of Jews and other minorities were exaggerations from the Lugenpresse, the so-called lying press.”
The three women meet at Heim Hochland in a fascinating, but frequently horrifying tale. Gundi is terrified about the approaching day when she will deliver her precious baby, praying fervently that the child will bear no resemblance to Leo. She feels guilty about her desire to bear a child who shares her perfect Aryan features because she truly loves Leo and his family who welcomed her warmly into their midst, never judging Leo for loving a gentile woman. She learns that their circumstances have become quite dire, even though she has no idea of the extent of the atrocities taking place and worries that they will never be reunited so that Leo can know his child.
Hilde does not endear herself to the other girls or the staff, considering herself superior to them because she is carrying Ziegler’s child, and believes she will be able to convince him to leave his wife once the baby arrives. When her plans go awry, she deviously and ruthlessly plots an alternative way to remain at Heim Hochland. It requires deception and Hilde has no qualms about callously using anyone and anything to get what she wants. Will her conceit ultimately be her undoing?
And each day at Heim Hochland reveals to Irma just how maniacal and heartless the Nazi regime is. She is dismayed when she arrives and discovers that Marianne lied to her about the “apprentice mothers” residing there who are, rather, prostitutes, essentially. They accept gifts of jewelry and other items from the German soldiers and sneak into town to party on nights when there are no soldiers to entertain at the home. Marianne reveals herself to be a true believer in the program, which further causes Irma to consider her feelings about the work they are doing. She cares about the pregnant girls she cares for, especially Gundi, and is kind to them, unlike some of the other nurses. But her conscience prohibits her from embracing the Reich’s ideals, unaware that she will soon be given the chance to tangibly demonstrate just where her allegiance lies and what she genuinely believes in.
Cradles of the Reich is a gripping, well-paced story comprised of alternating narratives detailing the three main characters’ perspectives. Coburn intersperses scenes revealing how Gundi became involved in the resistance and her sweet, but dangerous romance with Leo. Likewise, Irma’s history and how she came to make one mistake she now regrets is described. Those interludes are deftly timed to hold readers’ interest and provide context to the events currently unfolding. Gundi and Irma are both likable and sympathetic, each caught up in situations they could not have envisioned in part because of their choices and behavior, but also because of the forces at work in Germany over which they have no control, but are intent upon not falling victim to. Hilde is thoroughly unlikable, yet pitiable because she is a product of her upbringing and the environment in which she was raised. She is fueled by deep-seated insecurities and feelings of inadequacy that drive her obsessive need for attention and validation. Understanding those aspects of her personality, however, does not render her sympathetic or excuse her narcissism and unrestrained desire for power and status. Readers will likely be satisfied with the manner in which Coburn wraps up her story. Coburn surrounds the three characters with an intriguing cast of supporting players, some of whom are instrumental in the surprising plot developments that Coburn cleverly injects into the story.
Historical fiction fans in particular will find themselves engrossed in Coburn’s illuminating and suspenseful tale. Coburn says she loves historical fiction because it provides a way to learn about history “through the more intimate lens of personal relationships” and that is precisely what Cradles of the Reich accomplishes. The Lebensborn program, although a lesser-known part of the Reich’s horrific legacy, was carried out in approximately thirty locations where approximately twenty thousand children were born. The details remain sketchy because when it became clear that they were losing the war, the Nazis burned the records. Accounts of what actually transpired are contradictory, but it is beyond doubt that the Nazis established a concerted effort to propagate a generation of German citizens they considered superior to all others while simultaneously murdering millions of innocent individuals who did not conform to their definition of worthiness to live.
Cradles of the Reich would be an ideal book club selection because of the themes it examines, including the many ways throughout history in which women and children have been targeted and victimized. Coburn hopes readers will think about and discuss the “social environments that allow women’s bodies to be politicized and commoditized.”
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book and to Sourcebooks Landmark for a hardcover copy.
