I love historical fiction. There are so many books about the WWII era but this one took a unique approach. I liked the different storylines and how they all intertwined. It is a heartbreaking story but a very good read.

I always enjoy learning from historical fiction and I read a lot of this genre, especially WWII era fiction. Although I enjoyed reading about the time period the dual POVs felt disjointed and unbalanced.

This book was not my favorite...I didn't connect with the characters and the writing was not up to par with what I normally read. However, for those who can't get enough WWII fiction, they may enjoy this.

I really enjoy Historical books based on World War Two. This genre is among my favorite to read. This book did not disappoint!!

The Dutch Wife is a historical fiction novel set during WWII. It follows Marijke de Graff, who is arrested with her husband, and sent to a concentration camp. Marijke agreed to join a brothel in order to be transferred to the camp where her husband was sent. There she meets a German Officer, Karl Muller, who falls in love with Marijke. Karl is the second storyline the novel describes. Karl and Marijke’s story is intertwined with Luciano’s, a young man who was imprisoned in Argentina in the 1970s.

The three story lines made this book so different from most WWII historical fiction that I’ve read and was my favorite part of the book. Ellen Keith did an incredible job of detailing the atrocities that Marijke and Luciano experienced as well as Karl’s struggle between making his father proud and living the life he wanted.

4 stars! An excellent debut historical fiction novel!

This book offers a very unique WWII perspective. We meet Marijke, Karl and Luciano. Marijke is a young wife and member of the Resistance who is torn from her husband and home. Upon capture and imprisonment, her beauty makes her stand out and she is chosen to live in the Buchenwald camp brothel where male prisoners get the opportunity to visit for good behaviour. The thought of what she has to do sickens her, yet it means she will have more food and clothing than most prisoners and better living arrangements. Karl is an SS officer who looks after the camp where Marijke is assigned. He has worked his way up the Nazi chain with a heavy push from his father who has high hope and expectations under Hitlers reign. Luciano is a young man in 1977 who is captured in Buenos Aires during the Argentine Dirty War.

I had an immediate connection with Marijke. She was an endearing and intriguing character. My heart broke for her situation and all that she endured - I could feel her longing to find her husband and her hope that they would one day be reunited. I didn’t like Karl’s character, however, I enjoyed his perspective as it gave insight into the struggles and pressure some Nazi officers faced. Luciano’s perspective felt unnecessary. I didn’t connect with him or enjoy reading his sections. I feel the book would have been much smoother and gripping had his perspective been omitted.

Audio thoughts: since this is my first audiobook, I thought I’d add my thoughts specific to how I felt about the narration. I LOVED Marijke’s voice! She was perfection! Karl’s voice felt robotic (and slightly irritating). Luciano’s voice was done well but my extreme disconnect from his personal story overshadowed any enjoyment I may have had.

Thank you to NetGalley and my lovely local library for my copies of this wonderful novel! I look forward to what this author comes out with next!

A very rough subject and a tough read.

I really enjoyed the storylines of Marijke and Karl even though their lives were told from within the walls of a concentration camp.

I found the storyline of Luciano’s (although another tough one) was distracting.

I’m glad I read this book and would recommend it.

This story, as they all are from this time in history, heartbreaking. In 1943, Marijke de Graaf and her husband Theo are arrested in Amsterdam as political prisoners and sent to different camps. Marijke ends up at Ravensbruck, but is given the terrible choice of remaining there and possibly dying, or moving to Buchenwald to work in the prisoner brothel. She chooses to live, but what will it cost her? She also believes that her husband is at Buchenwald and she might see him there. When SS Officer Karl Müller arrives at the camp he sees Marijke and feels something for her. He is hoping to live up to his father’s expectations of wartime glory and wants to make his time there liveable. This glance, changes both their lives. There is a second story going on that is interspersed into Marijke's story. It is the story of Luciano, who is a political prisoner in the 1970s in Argentina. It took me most of the book to figure out how these stories linked together, but it all made sense by the end of the book. The story alternates between the perspectives of Marijke, Karl, and Luciano Wagner. I will say that I did not enjoy Luciano's perspective as much and it confused me for most ot the book.

