THE WOMEN IN THE CASTLE by Jessica Shattuck

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

A story not of WW2, but of what the war left behind. A group of German officers plotted against Hitler and were executed, including Marianne’s husband, Albrecht, and her beloved friend, Connie. The war ends and Marianne fulfills her vow to Connie by finding his victimized, but shallow widow, Benita, and their son Martin. Marianne, Benita and Martin try to make a new life at a decrepit, rural property from Albrecht’s family. They take on a third widow of the resisters, Ania, who adds a calming dynamic to the household. An absorbing tale with plot twists, and discoveries of atrocities in post-war, apocalyptic Germany. Perhaps the strength of the story is the complicated picture of post-war Germany that emerges as the women encounter survivors, some consumed by guilt, others steeped with bitterness over the loss of a powerful patriotic German identity branded by the Nazis, and yet others reduced to desperation.