A Forty Year Kiss: A Novel by Nickolas Butler
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Rules of Fortune: A Novel by Danielle Prescod
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A Long Time Gone by Joshua Moehling
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The Ologarch's Daughter by Joseph Finder
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Kennedy Girl by Julia Bryan Thomas
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Train That Took You Away by Catherine Hokin
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Author Catherine Hokin describes The Train That Took You Away as the story of “a lost child, a hidden painting, and two women from very different worlds trying to put their broken hearts back together again.” The story opens in Berlin in 1936. Esther Spielmann, thirty-four years old, has worked hard and established her reputation as one of the city’s best gallerists, recognized as adept at finding new talent and providing collectors pieces that perfectly match their tastes. Esther’s family founded the Mandelbaum bank and her husband, Caspar, will one day manage it. Esther’s father, Albert, believes that Hitler simply made “empty promises” to garner votes, but it remains unclear to what extent the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 will impact the daily lives of Jewish citizens. So, as Esther is sitting with her energetic six-year-old son, Sascha, for a portrait, her offer to exhibit the work of the Jewish artist — who snaps photos of the two from which he will create the painting — at her gallery is met with consternation and skepticism. He inquires if she is concerned about the gallery’s future status, given the number of Jewish businesses that have already been shuttered, not to mention the Nazi “crackdown on modern art.” Thus far, Esther and her family have not sustained significant changes to their lifestyle since the Nazis’ rise to power, and her husband and father naively believe that, given their successful businesses and social standing, Jews in their “circle” are not under threat. They are about to discover how wrong they are.
Following an interaction with a Schutzstaffel (Hitler’s personal troops) officer at a restaurant, they are denied admission into the stadium to watch an Olympic football match. Seeing her father humiliated and her disappointed son sobbing, Esther demands to know precisely why. The officer informs her a call was received from SS headquarters instructing that they be barred from attending the event because the Fuhrer will be there and “you’re not loyal Germans fit be in his presence; you’re Jews. And they don’t want the stadium polluted.”
Amalie Eden’s parents have urged her to return to safety in London, but the headstrong twenty-six-year-old has refused. She loves her work at Berlin’s National Gallery where she is helping set up a conservation department. After completing her studies, she returned to the city in which she loved to spend summers with her maternal grandparents. A stunning new painting is being hung that depicts a group of women in a park on a sunny day. The way he has captured the light leaves Amalie “spellbound.” The artist, Laurenz Kleber, and his wife, Rebecca, are unnerved and reluctant to speak in response to Amalie’s clumsy but well-intentioned inquiry about if and how the new laws and restrictions imposed upon Jews are changing their lives. Amalie’s earnest impulsiveness continues to compel her toward danger. She dares to voice her disapproval when artwork created by Jews is removed from galleries and only Nazi-approved paintings are permitted to be displayed and becomes determined to ensure that precious works of art – including Laurenz’s beautiful painting — are not destroyed or sold by the Nazis into private collections where they will never be seen in public again. By the time she next encounters Laurenz, his studio has been raided, and he has been forbidden from painting or exhibiting his work.
Employing alternating narratives, Hokin details how the two women are impacted as Hitler’s reign of terror expands and intensifies. As Esther desperately – and futilely – tries to obtain visas so her whole family can escape, they are stripped of their businesses and most other assets. On a cold night in November 1938, Albert and Caspar go out for dinner with clients of the bank but never return home. Nazi troops destroy Jewish-owned stores and synagogues, and the raid becomes known as Kristallnacht (night of broken glass for the shards of glass left behind). Esther is later told that her father and husband died of “heart complications.” Amalie observes a synagogue burning while firefighters watch and cheer as books and prayer shawls are tossed into the flames. Her companions warn, “It’s not our place” to intervene, but Amalie’s impetuous nature and revulsion propel her to confront the soldiers. She soon finds herself in a jail cell and is deported the next day.
In December 1938, Esther makes the heart-wrenching decision to send Sascha to London to live with a family that has agreed to take in Jewish refugee children. He does not have a specific sponsor, and Esther has no idea when she will see her eight-year-old child again, but it is clear that Jews are not safe in Germany. Dispatching Sascha to England is the best way she knows to protect him.