As always with any WWII story set at a concentration camp there are many events of abuse, rape, starvation, murder and torture. Ellen Keith describes these with a realistic and stark narrative. I feel the level of detail and description was appropriate for the subject matter, however, some people may find it difficult to read, be forewarned. The personal look into the actions of everyday people and their rationales during this time is interesting. It brings into play the dilemma of good men doing bad things because they have been ordered to do them. If they did not, they would be killed. Of course this in contrast to the heroic things done by many, risking their own lives, to save others. I finished this book a few days ago and am still thinking about this book and trying to decide what I would have done. That is something I hope I never have to find out. I definitely recommend this book! It is a sad, heartbreaking story which has the resilience of human nature at its core and the ending will blow you away.

I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy this one much for a while but it won me over. It was great but not without its faults. Predictably with the synopsis, this wasn't an easy read mentally and emotionally. It already deals with some tough subject matter being WWII Historical Fiction. Add to that the fact that the main character, Marijke, ends up in a brothel in a concentration camp, and an already mentally and emotionally hard read gets even harder. In addition to Marijke's story during WWII there is a dual timeline, the story of a young man named Luciano living in Argentina in the 1970's during the Dirty War. This is one WWII Historical Fiction novel that I think would have been better with just a single timeline as opposed to the dual timeline. I understand what the author was trying to do with Luciano's timeline but it felt so vague at first and I never really connected with him as a character or got too invested with his story, most likely due to the fact that the author chose to start telling his story well into it. I just also earn that there are some scenes that are very hard to read. Trigger/Care Warnings for: rape, sexual abuse, physical violence, abuse and torment of LGBTQIAPK people, and what amounts to sex trafficking. That being said this story led me to further research and learn more about the stories of LGBTQIAPK people under Nazi control and after WWII. I learned a lot from reading this book. If you're into WWII Historical Fiction and don't have any trouble with the Care Warnings, I'd definitely recommend this one!
*thanks to Harlequin and NetGalley for the eARC for review*

Sorry to say, this book won't be one I will be recommending. It was very difficult to read with the raw subject matter. Also, I felt there was too much shifting back and forth between Germany/1940's and Argentina/1970's. A heartbreaking story just that left me sad.

This Book was so AMAZING!!!!! Marijke was a beautiful and strong human being and she fought like hell to survive the hell that she was put through.

***Book Review***
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|#partner| Thank you @harlequinbooks #parkrow for my free copy via @netgalley for review.
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Unfortunately, this book was a DNF for me. The book is told with a dual storyline. I started out really interested in Marijke’s story. As the story progressed, it just didn’t really feel like it was going anywhere. I made it to just short of the halfway point and decided to put the book down. It was just way too slow for me. I might have tried to power through, but I wasn’t interested in the other storyline and it just felt like they didn’t fit well together. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was a shorter book with just Marijke’s story.
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I will say that I thought the subject the author chose to write about was very interesting. I wasn’t aware about that aspect of the concentration camps. If you don’t mind a slower paced historical fiction, then you might enjoy this one.
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A superbly engrossing read! The story of Marijke, her husband Theo, Dutch resistance fighters during WWII, and Karl, an SS officer. Marijke and Theo are arrested and sent to different concentration camps. When given the choice to become part of the camp brothel or take her chances slowly starving to death, Marijke chooses to work in the brothel. She survives her guilt and disgust, managing to get through the indignities that come with her new "job" but she is always hoping to hear of her husband's fate. When SS office Karl Muller sees her and begins visiting her at the brothel, her life takes another turn. Karl falls in love with Marijke and brings her all manner of treats, edible and otherwise. Against her wishes she forms a type of attachment to Karl. When the Americans arrive and begin the liberation of the camps, life once again takes an unexpected direction. A concurrent story line running through the book is that of Luciano Wagner in 1977 Argentina, who is imprisoned and tortured by the military for his role in protests against the current government.

Wonderfully and realistically written, I highly recommend this book. I could not put this one down.

