The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes is a work of historical fiction set before and during World War II primarily in Bonn and Berlin, Germany andThe Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes is a work of historical fiction set before and during World War II primarily in Bonn and Berlin, Germany and in the immediate post-war period near Frankfurt, Germany as a young woman sent from the U.S. Library of Congress arrives for a temporary placement at the Offenbach Depot, a depository of books confiscated from the many Nazi caches discovered by the Monuments Men.
Emmy Clarke, a librarian and war widow, arrived in Germany in an Army uniform for the planned two months duration of her visit, but was a civilian, and above all a person who prized books. Her contact, Major Wesley Arnold, was one of those storied Monuments Men who had been working to find everything that the Nazi government had plundered from those people sent to the camps and the art stolen from museums and other cultural institutions.
The earlier stories involved teenage sisters Annelise and Christina, in 1938 and 1943. Annelise is the older sister, worried about what is happening in Germany, unwilling to follow the rules, friends with a group who enjoy nature and hiking in the mountains. She and her friends have become involved in prank type behavior toward the Reich as part of the Edelweiss Pirates. The question becomes what will they do as the tactics of government harden. Christina is more of a follower. She loves her sister but can’t follow that type of existence. She likes order and deals well with rules. She joined the Bund Deutscher Madel, the group intended for all girls. What will she do if these rules should endanger those she loves?
The author provides information on the historical background for some of the specific events cited in the novel. Once again, I learned more about the Holocaust and WWII from this novel. Another reason I’m always glad for good historical fiction.
Recommended for those who like good historical fiction and novels about WWII, Germany and the Holocaust.
Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. This review is my own....more
The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen is an historical fiction novel set in the neighborhoods of Boston during the first year of the United States’s entry iThe Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen is an historical fiction novel set in the neighborhoods of Boston during the first year of the United States’s entry into World War II. Most men of fighting age are gone from the streets now, signed up and either in training or already on their way to one of the fronts of this new war. Otherwise, they may be working in necessary industries that produce military equipment or weapons. Then they may be in the police or the FBI.
The first primary character in this novel, they provide alternating narratives, is Anne Lemire, a young woman from Dorchester who works for a Boston newspaper on a column debunking the many rumors related to the war that are running wild. Her goal is to be a serious writer and her concern is the growing number of attacks on Jewish people happening in her neighborhood and others in Boston, seemingly without any police intervention. The other is Devon Mulvey, an FBI agent with Dorchester roots, whose family moved out of the city when he was young. He now lives and works in the city himself. He is caught between the tedium of some necessary paperwork, questions of problems at a munitions company and investigations he would like to take on. Then a murder occurs that seems to bring many worlds together.
This is a picture of that part of the home front that opposes war: both the hoodlums/bigots and the organized fascists trying to prevent or stop US intervention in “Europe’s” war. Within this large picture are the small parts of confusing contradictions where sometimes it’s hard to know who the good guys are.
This is a very interesting reading experience and covers a time I’ve never read or heard about though I have lived in the Boston area my entire life. I wish my parents were around for me to ask about that time. Mullen provides a list of resources on the pre-war and wartime era for reference and also provides historical parallels for some of the characters and incidents.
Recommended.
Thanks to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. This review is my own....more
This is stated more than once in Claire McMillan’s historical fictionalized biography of artist Remedi‘Art is for the things we don’t have words for.’
This is stated more than once in Claire McMillan’s historical fictionalized biography of artist Remedios Varo and her life among the other artists and cultural icons, especially of the surrealist movement, caught up in the madness and fear which engulfed Paris and France as the Nazi army advanced toward the city. Not long into the novel, Remedios, her lover Benjamin Peret, and others are forced to escape for Marseilles where they will stay until they can find some way to leave France. Here they connect with Varian Fry at Villa Air Bel which has been serving as a safe house for artists that Fry is working to help out of Europe. During this time at Marseilles we see the Remedios renew and strengthen the connection to the Tarot that helps structure this book and her life. Here too, Remedios learns of her friend, and fellow artist, Leonora Carrington’s placement in a mental hospital in Spain. The table has been set and everyone is in place and about to begin their new lives.
Considering that I knew nothing of Varo or a Arrington or their art before reading this book and only limited information about the other artists, thinkers and writers involved, I found this story very interesting and the structure used, original and in keeping with Remedios Varo’s apparent philosophy of life. The story is essentially told through Remedios’s point of view, while periodically we hear from other important characters who are also identified by tarot cards, with appropriate descriptions. We readers receive a brief introduction into some of the cards’s meanings.
Following the transformation of an artist from someone’s muse to becoming an independent creator is a fascinating process, and I believe McMillan has fashioned a wonderful novel in Alchemy of a Blackbird. I know that I want to find whatever of Varo’s art may be available to view online after the descriptions I’ve just read.
I recommend this book to those interested in art, women in art. This is fiction, but based in fact.
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced e-copy of this book. This review is my own....more
Flatlands is the story of two people who are lifted out of their normal lives and find themselves on the bleak, flat Fens of the northern coast of EngFlatlands is the story of two people who are lifted out of their normal lives and find themselves on the bleak, flat Fens of the northern coast of England as the country girds itself for war with Germany in 1939. Twelve years old Freda is an evacuee from London sent away for fear of what might be coming soon to the capital. Her luck of the draw is a cold, sometimes cruel, family who see her not as a child but as a house worker and stipend. Phillip has failed as an Oxford divinity student and had a nervous breakdown. He is a conscientious objector to the war and has chosen the Fens for its solitude, its natural environment, especially birds, and an opportunity to attend to his loves of nature and painting.