Hokin’s tale spans the next eight years of her characters’ lives. Sascha is initially placed with a family who lost a son about his age to diphtheria and knows he is meant to serve as a replacement. His name is changed to Alex as part of his foster family’s efforts to help him become a true English boy and not miss his home or mother. But Sascha carries with him the photo that the painter snapped of him and his mother on what he now remembers as his family’s last happy day. And although it helps him remember Esther, it also causes him great pain and turmoil because, as he recalls that day, it was his behavior in the restaurant that attracted the attention of the SS officer. And thereafter, their lives began to unravel. Was he sent away as punichsment? Did his mother abandon him? He questions go unanswered.
Esther is evicted from the family home and, at first, put to work in a card factory as an illustrator. By September 1940, German bombs are bombarding London, where Amalie was lucky enough to get back her job in a research laboratory and has become an expert in art storage techniques. When she left Germany, she smuggled out key information about the Nazis’ activities pertaining to precious works of art and she is intent on eventually being part of the recovery efforts of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives team, commonly known as the Monuments Men.
Each of the narratives is an engrossing tale in its own right. For Esther, survival becomes her only goal when her circumstances grow progressively more dire as the world goes to war and the Nazis inflict her and so many others to previously unimaginable suffering. Sascha’s memories of his mother fade and the trauma of his separation from her deeply affects him as he matures, and his self-concept is transformed. More and more with the passage of time, he thinks of himself as English, not German. Amalie throws herself into her work to find peace, but her efforts put her life in jeopardy.
When the war ends, the survivors begin the herculean task of establishing new lives for themselves. Berlin is decimated, but the National Gallery still stands, and many works of art remain intact. In what is arguably the most riveting part of the book, Hokin’s characters summon their remaining strength, courage, and resolve. For Amelie that means not just the restoration of the National Gallery and its treasures, but also the pursuit of justice. For Esther, whose own gallery has been reduced to a pile of bricks, there is nothing more urgent than finding the son with whom she lost contact so long ago. Records were destroyed, communication lines obliterated, and rebuilding is a slow process. Still, Esther is undaunted, spurred on by her devotion to her only child.
But where is Alex? Did he survive the war, given that he was perhaps in London during the Blitz? Hokin’s clever plot developments are credible and her illustration of her characters’ emotional turmoil believable. Their fears are as grounded in all that they have endured as is their resilience. And Hokin does not evade depicting their complicated feelings and the psychological impact the war has had upon all of them. Rather, she relates their story in an uncompromising and highly effective manner that is both heart-breakingly authentic and resonant.
Hokin says “nothing fascinates me more than a strong female protagonist and a quest. Hopefully, those are what you will encounter when you pick up my books.” Indeed, Esther and Amelie are strong, multi-layered, and fully developed characters – as is Sascha – and The Train That Took You Away is another compassionately crafted, educational, and deeply moving work of fiction about a period in history that must never be forgotten . . . or repeated.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
Following an interaction with a Schutzstaffel (Hitler’s personal troops) officer at a restaurant, they are denied admission into the stadium to watch an Olympic football match. Seeing her father humiliated and her disappointed son sobbing, Esther demands to know precisely why. The officer informs her a call was received from SS headquarters instructing that they be barred from attending the event because the Fuhrer will be there and “you’re not loyal Germans fit be in his presence; you’re Jews. And they don’t want the stadium polluted.”
Amalie Eden’s parents have urged her to return to safety in London, but the headstrong twenty-six-year-old has refused. She loves her work at Berlin’s National Gallery where she is helping set up a conservation department. After completing her studies, she returned to the city in which she loved to spend summers with her maternal grandparents. A stunning new painting is being hung that depicts a group of women in a park on a sunny day. The way he has captured the light leaves Amalie “spellbound.” The artist, Laurenz Kleber, and his wife, Rebecca, are unnerved and reluctant to speak in response to Amalie’s clumsy but well-intentioned inquiry about if and how the new laws and restrictions imposed upon Jews are changing their lives. Amalie’s earnest impulsiveness continues to compel her toward danger. She dares to voice her disapproval when artwork created by Jews is removed from galleries and only Nazi-approved paintings are permitted to be displayed and becomes determined to ensure that precious works of art – including Laurenz’s beautiful painting — are not destroyed or sold by the Nazis into private collections where they will never be seen in public again. By the time she next encounters Laurenz, his studio has been raided, and he has been forbidden from painting or exhibiting his work.
