Really good read, kept me gripped from the beginning. The story begins in Germany during WW2. The German resistance are planning the bomb plot to kill Hitler. Marianne is the wife of one of those involved, and she promises to look after the wives and children. Marianne does her best to find living wives and children at the end if the war, but it is not easy. Germany is full of people on the move: prisoners, soldiers, refugees, Nazis. They have all lived through a period of huge upheaval, and are struggling to survive in the best way they can. Marianne manages to trace two families who she takes into the family castle. They have to deal with the Russians, the locals- mainly Nazis and the privations of the time. A fascinating and gripping insight into life for the German people during this time. The author has carried out extensive research to ensure that the book reflects the facts of the time. Highly recommended read. Absolutely fascinating.

Didn't get into this book well. The characters did not seem very real to me, nor could I feel as if I could get to know them.

I have a feeling this book will be nominated for a number of awards--and it will deserve every accolade it gets! Shattuck renders the historical background beautifully and each character is so well thought out. I love how the characters' pasts are woven throughout the storyline. I was captivated from start to finish!

I've always been drawn to books set during WWII and after awhile you think you've read it all -- and then The Women in the Castle comes along. Shattuck is a talented storyteller who has woven her plot around the perspective of three widows during the war. These women are very different, not always likable to the reader, but they firmly agree that Hitler's view of Germany is not their own. Their stories are compelling as they try to keep their families safe and fed during the war and later as they struggle with their guilt, grief and forgiveness.

The story is told via multiple characters and time frames but the plot and writing flows easily. Readers will quickly become invested in these three women as they struggle to pick up the pieces after the assassination attempt on Hitler fails. Times are hard, people are starving, everyone is suspicious of everyone else and yet its during this tumultuous time that an unlikely bond is formed between Marianne, Ania and Benita. Temperaments clash, emotions run high making their new friendships tenuous and when secrets are revealed the women deal with the stress, abuse, deprivations and even collusion in different ways and with varying results.

The strength of this book is in its storytelling, it's rich characterizations and Shattuck's focus on the rise of Nazism through the eyes of German citizens. Many people wonder how the German people could allow Hitler to take control and commit such atrocities and I think Shattuck opens the door to that discussion. I found the post-war scenes most illuminating as regular citizens struggled with guilt over their complicity, not acknowledging the horrors around them at the time or not resisting enough. War isn't always black and white. It's scary, confusing and murky at best and while the atrocities committed in the name of Nazism are not condoned, Shattuck shows her readers how regular people could get caught up in the constant rhetoric, deprivation and all-encompassing fear that pervaded Germany at the time.

This is a well-written story shows the strength and resiliency of women during extreme times. I applaud the author's unique and fresh perspective on a very popular genre and era. This book would be an excellent book club selection.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Bonnier Zaffre (UK) for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

She half knew - but there is no word for that. She knew it the way you know something is happening far away in a distant land, something you have no control over...

One of the things I really liked about this book is that it provided some insight into how Germans lived after WWI, and why some of them became Nazis. It also looks at the guilt experience after WWII. Through the three main characters, Marianne, Benita and Ania we are shown very different lives in this same harsh setting, and how people could make very different choices in the same situation. I though Marianne's was very well written, but Ania's story was the one that was most interesting. They are all beautifully flawed. A thought-provoking HF novel about the cost of survival. Highly recommended.

The Story: The Women in the Castle tells of the relationship between three women, each of whom suffers loss and tragedy during and after World War II. It’s a story of secrets that are held in for decades—secrets that affect relationships.

Equal parts gripping and heart-wrenching-- TheWoman of the Castle is an intimate portrait of life for a group of women following the fall of the third reich.

I have read quite a few historical fiction books and quite a few set in this same time period - but this one was different. It was such a unique view of this time and place and I loved every minute of it.

The book flips and flops between years and years, but it was so easy to know when and where we were in the book. Each chapter is introd with a time and place, but you don't have to keep a timeline, instead it was easy to know almost in the first paragraph who was the main character in that moment and who was going to lead the story in that chapter.

And these women. They were inspiring and emotional, it was so interesting seeing this through their eyes. I loved that they had this opportunity to tell their side of the story. Each woman was unique, but it was easy to find similarities between them and it was easy to see how they would come together at this time.

I am intrigued as to what Jessica Shattuck can come out with next, I hope she sticks with some more historical fiction!

