Books set in WWII Germany tend to fascinate me. That whole time period and the challenges for folks are beyond my imagination. This book, Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum, does an excellent job of going back and forth in time to study two women whose lives were greatly affected by the war.
back blurb - For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer. Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
The twists and turns in Those Who Save Us are profound. Anna's strength and survival instincts are unearthly. She did anything and everything to keep her daughter safe and alive. And she kept her daughter's official paternity a secret - something that was tough to swallow but necessary in a crazy world gone mad.
This was a solid read with strong characters and narrative. What can one endure to survive?
