WWII Novel Must Read - The Women in the Castle

WWII Novel Must Read – The Women in the Castle

WWII Historical Fiction

If you have read any (or many) books dealing with WWII and the Holocaust, you have likely read from the victim’s perspective. My introduction to this time period was reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry when I was in upper elementary school.  Over the years I have read many other books from the French resistance, to the invasion of Poland; about people surviving the Siege of Leningrad, and about people who experienced concentration camps.

German perspective      

Jessica Shattuck’s The Women in the Castle looks at the time directly after the end of the war to explore how Germans could be complicit in this evil as well as resist it.  What made some Germans see the Nazi ideals as evil and how did some see them as progress for their country?

            It is easy to vilify the Nazis because they were, well, villains.  But it is often hard to separate that from the average, uneducated German citizen.  Jessica Shattuck proves that you aren’t either Nazi or hero, sometimes the Germans were captive of their own situation as well. To some Germans it seemed reasonable, if not admirable, to follow the Nazi’s ideals.  Things aren’t black or white but a very complicated gray.

 Women of WWII

            The Women in the Castle follows three widows of Nazi resisters.  Their husbands were involved in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.  In the unstable years following the war they live together with their children in an old castle trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and grapple with their decisions.  Marianne is the backbone of the group, a practical woman and a force to be reckoned with. Benita is the naive beauty who finds herself lost between understanding the world around her and knowing how to survive in it.  Ania is the quiet provider with an even quieter past.

Jessica Shattuck

            Jessica Shattuck has grappled with what it means to be part German for her whole life.  Her mother was born at the gruesome end of the war to parents who were Nazis.  The shame and inner turmoil of these decisions haunted her mother and Jessica in turn.  Her grandmother dealt with and came to terms with what had happened, even allowing Jessica to interview her to understand her perspective. The Women in the Castle is an outpouring of the complicated feelings and lives of the German people from a very personal place.

This is a crucial side to the story.  We must understand it in order to not find ourselves on the wrong side of history one day. 

Read this if…

·      you are an avid WWII reader.  You will find a refreshing look at the other side of the coin

·      you struggle with what makes something good or evil.  You will have a lot to think about.

·      you are dealing with friendships that are forming or absolving. You will see how bonds that form friendships are complicated and often rooted in survival

Keep an eye out for my list of greatest WWII novels – it will be coming soon!

Find The Women in the Castle on Amazon here

Hannah