Historical Fiction -- 5 stars
In a remote area of East Prussia, two farmer families greet Hitler's reign with enthusiasm. Untouched for much of the war, they will learn how very wrong they were. An unusual look at this period in history, this novel touches only peripherally on Nazism and the Holocaust, instead focusing on two very ordinary families who fell under Hitler's hypnotic persona, and paid the price. ----- In some ways, I was reminded of Chris Bohjalian's "Skeletons at the Feast" in that much of the book deals with the end of WWII and the cost of Germany's defeat for ordinary people, though Ms. Segovia's story seems more personal due to the amount of time she spends introducing the characters and their family dynamics. Her effort makes it easy to view their plight sympathetically even while hating the German leadership they originally welcomed with open arms. Ms. Segovia does not sugarcoat the sacrifices made by these families, especially the mothers, to see their children survive. It is a bold, unflinching look at the ugly end of the Third Reich.
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