This is a solid WW2 historical fiction. Unlike alot of others I've read, this focuses on the perspective of Germans. As I am already interested in history I already knew a little of the hardships Germany had to face, so it's great to see a book focusing on this. I thought this was a good book, but something about it just didn't fully grab me. Don't let that dissuade you from reading it though - it has a lot of great reviews on Goodreads and I did still enjoy it. Overall this was a good historical fiction and I would recommend, especially a fan of the genre.

In this profoundly interesting tale, we have 3 very different women, from very different backgrounds telling us their story. Set before, during and after WWII, we get to know these women and how they felt about and survived the Holocaust.

While I very much enjoyed the first 75% of this, the last quarter dropped a bit for me. Overall though, an astounding read.

**Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley in exchange of an honest review.**

THE WOMEN OF THE CASTLE
Jessica Shattuck


MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️
PUBLISHER Bonnier Zaffre
PUBLISHED March 28,2017


SUMMARY
November 9, 1938, the Countess Von Lingerfel and her niece-in-law Marianne were hosting the bohemian annual harvest party at the old family castle in Bavaria. It was perhaps a final night to enjoy some reasonable company. Germany was on the verge of disaster. During the party, Marianne's workaholic husband, Albrecht, and a small group of friends, critical of the Nazi's had gathered in the castle library. They had just heard the news of Goebbels' order to insight rioting and destroy Jewish property. Decisions were made in the library that night to actively collude against the Hitler regime. Something had to be done. Marianne was asked to take charge of caring for the wives and children of these men should something happen to them.

The resistors' July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Hitler failed. All the resistors who had been in the library that night were exterminated. It was Marianne's time to act. First, she was able to rescue the once beautiful and naïve Benita from Russian soldiers in Berlin, and she then found Benita's son, Martin, in an children's home in Thuringa. Sometime later, Marianne located Ania, and her two boys, Anselm and Wolfgang, who had been languishing in the Tollingen Displaced Persons Camp. Marianne, Benita and Ania and their six children, made their home within the kitchen of the ancient, crumbling castle, Burg Lingenfels. They formed a unique family, each full of deep pains and dark secrets. All three women desperately tried to grasp onto that which would help them recover from the choices and actions of the past several years.

REVIEW
The Women in the Castle is a must read for historical fiction fans. It's focus is the recovery of the most tumultuous period in the 20th century. It's a dramatic story of loss, survival, recovery and strength of three very different women with very different experiences. The relationships of the women are complex and poignant.

Shattuck's writing is clear and wonderfully descriptive. Her elaborate descriptions of the castle the night of the harvest party and then in the postwar refugee period were impossible to forget. The stories of Marianne, Benita and Ania are hauntingly powerful.

Women of the Castle's perspective of the resistance and postwar recovery period is refreshingly interesting and unique. It will perhaps broaden the way you look at World War II and may even make you think more critically about current events.

This book perspective is very personal for author, Jessica Shadduck. She dedicated this book to her mother and grandmother. Shattuck shared in an editorial on March 24, 2017, that her grandparents had joined the Nazi party in 197, to become youth leaders in an agricultural education program. Shadduck was more than likely able to use her grandmother's experience to create this breathtaking book, which was most certainly written from her heart.

Other books by Jessica Shaddick included The Hazards of Good Breeding, 2004, and Perfect Life, 2010.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffre for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

(Thank you Netgalley for an early reader copy which in no way affected my review)

The Women in the Castle is a wonderful story of 3 women who deal with their lives before, during and after WWII in very different ways. They are drawn together after the war, and live in the castle that belonged to Marianne von Lingenfel's family. Marianne's husband was murdered for his part in a plot against Hitler, and Marianne feels a responsibility to the wives and families of other resisters.

Benita is the wife of Connie, Marianne's childhood friend. Marianne first finds their son, and then Benita and brings them both to the safety of the castle. Ania is the wife of another resistor (or so Marianne believes); she and her two sons join Marianne and Benita at the castle. the three women bring their secrets, lies and differing points of view, and learn to live with each other and support each other.

It's hard to describe this book. It is not a holocaust novel, but the story of how different women deal with amazing adversity, and the impact on their lives. The book alternates telling the stories of Benita, Marianne and Ania before the start of the war, during, and after. It's hard to put down; I kept wanting to learn more about each of them. This is a great book, one that will spark many discussions (great for book clubs too).

