REVIEW: Searching for my Daughter by Liz Trenow

Searching for my Daughter by Liz Trenow

Genre: Historical fiction, Wartime fiction, Post-WW2

Read: 2nd May 2022

Goodreads

Amazon

Published: 5th May 2022

★★★★★ 5 stars

DESCRIPTION:

Searching for My Daughter: Absolutely heartbreaking and totally unputdownable WW2 historical fiction

 

The queue is long, but that barely matters. She is used to waiting. For the midnight knock at the door, for her number to be called, for the next meal of watery soup, the sound of a gunshot... Sustaining her through every moment of waiting, there has remained the tiniest flicker of hope: her daughter Rosa’s face, eyes bright and expectant, arms outstretched.

Germany 1945: Miriam has travelled for over two weeks to reach safety. Exhausted and hungry, she knows she is still one of the fortunate ones. One of the few to survive the camps. Having lost her darling husband and son, the only thing that has kept her walking is the hope of finding her daughter, Rosa.

As she arrives at the checkpoint, she is told it is closed for the day. But in her mind Miriam can hear her daughter’s voice: Be strong, stand up to them. Don’t let anyone bully you, Mum. Standing tall, she comes face to face with the guard and refuses to leave until they help her.

When Miriam is introduced to an English officer named Jack, she describes how, fearing the Nazis, she and her husband sent Rosa to England to marry. It was not a marriage of love but of survival. Now, Miriam needs the officer’s help: if she is to be reunited with her beloved daughter, he will need to help her travel to England.

But as Miriam begins to describe Rosa, there is a look of recognition in Jack’s eyes. As he listens to her story, he is transported back to an unforgettable English summer, to secret picnics in the long grass, and to a love that shaped the man he became. Will Jack now risk everything to help Miriam make the biggest journey of all, back to her daughter and her freedom?

An utterly gripping and emotional novel about bravery, enduring love and keeping hope alive in the darkest of times. Perfect for fans of The Nightingale, Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

MY THOUGHTS:

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Liz Trenow's heartbreaking tale SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER.

What a beautiful an compelling story. So rare are there historical fiction stories in the immediate aftermath of concentration camp liberation and survivors making their way into an unfamiliar world they had been torn from nearly a decade before. So many tales of wartime fiction recount similar stories of the death camps and Jews being rounded up tortured under the Nazi regime that they tend to all blend together after a while. But SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER offers something completely different.

July 1945: Beginning in the months after the liberation of the camps, a lone woman old before her time joins the long queue outside the British border station, just beyond Russian territory. Miriam Kauffman has trekked for hundreds of miles for two weeks with little food and water in the hope that she may be granted a visa to travel to England so she can begin her search for her daughter Rosa. Just as all hope appears to be lost, she meets Captain Jack Preston who upon taking her details recognises her daughter's name. Can Jack help her get to England? And will she be finally reunited with Rosa after seven years?

Miriam has not seen her daughter since 1938 when she married Daniel Levy and gaining refuge in England prior to the war just as life for Jewish people was becoming more difficult under Hilter's new Nazi regime. It seemed to be the safest option for Rosa when Daniel proposed and whisked her away under the sponsorship of a family who will house them and employ Daniel in the Preston factory manufacturing fans for aircraft. But life in England, although it holds the promise of a fresh start, does not go too smoothly for the couple and before long are left to fend for themselves. However, being German in Britain at a time when the country is at war with theirs is not a friendly place to be. Apart from the fact that they are Jews who have been persecuted by the Nazi's, the fact remains that they are German. And no one is sympathetic to their cause.

When the war comes to an end in May 1945, Rosa longs to find out what became of her family. Daniel had promised that he would try and organise visas for them to join them in England but war broke out before that could happen and her family disappeared into the ether. She contacts the Jewish Information centre and the Red Cross in the hope that they may be able to trace her family and what became of them...but it seems the information she receives is a dead end.

Just as Rosa begins her search, Miriam embarks on her own journey to find her daughter with Jack Preston's help. It seems both women are at cross purposes throughout as so often they are close and yet so far from one another. In a city of millions in the wake of a debilitating war, can mother and daughter find each other against all odds? Can the promise of new life give them both hope?

