This is a very clever book, largely based on real life, about a middle aged psychotherapist with dual English (by marriage) & German (by birth) nationality.. she is looking back at her mother’s life at the same time reflecting on her own. Her mother’s life, post war, is also a reflection of Nazi Germany and how things weren’t discussed.
It’s an interesting read but I didn’t have any empathy for the characters - maybe I wasn’t supposed to? It is an important read though so I do recommend it.

Annette Byford’s autofictional debut novel has a quiet strength I always love and appreciate when it comes to this particular genre: it is subtle but emotional without falling into the trap of pretension.

Our narrator, a German expat and therapist in present-day England tells us the story of her mother in post-war Germany. The quiet, reflective prose shows both women in an intimate light, highlighting the complicated feelings the daughter has towards her mother and her decisions as a young woman in post-war Germany. We see her through her daughter’s eyes, she is the storyteller who tries to put the pieces together after her mother’s passing.

The dual timeline structure works almost perfectly - Byford is precise when it comes to the balance between past and present. She travels with us back in time and tries to figure out who her mother really was.

I really enjoyed the historical fiction elements of the story, how ordinary people managed to go on with their lives after the war, how they tried to bring back normalcy to their world when nothing was remotely normal.

We have a long-kept family secret, collective and individual grief and an emphasis on peeling the layers of the story gradually. The reading experience was almost like a therapy session to me and I kept thinking about the non-linearity of healing, the level of vulnerability it takes to tell your story to a complete stranger.

Take your time with this one, it will be worth it.