By Rhidian Brook
Vintage, 2014. 352 pgs. Historical fiction.
This novel takes place in Hamburg after Work War II. The plot follows Colonel Lewis Morgan as he tries to make a home for his wife and child as the British army rebuilds the city. Morgan decides to allow the family that owns the home to stay, where procedure usually forces the family out. The Hamburg that Brook has built is completely destroyed and pitiful with homeless children begging for food, the people that have stayed to clean up rubble for food vouchers, and the British soldiers that have been brought in to "help". The two families being blended is the main source of the strife and the grief they are all experiencing is for different reasons but is just as sad and lonely.
This was a great historical novel with a different viewpoint. I see few books that are after the War or told from a rebuilding stand point. The idea that these two families have to learn to live together in a devastated city, as well set aside the very differences that ruined the city, makes for a tense read. Each character had a story to tell and the author does a great job telling it.
EW
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