Wow! This book was something. I have read a few WWII historical fiction books but never heard about the brothels. The book is told through three different perspectives, Marijke, Luciano, and Karl. Marijke and her husband Theo, were hiding people during the occupation and got caught and sent to a camp. They were separated, and Marijke had an “opportunity” to work in a brothel where she believed she could gain some insight as to what happened to her husband. Karl is a German soldier who fell in love with Marijke and the two find some sort of comfort in each other as the war progresses. Karl continued to do his job because he believed in it and Marijke struggles with not knowing if her husband is dead or alive and feeling guilty for having feelings for Karl who was the enemy. While this story is going on, Luciano cuts in from Argentina, many years later during the dirty war. He was a protester that gets captured. We witness his physical torture from the captors and the mental anguish he had about his relationship with his father.
In the end, we find out what happens to all the characters and how they relate to each other. Marijke and Karl got the endings I think they both deserved but Luciano’s story was particularly raw to me. When his story concluded I was shocked and devastated. I recommend this book. I think it has a look of material for discussion at book clubs too.
Thanks to NetGalley, Ellen Keith, and HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) Park Row for the free electronic ARC of this novel.

Marijke and her husband Theo are arrested and sent to the concentration camps. Marijke learns of his whereabouts and when the opportunity arises to be at the same camp, with better accommodations and a chance of survival, she takes it. In order for this to happen though, Marijke has to work at the camp brothel. This was an interesting take on the concentration camps and insight into what people were forced to do to survive this horrible regime. Told in dual timelines, we also meet Luciano in 1970’s Argentina. While the reader eventually finds out how these stories are connected, it took a long time to get there. The dual timelines did not work for me and felt disjointed. The love story at the brothel also felt disjointed and overall, The Dutch Wife left me feeling disappointed and uncomfortable. For me, The Dutch Wife was ⭐️⭐️/5 stars. Thank you @harlequinbooks for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

This book alternates between three points of view. Marijke and her husband are arrested as part of the Dutch resistance and sent to Nazi concentration camps. When Marijke is given the choice of becoming a prostitute, she says yes, knowing that she will be transported to the same camp as her husband. SS office Karl Muller arrives at camp and became enthralled with Marijke. The third point of view is Luciano, who is arrested in 1977 Buenos Aires during the Argentine War.

Although Luciano's story doesn't quite seem to fit, it blended nicely with the WWII stories. The entire novel explores questions of right and wrong, love, hate, and resistance. Overall, it was well written and well paced. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review The Dutch Wife by Ellen Keith. This story has two interwoven storylines - one is of Marijke de Graaf, who with her husband is arrested for participating in the resistance during WWII; the other is about Luciano Wagner, who was arrested during the Argentine Dirty War. A third main character, who is part of Marijke’s storyline, is Karl Muller, an SS officer
at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. When Marijke and her husband Theo are arrested, they are sent to different concentration camps. When Marijke finds out Theo was sent to Buchenwald, she volunteers to “promote the efficiency and operations of camps across the Third Reich” and volunteers to work at a bordello set up at Buchenwald to service the prisoners. Along comes Karl, who eventually claims Marijke for himself. Karl can offer Marijke extra food and protection but at a cost because is there such a thing as a good Nazi? Marijke struggles with that while her memories of Theo fade to the back of her mind.

I feel that the two storylines would have been better to stand on their own. Luciano’s story, at first, seemed to be thrown in without a connection. Eventually the connection becomes clear, but Luciano’s character is never fully developed to the extent it could have been, leaving his story lacking.

I give The Dutch Wife 3.5 stars.

I like to read books about the people during WWII, so the description of this book led to me requesting it though NetGalley. It is the story of three people caught up in a time of uprising--two during WWII and one during the uprising in Argentine in late 70's. Marijke and her husband are arrested in Amsterdam and sent to separate concentration camps. Then she is given a choice to stay at her labor camp where she would surely die or go to a prisoner brothel at the same camp where her husband was held. She took the latter and came in contact with Karl, who was second in command at the camp. Then there is the story of Luciano who is arrested and held in a prison in Argentina. The stories of these people and how there stories end are vividly described by the author and kept me reading into the night to see what happens. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read historical fiction.

