The Women in the Castle
Jessica Shattuck
One reason I love reading historical fiction is that the challenges of the setting and time period come alive when they are the experiences of characters I relate to, and this book is a great example! In it, Marianne von Lingenfels gathers up the fellow widows of German resistance members, and sets up a family of sorts in a ruined Bavarian castle. She imagines they are of like minds and will move forward united, but the opposite proves to be true—these three strong German women, each of whom has had different connections with the events of World War II, have to come to terms with their own pasts, the aftermath of the war, and the unexpected new world and lives that await them. I highly recommend this beautifully imagined and evocative novel (which will soon become a movie starring Daisy Ridley).
ANN GLUSKER
Sociology, Demography, & Quantitative Research Librarian
Doe Library
This book is part of the 2021 Berkeley Summer Reading List. View this book on Overdrive. Stay tuned for more weekly posts!