Told in three parts, SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER is a story of survival, of hope and of never giving up. It is not one woman's journey, but both women's journeys to new life and hopefully back to each other. So many stories focus on the horrors of the death camps, the hiding and persecution of the Jews and high-handedness of the Nazi rule. This story is different in that it's focus is on the aftermath. Both Miriam and Rosa's stories were unique and heartbreaking, so have your tissues handy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would. It is compelling, heartbreaking and poignant...but it is also hopeful and inspiring. I would love to see more stories like this as those about life in the camps and so forth have flooded the market that readers are drowning in them. SEARCHING FOR MY DAUGHTER offers something different.

Overall, an engrossing read that is a poignant tear-jerker with a hopeful ending. One of the best I have read in a long time.

I would like to thank #LizTrenow, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #SearchingForMyDaughter in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Liz Trenow is a former journalist who spent fifteen years on regional and national newspapers, and on BBC radio and television news, before turning her hand to fiction.  Searching for My Daughter is her ninth novel. The Forgotten Seamstress reached the top twenty in the New York Times best seller list and The Last Telegram was nominated for a national award. Her books are published all over the world and translated into many languages.  

 

She lives in Colchester with her artist husband, and they have two grown up daughters and three grandchildren.  

Social Media links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

REVIEW: From the Dark We Rise by Marion Kummerow

From the Dark We Rise (Margarete's Journey #2) by Marion Kummerow

Genre: Historical fiction, Wartime fiction, WW2, Holocaust

Read: 8th December 2021

Goodreads

Amazon

Apple

Google

Kobo

Audio links:

UK

US

Soundcloud Sample

Published: 17th November 2021

★★★★★ 5 stars

DESCRIPTION:

“Please, let me help. I won’t tell anyone.” It was madness to help an escaped prisoner in Nazi Germany, but how could she not? If it weren’t for a lucky strike of fate, she might be the woman on the ground shivering with fear. A light of hope entered the prisoner’s eyes and she knew what she had to do…

1942, Germany: When a young woman calling herself Annegret Huber unexpectedly inherits a huge fortune, including a house and factory just outside Berlin, her first thought is to try to see out the war quietly, avoiding the Gestapo and SS as best she can.

No one needs to know her dark secret. She must focus on staying hidden. Because she can’t risk being exposed for who she truly is. Not really Annegret. But a girl living a secret life. A girl who was once called Margarete.

But then an encounter with an escaped prisoner changes everything, as Margarete discovers what is happening at the factory and its attached labor camp. Witnessing first-hand the suffering of prisoners—shivering, with faces gaunt from hunger, as they work in brutal and cruel conditions—she realises she must act.

If she can save just one life, she knows she has to. Because the truth is that Margarete resembles the prisoners in the camp in ways she daren’t admit. And on the other side of the fence, she has seen a face that is achingly familiar…

An absolutely gripping and devastating story, perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, All the Light We Cannot See, and My Name is Eva.

MY REVIEW:

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Marion Kummerow's enthalling sequel on Margarete's journey FROM THE DARK WE RISE.

Although there is a plethora of historical fiction tales rising from the plight of Jews in the atrocity known as the Holocaust, Margarete's journey is one that that stands out in particular for me. Marion Kummerow's sequel to "A Light in the Window" picks up a short time after where the previous book left off and is as engaging and as well-written as the first one. While FROM THE DARK WE RISE can be read sufficiently as a standalone, I highly recommend reading "A Light in the Window" first to get a proper insight into Margarete's history and that of Annegret. It will make the sequel far more powerful.

Beginning a short time after the first one ends, this story follows Margarete's journey from Paris - in the wake of the death of her "brothers" Wilhelm and Reiner - to the Huber family estate in rural Germany. Wilhelm's wish was that she use the Huber fortune she inherited as Annegret for good and Margarete intended on doing just that. And so she left Paris with Gestapo officer Horst Richter, a close family friend of Annegret's father Herr Huber, who enabled her fresh start in the German countryside.

Margarete Rosenbaum was a young and rather naive Jewish woman who worked as a maid in the Huber household, the father being an SS officer of the Nazi High Command. Whilst in their employ she was subjected to the usual types of cruelty and abuse inflicted on the Jewish. The eldest son, Reiner, had raped her and the daughter Annegret took great pleasure in dishing out cruelty as the spoilt young woman that she was. But then tragedy struck when the house was struck in a air raid, killing everyone but Margarete. And in a moment of madness, she swapped her clothing, with its prominent yellow star assigned to all Jews, and papers with the dead girl...thus identifying her as Annegret Huber, the lone survivor of her family home. She flees to Leipzig where she has an aunt whilst trying to evade her "brothers" Wilhelm and Reiner and anyone who knew the Huber family. 

When she came into contact with Horst Richter whom she knew to be a close friend of her former employer, she feared her masquerade was up. But Richter has only fleeting glimpses of Annegret and paid her no attention and so she was able to continue her subterfuge. But then Wilhelm tracked her down and recognised her immediately...and he became her protector as she fled to Paris to live as his sister.

But now Wilhelm was dead, along with his self-satisfied elder brother Reiner, in an explosion orchestrated by the French Resistance of which Margarete had played a part. Now Richter has taken her under his wing and, without knowing her secret, eases the path to her inheritance as Annegret. This includes a sprawling estate in the German countryside where she decides would be the perfect place for her to continue her masquerade without fear of detection.

But Margarete doesn't realise that many people there have strong memories of the spoilt little rich girl who thought nothing of throwing a tantrum to get her own way or playing cruel pranks and setting others up to take the blame. To all intents and purposes, Annegret was a spiteful and selfish child and locals there assumed nothing had changed now that she had become a young woman, now sole heir to the Huber estate and its fortune. This makes her task more difficult and even challenging as she portrays a very different Annegret to the one everyone remembers. However, Margarete hopes she is able to convince them that Annegret is a changed woman in light of her recent bereavements thus enabling her to continue her charade.

She is thrilled the maid who is assigned to her, Dora, is new to the estate after escaping the Ukraine and therefore has no knowledge of Annegret. Her boyfriend stud master Oliver, on the other hand, has. He remembers Annegret's cruelty all too well and the times he was left to take the punishment that should have been hers when she lay the blame at his feet. Oliver doesn't believe she has changed at all despite a few glimpses he catches of her that don't marry up to the memories he has of the spoilt child. But no matter how Dora sings her praises, Oliver knows different. And it is he who proves to be Margarete's biggest threat...for his memories of Annegret are so vivid she doubts she can pull of her charade in front of him.

But then things become further challenging when she discovers a beaten, abused and emaciated young woman in the forest and is shocked to learn that she has escaped from a secret munitions factory which apparently belongs to her! Her estate manager, Gustav Fischer, looks after the books and machinations of the factory whilst foreman Heinz Strobler overseers the workers and production. But Margarete soon discovers conditions there are poor and workers are pushed to the brink of death. When she brings up her concerns with Gustav, whom she trusts implicitly, he informs her that they are merely Jews and are the lowest of the low. Despite his initial misgivings, Margarete convinces him to instill new work practices which see in the fair treatment of the workers as well as sufficient food and bedding. But upon an impromptu visit to the factory she discovers none of her instructions she sanctioned have been imposed and when she confronts Gustav he pleads ignorance, claiming he handed over her instructions to a third party to be delivered.

Then when she discovers there have been thefts from the rations intended for the workers, Margarete makes it her mission to uncover the culprit with the welcome help of Gustav who does some undercover digging. Who on the estate is helping themselves to the rations meant for the prisoners/workers? Can Margarete uncover the guilty party before it's too late? And is she able to help Lena, the Jewish prisoner who escaped the munitions factory, without putting herself at risk? Determined to do whatever it takes to ensure the safety and well-being of the prisoners and uncover the thief without compromising her own identity, will Margarete succeed? Or is she doomed to fail?

A story about resilience, sacrifice, courage, hope and love, FROM THE DARK WE RISE is as powerful in its prose as it is heartbreaking in its reality. I read it in one sitting late into the night and did not stop until I turned the last page. Having followed Margarete's journey from the start, I am eager to see where life takes her next and quietly cheering her on to survive the war living as Annegret Huber so she can shed that facade once and for all and become Margarete Rosenbaum once again...before she loses her identity completely. Living your life as someone else takes a tremendous toll, keeping up a charade of deception and lies in an act of desperation and will to survive. 

In "A Light in the Window", Margarete was a naive young woman living under the protection of her "brother" Wilhelm who knew her true identity and shielded her from discovery. In FROM THE DARK WE RISE, she really comes into herself taking on the responsibilities of the heir to the Huber fortune and friend of the Reich whilst secretly doing what she can to help her own kind from the harsh treatment as prisoners under her care. She no longer had Wilhelm to hide behind and, although she had Horst Richter to ease her smooth transition from Paris to the family estate in Gut Paun, his having been urgently called away to Leipzig was the best thing that could have happened to her because it enabled her to become her own version of Annegret as a much stronger and resilient young woman who has lost her entire family. Without his watchful eye, she had greater freedom and she flourished.