I highly recommend the book for insight into the realities of life for German survivors of WWII Germany through the eyes and experiences of three very different but capitivating German widows. Marianne’s husband was among those who attempted to assassinate Hitler. Benita’s husband, too, was a resister, and she is rescued from a sexual slavery by Marianne, who first finds and takes under wing Benita’s little boy. Marianne rescues Ania from a work camp for political prisoners. While Marianne is clearly the leader of this group of women, they are not always in agreement as they struggle together and separately to confront and deal with their past, survive their present, and find hope in their future.

Because I am living in Germany as an American ex-pat, I was particularly interested in this book, and I was quickly caught up in the lives and struggles of these women. Their personal stories help to grasp the reality of life in Germany after WWII: their ways of dealing with day-to-day struggles to survive, with understanding their own and their families’ actions and decisions during the war, and with enduring the consequences of the Nazi regime for themselves and their loved ones.

The Women of the Castle
By: Jessica Shattuck

I received an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I cannot stop thinking about this book. I finished reading it several nights ago and have been trying to organize my thoughts. I'm just having problems coming up with the right words. All I can say is that this book has consumed my mind and thoughts.

Basic Plot:
The story is about the widows of three members of a plot to assassinate Hitler. What led them to this time? What happened to the women directly after the war? How do these decisions affect the people around them and their future lives? I know there are many books about WWII because this time period is so intense. In other war stories people are either their best or worse selves. We see heroes and villains. This book is different in that, under the guise of telling a story about brave Resistance heroes, it explores the realm of the average German and their culpability.

Setting and Structure:
This book starts out in Germany post-WWII. The story is divided into four sections which each focuses on a period of time (with occasional chapters meandering back and forth). The chapters alternate between the three main protagonists (Marianne von Lingenfels, Benita Fledermann, and Ania Grabarek). We see the three women immediately post WWII, in the 1950's, pre-WWII, and 1991.

Characters:
Marianne is the moral core of the story and our first narrator. She is a high-born German countess and was tasked with looking after the other Resistance wives and families. She takes her role seriously. We learn immediately that Marianne can always be relied upon to do the right thing. To be honest, I found her character self-righteous. If you make each woman a type, Marianne is the one who does everything right (through the scope of history). She hates everything about the Nazi party and is rigid in her determination. Interestingly, most Germans (even after the Allied victory) view her and her family as traitors. At the conclusion of the war, she is one of the few people who does not need to feel any guilt about her personal behavior during the war. However, her strict moral code has several painful consequences. She alienates friends and in the end causes a very grave and irredeemable reaction from a friend which results in real guilt for Marianne. Is this life changing for her? No, she is still her same maddening self. It does, however, make her more self aware. In the 1991 section, we see that Marianne's moral rectitude has actually morphed into an entire institute. At the end of the book, the old castle (yes, the one from the title) has become an institute dedicated to studying morality.

Benita is perhaps the weakest character and the one which shows the least development. We often hear Germans from that generation explain that they didn't know what was really happening during the war. Benita is that character. She is so self involved that she has empathy only for herself. Post war, she only wants to move forward and be happy again. Is this possible without first addressing the past?

I loved the moral complexity of Ania. When I read The NY Times article about Ms. Shattuck's grandmother (after completing the book) I realized many of Anita's thoughts and actions were taken from this real life person. She had run a youth camp and had assimilated Hiterl's grand ideals for Germany while not seeing (or choosing to not see) the ugliness of his plans. The author does not make excuses for Ania. In fact, she is harsh. Is this sort of behavior forgivable or even understandable in someone we truly love? There is no easy forgiveness for the characters in this book only a stark retelling of their experiences and a chance for them to move forward.

Grumps and Conclusion:
My only complaint is that the ending (1991 section) is too clean. All past sins/ poor behavior/ lies/ misunderstandings are, if not completely forgiven, at least out in the open and being discussed like adults. What I did appreciate at the end was the palpable love between all the characters. I myself felt such a bond with these strong but human ladies that I can't remove them from my head. I also wish there was more character development amidst the next generation. I was especially drawn to Ania's daughter. Their relationship, the bit we see, is so strong and the dynamics seemed real. Together they were heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time. I guess that actually sums up the book for me - heartbreaking and beautiful.

My References:
NY Times (Online edition)
I Loved My Grandmother. But She Was a Nazi.
By JESSICA SHATTUCKMARCH 24, 2017
--------------------
The Plot to Kill Hitler
By: Patricia McCormick
This is a true story of the Hitler plot and is gripping. The author perhaps errs on the side of "heroes and villains" style of writing but as Ms. Shattuck's says at the end of her novel, "the world needs heroes".