Freda and Phillip meet accidentally after the wounding of one of the marshland’s many geese. They share a quiet, but beautiful, friendship as each answers some unspoken need in the other. We hear this novel from both points of view.
This is a lovely study of two lonely, struggling people, of life in a lonely but ruggedly beautiful place that offers glimpses of that beauty to those who seek it and are open to it. It’s also a beautifully written book.
Recommended
Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. This review is my own....more
The Traitor Beside Her is Mary Anna Evans’ second book featuring Justine Byrne, daughter of deceased physicists, former welder at an aircraft factory,The Traitor Beside Her is Mary Anna Evans’ second book featuring Justine Byrne, daughter of deceased physicists, former welder at an aircraft factory, now an agent working with military intelligence. Justine and her best friend Georgette have been placed at Arlington Hall, a code breaking center near Washington D.C., a center that appears to have a leak. The skills Justine learned early from her parents will be needed if the agent who has caused Allied and civilian deaths is to be stopped.
It is late 1944 and, after the successes brought by DDay, progress in the war in Europe for the Allies has slowed. Then a new surprise attack by the enemy has actually caused a setback. To have their code breaking capability compromised was too dangerous at this point.
The novel follows Justine and Georgette as they begin this new job, meet new fellow workers, judging them all the while, and continue their relationships with their handlers/friends Paul and Jerry. I enjoyed the give and take of their friendship. I also enjoyed learning more about this type of setting which I knew existed but have never read about in fiction or nonfiction in an American setting. There were a few moments that I found a bit stretched but overall I really enjoyed the story and the writing. Evans has been a favorite from her Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries series. Recommended.
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for an eARC....more
A stunning portrait of a part of WWII that I knew nothing about, the Red Cross Clubmobiles staffed by American women who met preset qualifications, enA stunning portrait of a part of WWII that I knew nothing about, the Red Cross Clubmobiles staffed by American women who met preset qualifications, entered this service at officer ranks, and manned large bus-sized vehicles bringing coffee, donuts and cheerful faces to the forward troops in Europe.
To be continued….
A copy of this book was provided through Little Brown and NetGalley for an honest review....more
When Burkhard Bilger began the lengthy process of investigating the life of his own maternal grandfather, he didn’t know what he would find. His grandWhen Burkhard Bilger began the lengthy process of investigating the life of his own maternal grandfather, he didn’t know what he would find. His grandfather, Karl Gonner, had fought in World War I in the German Army and been seriously wounded. After the war, he became a schoolteacher, married and watched all of the changes that the world watched as Hitler rose to power, consolidated that power and set about recreating a new world. How did Karl live in/with this Nazi world. Bilger’s mother, who was only a young child during those war years also wanted to know more about her father and his relationship to the Nazi Party. It seemed impossible to square who he had been with that evil.
Bilger, a writer for the New Yorker, has taken a circuitous route to find his answers, a route that I did not initially appreciate for its worth. Learning about Europe at the turn of the Twentieth Century, the mindset of some of the nations and people who would soon be heading to war, what a shock that war was to so many, and the extreme cost that hit all of Germany after the Treaty of Versailles with its settlement of debt. Seeing his grandfather’s place through all of this sets up the next stage…the arrival of Naziism. The document searches here required all of the skills he had developed in his work.
What was Karl’s relationship to the Nazi Party? There are answers found, but it takes much time, interviewing some few people still alive and their descendants, scouring archives in Germany and France. There are notes and a bibliography at the end.
This book was obviously a personal labor of family love but also a search for what truth could be found. I also think it provides another look at an era that should never be forgotten. It shows how some people found ways to survive under a brutal regime without losing their humanity.
Recommended for those who read biographies and history.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley. The review is my own....more
The Ways We Hide is a gripping historical fiction that begins with Fenna Vos apparently assisting master magician Charles at their show in Brooklyn. BThe Ways We Hide is a gripping historical fiction that begins with Fenna Vos apparently assisting master magician Charles at their show in Brooklyn. But appearances can be deceiving as Fenna, or Fen, is the expert who has crafted this show and taught Charles all he knows. The future holds so much for them, and the world as it’s now 1942 and the beginning of the United States’ entry into the War. There are changes on the way for this pair.
Before moving forward, the author returns to Fenna’s childhood in copper country, in Michigan, and important events that formed who she would be. These include a terrible Christmas Eve disaster that scarred her for life, a childhood friend that grew to be much more, her early love of magic that helped her deal with tragedy.
And beyond the magic shows, back to 1942, not in her wildest dreams would she have expected to be approached by a representative of British military intelligence. This man has seen her shows, recognized her skills and presents her with an offer to assist the war effort in England designing devices to help allied soldiers evade capture or escape prison.
There are many more layers to this novel, especially interpersonal ones which I prefer to leave to readers to uncover. And there is action aplenty once Fenna reaches England but I am not going to spoil any of that. This is a great novel that keeps you reading to find out what is coming next.
Perhaps my only concern was that at times I felt it seemed a bit much happening, but the afterword reveals the true history behind the details. Still a lot to have happened to one person though such things so occur in some peoples’ lives.
Recommended. This a well written historical novel that covers aspects of history not well known and does it in exciting ways.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review....more
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