A very good novel. A sight into the horrific life of woman in the concentration camps. I was unaware of the brothel situation in those camps! The author handled the plight of these woman as delectably as was possible. It’s hard to read these books but you must not turn away.

Dear Ellen Keith:

We often ask ourselves, what would I do if I lived in a period of horror like the Holocaust? Would I save people? Would I be like Captain America or Oskar Schindler? Am I a Good Person?

Most of like us to think this. It comforts us, somehow. We like to think that we would become the rebels, the resistance, the Good People.

But if one is given to a grimmer train of thought, the alternative is much less comforting. Perhaps we aren’t necessarily Good People. Perhaps there is a latent evil buried within our benign, well-meaning selves—something that might catch flame if the circumstances were right. And if fanned high enough it might destroy ourselves, and others—and maybe even the world.

The Dutch Wife, a smart, ambitious literary historical novel, explores this question thoroughly. What are we responsible for? What would we do to survive? How can we hold onto our humanity in an era of crisis and horror—and more importantly, how can we fight it? How can we hold on to the good—the truly good?

Like many other historical novels nowadays, The Dutch Wife has two timelines. The first is Buchenwald, in the 1940s: Marjike, a married Dutch political activist, is sent to Ravensbrück, but volunteers to go Buchenwald to become a whore at the prisoner’s brothel in a desperate attempt to reunite with her husband Theo. Once she’s there, SS officer Karl Müller becomes obsessed with her and does his best to prevent her reuniting with Theo.

The second timeline is set during late ‘70s Argentina, during the Dirty War, or the Guerra Secia. Luciano, a gay student dissident, is sent to a secret facility, where he is tortured by the vicious right-wing Juntas and their thugs. Yet even under the most terrifying circumstances, he manages to connect with another prisoner and learn to fight back– and eventually we learn the connection between the two timelines.

This book is released by Park Row, owned by Harlequin. There was some concern upon the release of the blurb, which implies that Müller is the romantic interest, the “hero.” On Amazon.com, the book is even classified as a historical romance. There was discussion on Twitter from people afraid that it might be similar to For Such a Time, a truly awful retelling of Esther featuring a Nazi as the love interest/hero.

However, I would like to assure readers that nothing is further from the truth.

Karl Müller is the lynchpin of the story, but he is not the hero. Far from it. He is the villain. But the novel doesn’t just focus on the bad guy’s story. Ms. Keith, you manage the tricky job of foregrounding both the perpetrators and victims/survivors.

The Dutch Wife is a brutal, searing depiction of life under fascism, and how different people cope, survive and fight against it.

It is also a fascinating exploration of toxic/ fragile masculinity, and its rippling effects. Karl is really invested in thinking of himself as a Good Person. He’s a sensitive man, an aspiring naturalist, a lover of nature, opera and music… but the more time we spend in his head, the more we realize his true character, as well as his breathtaking lack of awareness. He’s petty, apathetic, controlling, selfish, and with a vicious temper, especially against Jews and gay men, who he views as weak, degenerate, and a danger to the Aryan race. He also tries repeatedly to destroy Theo. However, he won’t actually do it in person, in the most direct way possible, because he doesn’t want to think of himself a brute; not like those other SS men, who smoke and curse and rape, and who had “no interest” in “anything that didn’t contain a trigger or a fuse.” Karl is sure he is better than them.

But Karl is a coward. He is always running and hiding from relationships—from responsibility– from consequences. I don’t want to get too deeply into spoiler territory here, but he gets his karmic reward.

And it’s wonderful.

Marijke, the most prominent of the two protagonists, is inspiring. Along with her friend Sophia, a communist, they face the world with caustic wit and grim determination, and find fragments of joy in whatever they can, whether it’s through bawdy jokes, nostalgic anecdotes about pre-war days, or an ad-hoc birthday party.

She’s imaginative, given to flights of fancy, but blunt, tough, pragmatic, clever, and devious enough to suggest, when the brothel inmates are forced to knit socks for the German army, to tighten them up in the heels as to make “part of the Wehrmacht” limp “its way across Russia.”