--------------------
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club (Bccb Blue Ribbon Nonfiction Book Award (Awards))
By: Phillip Hoose
My daughter and I just read this story together. She and I were both intrigued by this true story of young people and how they could fight against evil.

Interesting take on how some German men and women viewed Hitler and his regime during the Second World War. Many Germans loathed what Hitler was doing and conspired to end his hate campaign. The wives of some of these haters rallied together after their husbands were put to death after their failed attempt to kill Hitler. This is the story of three different women struggling to deal with this aftermath .
With their children they tried to make amends and survive in a society that held Hitler's followers in contempt. These three women did what they felt to them was right to carry on .

This is a second world war story told from a different perspective. Set in Germany during the war and afterwards it is about a group of women living in an ancient castle. Marianne Von Lingenfels is the wife of a German resistance fighter Albrecht who is involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler. Marianne is also an old friend of Connie Fledermann who is part of this plot too. Connie and Albrecht are both from old German aristocratic families and hate what Hitler is doing.
Connie is married to Benita , a young peasant girl and he shields her from his work as much as possible whilst exacting a promise from Marianne that she will look after Benita and his son Martin if anything happens to him.
Unfortunately the plot fails and all involved are executed. At the end of the war Marianne sets out to rescue Benita who has been in prison and find Martin who has been sent to a Nazi childrens' home.
She brings them back to the family castle Burg Lingenfels and then tries to find family of the other executed plotters. Ania and her two sons come to live with the group after they are found by the Americans,
All the women and children live in the castle at the end of the war and into the 1950s. The book examines their lives both whilst they live together and what has happened before and afterwards.
Consequently the narrative moves around looking at the back stories of all the families as each has a moving and sometimes unexpected tale to tell.
I found character motivations interesting; Marianne saw everything in black and white- you were either a resister or a Nazi, for the other women the line was less defined. Benita falls in love with an ex Nazi soldier much to Marianne's disgust and Ania has secrets of her own. The novel examines the guilt of ordinary Germans. Why do some people see the evil and resist whilst others are drawn into it until they realise what is happening and it is too late.
Another theme of the novel is forgiveness- can the perpetrators be forgiven? Can they ever forgive themselves?
I found the character development interesting as all the women were so different and had various ways of dealing with the stress they were under. I liked Marianne as a person but she also displayed an intransigent side to her personality when dealing with the others. The novel highlighted the difficulties in post war Germany- people were judged and those that felt guilt could not discuss the past. Others felt no guilt but just turned a blind eye both before and after, not even believing what was obviously true.
This is an intricate and well researched novel which is perfect for readers who enjoy thought provoking Second World War books such as All The Light We Cannot See. It certainly left me with something to think about and stayed with me long after I had finished.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This starts off excellently with a party at the eponymous castle and introduces Marianne, Benita and their husbands. Only gradually do we realise that it's Kristallnacht, that many of the men at the party are anti-Nazis and that when they disappear from the party, it's because they're gathered in the study discussing how they should respond to Hitler, and what the role of the individual should be when faced with a government and state with whose moral, ethical, legal and ideological values one profoundly disagrees.

Shattuck grabbed me completely with her opening - but I turned the page at the end of the first chapter and suddenly we're in 1945, Hitler's dead, the husbands are dead, the war is over and the debates that animated the opening have disappeared.

After that great beginning, this settled into something far less enticing: Shattuck, like so many contemporary authors, decides that the story is best told in fragments whizzing around in terms of time (1945, 1950, 1991) and PoV. Too often chapters are taken up with the surviving women remembering their pasts, so that it's written in a 'told' expository way with no direct speech or action. The von Stauffenberg plot, as we know, failed, but we don't know what happened to the resistors between the party in 1938 and the assassination attempt in 1944.

I liked Shattuck's decision to focus on female experience but the jumpy narrative and the circumscribed setting didn't work for me: there's much happening in the background (the massive number of displaced people, the de-Nazification of Germany, the beginnings of the Cold War) but they don't really take a purchase on the story. There are some telling moments such as the terrifying way in which children absorb and parrot ideologies, and a concern with how one rebuilds a life and family after the devastation of war, but it all felt distanced, lacking immediacy and intimacy.