Each of the characters were perfectly drawn and played their roles to perfection. Kummerow has cleverly crafted a plot to resonate with readers both in plight and reason. She also highlighted just how easily people could be lead. The sheer fact that one man, Hitler, could manipulate an entire nation into believing that Jews were an abomination to the human race and should be eradicated is shocking! How easily they believed his ideology and propoganda. And how easily others were swayed to follow the orders of those above them. All in the name of power. That's all it was. And that is so completely shocking. People march and protest today about the atrocities dealt out to others for whatever reason centuries ago, but what they don't realise is that pulling down statues of those who represented that ideology doesn't change history. The past is the past and history can never be rewritten...but it can be learned from. And that is the purpose of history.

I thoroughly enjoyed FROM THE DARK WE RISE and eagerly await the continuation of Margarete's journey in "The Girl in the Shadows" in March 2022.

Perfect for fans of historical fiction, particularly wartime fiction with a specific focus - albeit a different one - on the Holocaust and the plight of the Jews.

I would like to thank #MarionKummerow, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #FromTheDarkWeRise in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Marion Kummerow was born and raised in Germany, before she set out to "discover the world" and lived in various countries. In 1999 she returned to Germany and settled down in Munich where she's now living with her family.

Inspired by the true story about her grandparents, who belonged to the German resistance and fought against the Nazi regime, she started writing historical fiction, set during World War II. Her books are filled with raw emotions, fierce loyalty and resilience. She loves to put her characters through the mangle, making them reach deep within to find the strength to face moral dilemma, take difficult decisions or fight for what is right. And she never forgets to include humor and undying love in her books, because ultimately love is what makes the world go round.

Social Media links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW: A Light in the Window by Marion Kummerow

A Light in the Window by Marion Kummerow

Genre: Historical fiction, WW2, Germany

Read: 13th July 2021

Goodreads

Amazon

Apple

Google

Kobo

Published: 20th July 2021

★★★★ 4 stars

DESCRIPTION:

Margarete stumbles out of the bombed-out house, the dust settling around her like snow. Mistaking her for the dead officer’s daughter, a guard rushes over to gently ask her if she is all right and whether there’s anything he can do to help her. She glances down at where the hated yellow star had once been, and with barely a pause, she replies “Yes”.

Berlin, 1941: Margarete Rosenbaum is working as a housemaid for a senior Nazi officer when his house is bombed, leaving her the only survivor. But when she’s mistaken for his daughter in the aftermath of the blast, Margarete knows she can make a bid for freedom…

Issued with temporary papers—and with the freedom of not being seen as Jewish—a few hours are all she needs to escape to relative safety. That is, until her former employer’s son, SS officer Wilhelm Huber, tracks her down.

But strangely he doesn’t reveal her true identity right away. Instead he insists she comes and lives with him in Paris, and seems determined to keep her hidden. His only condition: she must continue to pretend to be his sister. Because whoever would suspect a Nazi girl of secretly being a Jew?

His plan seems impossible, and Margarete is terrified they might be found out, not to mention worried about what Wilhelm might want in return. But as the Nazis start rounding up Jews in Paris and the Résistance steps up its activities, putting everyone who opposes the regime in peril, she realizes staying hidden in plain sight may be her only chance of survival…

Can Margarete trust a Nazi officer with the only things she has left though… her safety, her life, even her heart?

A totally heartbreaking and unputdownable story about how far someone would go to save one life, that fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Nightingale and All the Light We Cannot See will adore.

MY REVIEW:

I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Marion Kummerow's heartbreaking A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW.

I fell in love with Marion Kummerow's writing style with "Not Without My Sister". While her stories are set within a much written about time period, the concepts with which she portrays them are so unique and wholly original. They are not your usual run-of-the-mill tales re-telling the plight of the Jews. The premise of A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW was certainly an intriguing one that promised a fascinating tale to be told.

Berlin, 1941: The story opens with a bang - quite literally - an air raid on the city sees the Hubers scrambling to the safety of their cellar. An officer of high standing within the SS, Huber and his wife along with their daughter Annegret push their maid aside in an attempt to save themselves without sparing a thought for her. And why would they? She was nothing but a dirty Jew, employed as a housemaid to undertake their every whim and every chore...ableit unpaid. Her life meant nothing to the superior greatness of the German people. 

