I found this dark exploration of the evils of war too disjointed and fragmentary to really draw me in. It was hard to follow what was happening in the early part of the book, and the connection between these episodes set in wartime occupied Denmark and the later ones set in the GDR remained obscure for too long. The narrative shifts in time and place and we jump from character to character too frequently to engage with any of them fully. As an examination of the moral complexities of war and the choices people have to make to survive, it’s a thoughtful and insightful novel, but overall I found it a difficult one to fully engage with. The gratuitous sexual scenes, which don’t advance the narrative, I found distasteful and unnecessary. There’s some powerful writing here, and the scene-setting is atmospheric and vivid, but overall this wasn’t a novel I particularly enjoyed.

I read this novel some time ago, but had overlooked leaving a review. I love historical fiction, especially stories based around the WW2 and the Nazi Occupation. It is a story that I shall be reading again in the near future.

Well written and dealt with some very tricky issues however, it lost many points with me for that trope of the blank canvas young woman who helps male characters learn about themselves. It is one of my least favorite and thus poisoned the novel for me.