The Woman Outside the Walls by Suzanne Goldring
Genre: Historical fiction, Wartime fiction, WW2, Holocaust
Read: 17th October 2022
Amazon
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Published: 18th October 2022
Published: 18th October 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
I always knew it would come out one day. They are finding everyone who has stayed hidden. They would have come to me in the end.
Hamburg, 1942 Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.
Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016 Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
A gripping read that will break your heart and have you hooked, perfect for fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and My Name is Eva. The Woman Outside the Walls will take you on an emotional journey and show you that in war, even when you are on the wrong side, you can still do the right thing…
MY THOUGHTS:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Suzanne Goldring's heartbreaking dual timeline tale THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS.
I have read all of Suzanne Goldring's books (my favourite still being "My Name is Eva") and this is one that is slightly different though it tells something of the same story. But through the main character's eyes we see something of a different picture. Again it is told through the past and the present as the secrets of the past come to light in the present day. Which leaves us with something of a moral dilemma. What is right? What is wrong? And just what will you do to survive?
Hamburg 1943: Seventeen year old Anna Kolhmann falls in love with a young German soldier who thus leaves her with a parting gift before he is killed in action. Faced with a dilemma of whether to confide in her parents or not, Anna realises she can never tell them the truth - that she is pregnant and the father is dead. So she takes herself off to a maternity home where her baby will be given to the perfect family. She knows that this is best, that she could never give it all that it needs. But she doesn't expect to feel such overwhelming love for her beautiful baby boy or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again. In her mind, she has named him Peter and it is there he will remain alive to her as he was in those first moments she glimpsed him.
In her grief, she returns to Hamburg with a plan. She has accepted a position as a secretary in a prison far away in the east. As she sets off, Anna feels as if a chapter has been closed and a new one is about to begin. What she didn't know was what she was stepping into...what kind of prison it was...and the part she would play.
London 2016: Ninety year old Anna stuffs another newspaper clipping into her case, her eyes brimming with tears and her hands trembling. She feels the time has come. They are coming for her, as they have all the others who remain. She puts on her coat, grabs her case and shuts the door to her terraced house and walks away.
Lauren has lived next door to Anna, whom she knows as Margie, for twenty years and knows the elderly woman doesn't go out anywhere except to the corner store or the church. But when she sees Margie's milk still sitting on the doorstep at the end of the day, she begins to worry something has happened to her neighbour. It's not until her son Freddie returns home does she discover he has found her slumped at a bus stop with no idea what she is doing or where she is going. They can make no sense of what she is saying as she babbles away in a foreign language, possibly German. Together, Lauren and Freddie help Margie home and call the doctor for fear she may have developed some kind of dementia.
Freddie is just 13 years old and has been studying German at school so he has picked up a word or two Margie has uttered but it's not until their neighbour offers to enhance Freddie's grasp of the German language by holding conversation classes that they begin to wonder about Margie's background. Then one day Freddie comes home with the prospect of reading "some girl's diary of the war" (insert eye rolling from Freddie) which he couldn't be more bored with which Lauren makes more real for him by taking him to Amsterdam to see the house in which Anne Frank and her family had hidden. He returns with a postcard of Anne Frank which he gives to Margie as a thank you for helping him with his German that Lauren later finds torn in half in the bin. What is it that haunts Margie that distresses her so?
Then when Freddie comes home with an assignment on the war and its origins, he decides to question Margie on her own experiences, little realising the can of worms he is about to open and heartache that will be unleashed. But can the sins of the past ever be forgiven?
THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS reminds us that stories such as this must never be forgotten. The Holocaust and its atrocities must never be forgotten. We must never forget those crimes against humanity...we must remember them so that they will never happen again.
Anna is a strong and resilient young woman who had seen too much in her young life, having changed her name three times in three years before escaping with the British officer who saved her from poverty and took her home to England to live. But Anna never forgot...she was ashamed and consumed with a guilt that never ever left her. But her story is one that is shrouded in secrets and though I had guessed the part she played, it isn't completely revealed until near the end.
This dual timeline tale is a little different in that it seemingly jumps around a little, but that is only because some aspects remain hidden until the relative part of the story unfolds. Anna is the predominant voice in this story, both in past and the present. We do hear from Lauren as well which lends something of a different perspective as an outsider looking in. Someone who has known their neighbour for twenty years and thus their shock at the truth when it is revealed.
However, I see Anna as a victim also. The people of Germany didn't want the war that was inflicted on them and yet they had to abide by certain laws anyway. Their lives were turned upside down and destroyed by their own people, let alone the Allies who were fighting them. THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS is a thought-provoking tale as it is heartbreaking. There are questions that you would ask yourself should you find yourself in similar circumstances. At the end of the day, it is about survival. You do what you do to survive. And only then can you begin to reconcile the decisions you have made.
Overall, THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS is an emotive tale about one woman's strength and resilience and ultimately her survival. Perfect for fans of wartime historical fiction.
I would like to thank #SuzanneGoldring, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheWomanOutsideTheWalls in exchange for an honest review.
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