Employing alternating narratives, Hokin details how the two women are impacted as Hitler’s reign of terror expands and intensifies. As Esther desperately – and futilely – tries to obtain visas so her whole family can escape, they are stripped of their businesses and most other assets. On a cold night in November 1938, Albert and Caspar go out for dinner with clients of the bank but never return home. Nazi troops destroy Jewish-owned stores and synagogues, and the raid becomes known as Kristallnacht (night of broken glass for the shards of glass left behind). Esther is later told that her father and husband died of “heart complications.” Amalie observes a synagogue burning while firefighters watch and cheer as books and prayer shawls are tossed into the flames. Her companions warn, “It’s not our place” to intervene, but Amalie’s impetuous nature and revulsion propel her to confront the soldiers. She soon finds herself in a jail cell and is deported the next day.
In December 1938, Esther makes the heart-wrenching decision to send Sascha to London to live with a family that has agreed to take in Jewish refugee children. He does not have a specific sponsor, and Esther has no idea when she will see her eight-year-old child again, but it is clear that Jews are not safe in Germany. Dispatching Sascha to England is the best way she knows to protect him.
Hokin’s tale spans the next eight years of her characters’ lives. Sascha is initially placed with a family who lost a son about his age to diphtheria and knows he is meant to serve as a replacement. His name is changed to Alex as part of his foster family’s efforts to help him become a true English boy and not miss his home or mother. But Sascha carries with him the photo that the painter snapped of him and his mother on what he now remembers as his family’s last happy day. And although it helps him remember Esther, it also causes him great pain and turmoil because, as he recalls that day, it was his behavior in the restaurant that attracted the attention of the SS officer. And thereafter, their lives began to unravel. Was he sent away as punichsment? Did his mother abandon him? He questions go unanswered.
Esther is evicted from the family home and, at first, put to work in a card factory as an illustrator. By September 1940, German bombs are bombarding London, where Amalie was lucky enough to get back her job in a research laboratory and has become an expert in art storage techniques. When she left Germany, she smuggled out key information about the Nazis’ activities pertaining to precious works of art and she is intent on eventually being part of the recovery efforts of the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives team, commonly known as the Monuments Men.
Each of the narratives is an engrossing tale in its own right. For Esther, survival becomes her only goal when her circumstances grow progressively more dire as the world goes to war and the Nazis inflict her and so many others to previously unimaginable suffering. Sascha’s memories of his mother fade and the trauma of his separation from her deeply affects him as he matures, and his self-concept is transformed. More and more with the passage of time, he thinks of himself as English, not German. Amalie throws herself into her work to find peace, but her efforts put her life in jeopardy.
When the war ends, the survivors begin the herculean task of establishing new lives for themselves. Berlin is decimated, but the National Gallery still stands, and many works of art remain intact. In what is arguably the most riveting part of the book, Hokin’s characters summon their remaining strength, courage, and resolve. For Amelie that means not just the restoration of the National Gallery and its treasures, but also the pursuit of justice. For Esther, whose own gallery has been reduced to a pile of bricks, there is nothing more urgent than finding the son with whom she lost contact so long ago. Records were destroyed, communication lines obliterated, and rebuilding is a slow process. Still, Esther is undaunted, spurred on by her devotion to her only child.
But where is Alex? Did he survive the war, given that he was perhaps in London during the Blitz? Hokin’s clever plot developments are credible and her illustration of her characters’ emotional turmoil believable. Their fears are as grounded in all that they have endured as is their resilience. And Hokin does not evade depicting their complicated feelings and the psychological impact the war has had upon all of them. Rather, she relates their story in an uncompromising and highly effective manner that is both heart-breakingly authentic and resonant.
Hokin says “nothing fascinates me more than a strong female protagonist and a quest. Hopefully, those are what you will encounter when you pick up my books.” Indeed, Esther and Amelie are strong, multi-layered, and fully developed characters – as is Sascha – and The Train That Took You Away is another compassionately crafted, educational, and deeply moving work of fiction about a period in history that must never be forgotten . . . or repeated.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.