So a disappointing read for me, after a very strong start.

--I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are purely my own and not influenced in any way.--
It's no real secret that books about WWII are incredibly common, but what I have always found the most interesting - and least likely to be written about - is how it influenced the people back at home and everything that happens post-war: particularly on the "losing side". This book delivers both expertly. Told in alternating view-points during different periods pre-and-post war, we become entranced with the stories of Marianne, Benita, and Ania, all three of whom are incredibly believable and three dimensional.
My favorite thing about this book is that each of the main women's strengths is also her Achilles heel. Marianne sees things in absolutes, in black and white, which makes her fantastic in the resistance of Hitler but leads her unable to see the people around her in the grays that make humans human with devastating results. Benita is kind, emotional, and believes in leaving the past in the past and is willing to overlook some of the lesser atrocities in the war, which allows her to live through some of her experiences but hinders her in the new coldness that permeates through Germany. Ania is pragmatic, which allows her to keep she and her two sons alive during the war, but makes it hard for her to get close to anyone and creates a divide between her children. None of the characters are heroes in the traditional sense and each has their own skeletons in the closet which makes them uniquely human.
My one true complaint about this book is that the ending fell a little flat and it felt like the last chapter REALLY didn't need to be there, but I see what Shattuck was going for even though it didn't really work for me. Overall, this is a great book and I am looking forward to seeing what the author writes in the future.

#review

I was very impressed by this book. The story starts during a party on Burg Lingenfels in the late 1930-ties. The husband of Marianne von Lingenfelt, her childhood friend Connie and some others decide after long deliberations to overthrow Hitler because they see him as evil. That is the only moment I have doubts about the book as the guys join the Von Stauffenberg putch but that takes place in 1944 so why wait that long?


Marianne, flat chested and bony, is married to her old university professor. She seems to have a happy marriage but it seems more a good partnership than a passionate love affair. During the party at the beginning of the book Connie kisses her and I believe this man is the love of her life. Someone she was in love with as a teenager but who never noticed her as more than a friend she thought. And then he kisses her like that and introduces her to his pregnant fiancee Benita a beautiful young girl and she wonders what to think of it all. Reading the book we learn that he always called Marianne The judge and said to Benita Marianne could be so cruel. What has Marianne wondening why.


Then the story jumps to 1945. The husbands are all executed and Marianne sets out to find Benita and Connie's son. They are joined by Ania another widow who hides a secret. The women try to survive in the ruined castle dealing with famine, former Nazies and raiding Russians.


The book ends in 1991 and a very old Marianne is asked to speech at a book presentation in Burg Langenfels that is now a New Age, human rights center. Marianne realises that she is unworthy of all the praise. That she was indeed a harsch judge all those years ago who put herself on a moral high horse and time has come to forgive and be forgiven. Meanwhile the daughter of a Nazi and the son of the man executed by the Nazies make love.


To prevent spoilers I cannot delve too much into the story but I was very impressed by this book. The story deals with all the muddy details of the war and the time after the war. Like one of the children was in a Nazi-home but thinks back kindly to the lady who ran it. It reminded me of my elderly neighbour who worked in Germany as forced labourer but called the farmer Mutti (mother) and even years after the war when he was married would go to visit the old German woman. Landowners getting shot by advancing Russians, the rapes, the bombed out houses, the refugee trails, the movies showing concentration camps, the youth camps of the Nazies when they were still fun, the moments that people realise mass killings take place, the condemnation of people who did not do wrongs, the ways people try to pay for their sins or not.


It is a book you cannot stop reading and then you will think about it for days afterwards.

http://dutchysbookreviews.blogspot.nl/2017/04/an-impressive-book-about-scars-of-ww2.html

The Women in the Castle is a loving and sensitive portrait of three women and their families in the lead up to and aftermath of World War II. Remarkably little is said about the war itself. This is a novel about the moral ambiguity of German life between the two world wars, and the difficulties in reconciliation after Germany’s WWII defeat. I love this quote, “… she saw the histories of the people passing by like x-rays stamped on their faces- ugly mutinuous tracings of dark and light: a woman who had informed on a neighbor, a man who had shot children, a soldier who had held his dying friend in his arms. Yet here they were, carrying groceries, holding children’s hands, turning their collars up against the wind.”

Shattuck’s novel makes it clear that after we have made our choices, and committed the actions of our lives, all we have left is to “turn our collars up agains the wind.” and live with our consciences.