But as the bombers disappear and the dust slowly settles, Margerete is the only one left standing in the rubble. As she crawls through the debris seeing the family she had slaved for laying dead, she wonders how she is to survive in a city where Jews are spit upon or worse, sent sent to death camps. As she passes by the lifeless form of Annegret, an idea begins to form. Before she can change her mind, she swaps identity papers with the dead girl and drapes her in her coat bearing the yellow star that identifies her as Jewish. And she becomes Annegret Huber in order to protect herself from the harsh atrocities of war and to stay alive. She steals away to Leipzig to her only surviving relative, Aunt Heidi, who is an Aryan but had married a Jew and gets herself a job at the university library.

Meanwhile in Paris, Wilhelm Huber is a low ranking SS officer who is enjoying the easy life in the French capital with throngs of beautiful women and delicious food when he is suddenly recalled to Berlin to attend the funeral of his parents. His elder brother Reiner is a high ranking officer in the SS who is faithful to the Furher and his cause. Although he has yet to produce a male heir, his two daughters are named Adolphina and Germania in honour to his faithfulness to Hitler. Whilst staying with Reiner's family, Wilhelm's eyes are opened to his brother's complete disrespect for women, including that of his own wife. But Reiner simply states that she just knows her duty is to serve her husband in every way and be a good German wife. That, however, doesn't stop him from bedding any other woman he may get his hands on...including raping his parents' Jewish servant girl.

Upon learning that Annegret has disappeared since the bombing that claimed their parents and their servant girl Margerete, word has reached Reiner that Annegret has been seen in Leipzig. Wilhelm decides to make the journey to see for himself but what he discovers is nothing what he expected. Instead of his sister he finds Margerete has been passing herself off as Annegret and is immediately angered. But before he can turn her in, circumstances take a different turn and Margerete flees the city for an unoccupied part of France whilst Wilhelm returns to Paris without his sister or revealing the subterfuge.

In Paris, Margerete awaits the connecting train that will take her to her destination when she comes face to face with Wilhelm once again. Instead of revealing her true identity, he introduces her to his friends as his sister Annegret citing that she has come to join him for Christmas. Margerete has no idea if Wilhelm will report her to the Gestapo and yet she knows that if he does he faces charges of treason himself for maintaining the deception. Instead, he has a proposition for her. She is to continue to live as his sister so that he can marry her off and gain control of her inheritance. All they have to do is to continue to hide her from his brother Reiner who will spare neither of them should he learn the truth.

As Margerete becomes Annegret, she battles daily with her conscience and her own identity feeling as in doing so she is betraying her people. But Margerete is fighting for her life and before long she finds that isn't the only battle she is up against. Over the weeks they have lived together, Wilhelm has shown her a kindness and respect she does not associate with Nazis. But how is she to survive trusting this man, a Nazi, with the only things she has left? Her safety, her life and even her heart? And instead of the freedom for which she longs, Margerete finds herself trapped with an impossible moral dilemma of love, life and death. 

"Was one person's life worth more than another one's? And who got to decide which person was allowed to live?"

A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW is a heartwrenching tale of survival that is a compelling read you won't want to put down. It draws you in and has you questioning the moral dilemma of whether one human life is worth more than another. The despicable views of the Nazis concerning Jews and even the French people has you shaking your head with disbelief. The German people actually believed the brainwashing propaganda of the Nazis concerning their superiority and the unworthiness of the "filthy Jews". There were times when Wilhelm shook his head in disbelief when he was actually puzzled as to why the French did not welcome them with open arms. He actually believed the propaganda Hitler spouted.

This is a story of strength, courage and survival. A story of determination against all odds. A story that highlights the prejudices and bigotry whilst reminding us that there is hope. But it is also a love story...

A tale that is heartbreaking as well as intriguing, A LIGHT IN THE WINDOW is ultimately Margerete's story and her plight to survive the war. Does Margerete get her happy ending?

An emotional read from beginning to end. Recommended for historical fiction fans.

I would like to thank #MarionKummerow, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #ALightInTheWindow in exchange for an honest review.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Marion Kummerow was born and raised in Germany, before she set out to "discover the world" and lived in various countries. In 1999 she returned to Germany and settled down in Munich where she's now living with her family.

Inspired by the true story about her grandparents, who belonged to the German resistance and fought against the Nazi regime, she started writing historical fiction, set during World War II. Her books are filled with raw emotions, fierce loyalty and resilience. She loves to put her characters through the mangle, making them reach deep within to find the strength to face moral dilemma, take difficult decisions or fight for what is right. And she never forgets to include humor and undying love in her books, because ultimately love is what makes the world go round.

Social Media links:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

PUBLISHER:

Stay up to date with upcoming releases from Bookouture by following them on these social media accounts.

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram