Saturday 30 April 2022

✪ The German Wife ✪ Kelly Rimmer ✪

 

 

 

  Inspired by real events, the New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan returns with an unputdownable novel of a community torn apart when a former Nazi family moves into town to work on NASA's space program

Berlin, 1934. Sofie Rhodes is the aristocratic wife of a scientist whose post-WWI fortunes change for the better when her husband, Jurgen, is recruited for Hitler's new rocket project. But too late they realise the Nazis' plans to weaponise Jurgen's technology as they begin to wage war against the rest of Europe.

Alabama, 1949 Jurgen is one of hundreds of Nazi scientists offered pardons and taken to the US to work for the CIA's fledgling space program. Sofie, now the mother of four, misses Germany terribly and struggles to fit in among the other NASA wives.

When news about the Rhodes family's affiliation with the Nazi party spreads, idle gossip turns to bitter rage, and the act of violence that results will tear apart a community and a family before the truth is finally revealed - but is it murder, revenge or justice?

 

 

 Copy received from Hachette Australia for an honest review

Kelly Rimmer has again given us a thought provoking, at times heartbreaking tale set in out not too distant past.

The German Wife gives us points of view prior, during and after World War 2, and it will break your heart then lift it right up again. We are set in Nazi Germany, the US Dust Bowl and post war Alabama, so we have a lot to process as we are reading

You can tell that the author has done extensive research into Operation Paperclip and the US Government bringing German scientist to work on their space programme - I am wondering if our main male character Jurgen is based on Von Braun?

This shows us the reality of the post war period. the prejudices faced by those who have had their choices taken away, when they are just trying to do what they have to do to keep their family safe.

I cried at times as I was reading.  We sit here in the here and now and complain about how difficult things are (and yes, they are our complaints and are allowed to own then), but when I sit and read about what people of my grandparents generation went through, I do think we can be quite a whiney bunch!

The Gernan Wife is a poignant story that will leave you thinking about it for a long time after finishing it.
 
 
 
 

 
Kelly Rimmer is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of ten novels, including The Secret Daughter and The Things We Cannot Say. She's sold more than one million books, and her novels have been translated into more than 20 languages. Kelly lives in rural Australia with her family and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil.