Staff Picks Book Review - School for German Brides by Aimie K. Runyan and related historical fiction

Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Author: 

School for German Brides by Aimie K. Runyan Set in the early years of WWII, School for German Brides tells the opposing stories of Hanna, a young German woman sent to live with her aunt and uncle in Hitler’s Berlin, and Tilde, a young Jewish seamstress who finds that same Berlin a trap she will do anything to escape. Both girls are fiercely independent, aspiring to study in the fields of law and medicine, but both are held back by a world not yet ready for them to fill those roles. Hanna’s life grows ever more complicated as she is courted by an aspiring SS officer who disapproves of his prospective wife’s nontraditional ambitions to be anything more than a dutiful wife and mother. As the rounding up of Jews and relocation to concentration camps begins toward the end of the book, Hannah and Tilde’s lives will come together and both be forever changed. More than just what happens on a remote battlefield, war is felt throughout the society as shown in these works of historical fiction set in the Second Word War.

 

#Read Alikes


 

Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein

Once inseparable, Berlin teenagers Ilse Fischer and Renate Bauer find their friendship ripped apart by their nation’s abrupt swing into fascism. Ilse, a so-called Aryan, throws her lot in with the Nazi Party, while Renate sees her once-secure world dismantled by Adolf Hitler’s race laws and then shattered by a shocking betrayal. Decades later, that same betrayal will upend the life of Ilse’s daughter, Ava, as she discovers long-buried truths about her mother’s past. A harrowing page-turner, Wunderland traces the lives of three women across two generations—and the devastating repercussions of choices made in the dark days of wartime Germany.

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini

Resistance Women is an enthralling, unforgettable story of ordinary people determined to resist the rise of evil, sacrificing their own lives and liberty to fight injustice and defend the oppressed.

Daughter of the Reich by Louise Fein

For fans of The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See, a spellbinding story of impossible love set against the backdrop of the Nazi regime. She must choose between loyalty to her country or a love that could be her destruction.

Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton

The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Exiles conjures her best novel yet, a pre-World War II-era story with the emotional resonance of Orphan Train and All the Light We Cannot See, centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

The Winemaker’s Wife Kristin Harmel

Recently divorced, Liv Kent is at rock bottom when her feisty, eccentric French grandmother shows up unannounced, insisting on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive—and a tragic, decades-old story to share. When past and present finally collide, Liv finds herself on a road to salvation that leads right to the caves of the Maison Chauveau.

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It's a decision that will alter her destiny...and it's a lie that will remain buried until the next century.Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina's tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears.

The German Wife by Kelly Rimmer

The New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan returns with a gripping novel inspired by the true story of Operation Paperclip: a controversial secret US intelligence program that employed former Nazis after WWII.Berlin, 1930—When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes's academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler's Germany, Jürgen's position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family's security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.Twenty years later, Jürgen is one of the many German scientists offered pardons for their part in the war, and taken to America to work for its fledgling space program. For Sofie, this is the chance to exorcise the ghosts that have followed her across the ocean, and make a fresh start in her adopted country. But her neighbors aren't as welcoming or as understanding as she had hoped.

Shadows of Berlin by David R. Gillham

A captivating novel of a Berlin girl on the run from the guilt of her past and the boy from Brooklyn who loves her1955 in New York City: the city of instant coffee, bagels at Katz's Deli, ultra-modern TVs. But in the Perlman's walk-up in Chelsea, the past is as close as the present.

Until We Meet by Camille Di Maio

New York, 1943. Margaret's job at the Navy Yard brings her freedoms she never dared imagine, but she wants to do something more personal to help the war effort. Knitting socks for soldiers is a way to occupy her quiet nights and provide comfort to the boys abroad. But when a note she tucks inside one of her socks sparks a relationship with a long-distance pen pal, she finds herself drawn to a man she's never even met.

The Ways We Hide by Kristina McMorris

A sweeping World War II tale of an illusionist whose recruitment by British intelligence sets her on a perilous, heartrending path.As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan's Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. That ability sustains her even now as the Second World War rages in faraway countries. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she's the mastermind of their act.

Reader Mail