But she’s also vulnerable. Her beloved husband Theo, a gentle, bespectacled professor, means everything to her. His existence, his memory, represents something vital to her—like a mantra—a heartbeat— he helps her wake up in the morning, carry on in the face of the unbearable.

I touched my empty ring finger, aching to know if Theo was still alive, where he was. Questions and worries churned my thoughts: whether he’d heard the guns of the approaching Allies, if he understood the end was upon us. Had he managed to hold on, and could he hold on that little bit longer? My fingers, my toes, my skin, my eyes, my lips, my ears—every part of me pined for him: wishing to hear his quiet laugh, to return to Sundays drinking tea along the canals together, to see his face beside mine at sunrise every morning. To give him a child he would love.
(pg. 287, The Dutch Wife)

Karl knows this, and is deeply jealous. He tries to supplant her affections, doing his best to impress her with tender gestures, all the while seeking in secret to destroy the life and hopes of her husband. Words cannot describe what a truly vile man Karl is. You describe him so convincingly, with his insecurities and daddy issues—and yet how cowardly he is—and yet deeply impressed with himself. After I’m in his head I want to scrub myself in hot water.

However, Marijke is such a wonderful character that I was rooting for her the entire way. I wanted her to get away from Karl—to realize that she had Stockholm Syndrome, despite his good looks with his “dirty blond hair” and “gas-blue eyes,” expensive gifts like 18th century violins looted from wealthy Jewish heiresses, and grand but ultimately empty gestures, like romantic walks in the wood (until he’s confronted by a fellow officer, and he claims that Marijke is just some escaping whore that he’s bringing back). Sophia does her best to talk sense into her, and Marijke struggles with her ambivalent feelings about her jailer/captor/lover and her own struggle to survive and find Theo. It’s shown, not told. It’s marvelously nuanced, and with so much attention to detail. I also loved how this was all depicted realistically, and appropriately for the era. There’s no pop psychology or “heart to hearts.” Yet she endures.

Spoiler: Show

The secondary protagonist, Luciano, is also deeply moving. While not as much of a flawed yet loveable spitfire as Marijke, he’s a great character too. I wanted to give him a hug so many times.

I could relate to him, probably more so than Marijke. While much more inward-looking than Marijke, he was such a contemporary student I could imagine him in one of my lit classes in undergrad. He’s a baby-faced poet in love with Borges and Neruda, insecure, so deep in the closet that he’s filled with self-loathing, but observant and sensitive to the point it could be argued he has psychic tendencies.

The Dirty War isn’t well known in the US, but it was terrifying. Back when I was younger, I’d only heard about it because of the Sting song, “They Dance Alone,” but once I’d read this book I looked into a bit more. You depict in all its horror. Young people, just for attending a protest or keeping company with “suspect” people, were abducted in the middle of the night and then carted off to secret facilities where they electrocuted, waterboarded or more; babies, ripped from their parents, were adopted out to the party faithful while the parents were “transferred” into oblivion… and anyone who was an artist or an intellectual or who even liked punk might be detained or beaten—or they might disappear altogether. These were los desaparecidos. And Luciano becomes one as well.

During this part of the book, Luciano’s reflections on his relationship with his cold, bigoted father provides a running thread—as his struggle to retain his sanity, and connections with other human beings—and his own humanity in the face of torture and rape. He’s convinced he’s a coward, but he continues, in his small way, to defy the Juntas and fight terror and fascism, unlike men like Karl.

The characterizations are great. There’s so much psychological realism. You really feel exactly what the characters are going through. It’s something of The Handmaid’s Tale meets Kiss of the Spider Woman meets Elie Wiesel.

My only issue is that everything wraps up quickly. A bit too quickly. I wanted to see more from these characters! I wanted to see the ending fleshed out a bit more. But that’s my only complaint.

As you can imagine, this is a grueling, harrowing book. I understand that it’s not for everyone because it is so triggering on many levels, and because it goes to such dark places.

But it’s also an extremely important one with its message of hope—not giving in to despair—and fighting back against the darkness. It’s a vital message, now more than ever.