Book Bloomer

The Women in The Castle(paid link) is another WWII novel! (can you tell how much I love books on this topic). Okay, to start … if you’re deciding between this and “Lilac Girls,” by Martha Hall Kelly, read “Lilac Girls” every time. However, this novel is also extremely enjoyable and unique in its’ own way. It drifts away from that same cliche WWII novel, and takes us into new narratives and forms of writing.

With any novel in this genre, it takes a bit of time to get into, but is very satisfying upon completion. It’s unique in that it tells the story long before the war, long after the war, as well as during the actual war. Sometimes, WWII novels lack the “afterward.” What happens to these people after the unimaginable trauma they already had to go through? How does one “re-build” humanity?

Throughout the whole novel, you are alternated between narratives of the past, present, and future, which forces you to piece together the connections and events while you are reading. Personally, I love this form and find it to be very well done in this particular novel.

This novel mainly follows the narrative of three women; Benita, Marianne, and Ania. The husbands of two of them, Benita & Marianne, were resistors of Hitler and tried to assassinate him, while Ania’s husband was a Nazi. All three of the women end up living in Burg Lindenfel Castle together after the war as they try to rebuild their lives. After a few years, they eventually go their own ways, and it becomes a story of those new lives as well.

Overall, the diction and flow of this story is beautifully written. It shows the hardships that women and children had to go through during this time and what humanity truly means. It also gives insight to “the other side,” of things; in some ways due to the fact that it is from women’s perspectives, but also in other ways as none of them are Jewish or “direct” victims from the Nazi’s.

Therefore, I would definitely recommend this book for it’s uniqueness and plot as a whole.