Author: Jennifer Cody Epstein
Genre: Historical Fiction - WWII
Type: e-book
Source: publisher via NetGalley
Publisher: Crown Publishing
First Published: April 23, 2019
Opening Lines: "1989 - She sits in a sea of tangled sheets and blankets, amid the white crests of packing peanuts and age-curled pages of letters pri3ed from their envelopes with increasing feverishness."
Book Description from GoodReads: An intimate portrait of a friendship severed by history, and a sweeping saga of wartime, motherhood, and legacy by an award-winning novelist
East Village, 1989
Things had never been easy between Ava Fisher and her estranged mother Ilse. Too many questions hovered between them: Who was Ava's father? Where had Ilse been during the war? Why had she left her only child in a German orphanage during the war's final months? But now Ilse's ashes have arrived from Germany, and with them, a trove of unsent letters addressed to someone else unknown to Ava: Renate Bauer, a childhood friend. As her mother's letters unfurl a dark past, Ava spirals deep into the shocking history of a woman she never truly knew.
Things had never been easy between Ava Fisher and her estranged mother Ilse. Too many questions hovered between them: Who was Ava's father? Where had Ilse been during the war? Why had she left her only child in a German orphanage during the war's final months? But now Ilse's ashes have arrived from Germany, and with them, a trove of unsent letters addressed to someone else unknown to Ava: Renate Bauer, a childhood friend. As her mother's letters unfurl a dark past, Ava spirals deep into the shocking history of a woman she never truly knew.
Berlin, 1933
As the Nazi party tightens its grip on the city, Ilse and Renate find their friendship under siege--and Ilse's increasing involvement in the Hitler Youth movement leaves them on opposing sides of the gathering storm. Then the Nuremburg Laws force Renate to confront a long-buried past, and a catastrophic betrayal is set in motion...
As the Nazi party tightens its grip on the city, Ilse and Renate find their friendship under siege--and Ilse's increasing involvement in the Hitler Youth movement leaves them on opposing sides of the gathering storm. Then the Nuremburg Laws force Renate to confront a long-buried past, and a catastrophic betrayal is set in motion...
An unflinching exploration of Nazi Germany and its legacy, Wunderland is a at once a powerful portrait of an unspeakable crime history and a page-turning contemplation of womanhood, wartime, and just how far we might go in order to belong.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
My Review: Wunderland is a Historical Fiction page-turner that brings readers into the lives of two teenage friends, Ilse and Renate, who have vastly different perspectives and experiences during World War II.
The story begins in 1989, shortly after Ilse's death, when her daughter, Ava unearths Ilse's long-held secrets. The story then heads back in time, to Berlin in the late 1930's when Ilse and her best friend Renate are teenagers. It's through the bond of these two young women that we get varying views of the war and witness the disintegration of their friendship and the reasons for it.
What made this book stand out from the many, MANY WWII Historical Fiction books I've read, is how Epstein vividly describes what life was like for German citizens leading up to and including WWII. She describes the rise of the Nazi regime and their horrific methods of growing their power and shows how some German citizens began to believe the propaganda and felt justified when they participated in fear mongering and terror of their own neighbours. She also reveals the dire restrictions, discrimination and abuse Jewish families faced from their own government as well as the pitiful aid from other countries as they tried to flee.
While there's a fair bit of jumping back and forth between time lines (and one that I was less invested in), in the end, Wunderland is an engaging read with story lines that merge into an incredibly revealing look at the rise of Nazism within Germany. But ultimately, the focus on the poignant, heart-wrenching tale about a complicated friendship, long-held secrets, loss and betrayal is what will keep readers glued to the pages.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Crown Publishing for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
The story begins in 1989, shortly after Ilse's death, when her daughter, Ava unearths Ilse's long-held secrets. The story then heads back in time, to Berlin in the late 1930's when Ilse and her best friend Renate are teenagers. It's through the bond of these two young women that we get varying views of the war and witness the disintegration of their friendship and the reasons for it.
What made this book stand out from the many, MANY WWII Historical Fiction books I've read, is how Epstein vividly describes what life was like for German citizens leading up to and including WWII. She describes the rise of the Nazi regime and their horrific methods of growing their power and shows how some German citizens began to believe the propaganda and felt justified when they participated in fear mongering and terror of their own neighbours. She also reveals the dire restrictions, discrimination and abuse Jewish families faced from their own government as well as the pitiful aid from other countries as they tried to flee.
While there's a fair bit of jumping back and forth between time lines (and one that I was less invested in), in the end, Wunderland is an engaging read with story lines that merge into an incredibly revealing look at the rise of Nazism within Germany. But ultimately, the focus on the poignant, heart-wrenching tale about a complicated friendship, long-held secrets, loss and betrayal is what will keep readers glued to the pages.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Crown Publishing for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
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