Powerful and moving, this is a well-written and impeccably-researched book.

It's so refreshing to find a new angle on Second World War stories. Barbara Hummel hopes that an old photograph can lead her to the truth about her husband. Dora knows something - but she's reluctant to tell Barbara. What is she hiding? Barbara travels to Jersey, where she meets Joe and Geoffrey.

We're taken back over 40 years to wartime Jersey, under German occupation. A time of cruelty, fear and deprivation, of forced labour and cruel imprisonment. Dora, then living on Jersay, is the local midwife - and, secretly, Jewish. Geoffrey is a widower. Joe is a priest. Slowly, the backstory of these three people unspools. It's a tale of bravery and fear, of conformity and defience, and - over 40 years later - a tale none of the three wants Barbara to hear. They've suppressed their painful memories for too long.

Mary Chamberlain describes the horrors and paranoia of wartime Jersey convincingly without going over the top; the facts are brutal enough to speak for themselves and her style matches the suppressed emotion of the older trio perfectly. But her skill is in bringing out those emotions in a non-showy way, and making us feel for what they went through, as well as painting Barbara as a thoroughly relatable chracter. The ending isn't so much a wham-bang surprise, more an inevitability which unfurls gently, but it works well.

I thought this had a great storyline highlighting some of the horrors of WW2. I was initially drawn to it because in my range of WW2 readings I hadn’t yet read any based on one of The Channel Islands so this book was refreshing in that respect. The experiences of the characters held my attention however I did lose my interest a little in the middle but it picked up again and events tied together nicely at the end. I’m grateful to Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review in exchange for a digital copy. I will copy my review to Goodreads shortly but at present Netgalley is telling me it’s unable to find the ISBN.

EXCERPT: She was propelled down the stairs, tumbling, dragged. Shoved into a car. She could sense the two Feldgendarmen following, sitting either side of her. She was aware of their arms, the hard metal badge on their chests, aware of them making gestures.

The car was driving fast, tyres squealing as they rounded the corners, hitting the kerb stones as they went, throwing (her) against the Feldgendarmen. The car came to a halt, the door opened.

'Raus.'

They pulled her out. She could smell the sea, hear the breath of waves as they lapped against the stone. Gulls screeched above. She was still in town. Perhaps by the harbour, in the square in front of the Pomme d'Or. A Feldgendarmen grabbed her arm, marched her up the steps. The Pomme d'Or had no stairs. She caught the scent of jasmine through the mouldy hessian of her hood. Jasmine.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Dora, Joe, and Geoffrey are living out their retirement comfortably when their worlds are shattered by the arrival of Barbara Hummel, a young German anxious to track down the identity of a mysterious woman whose photograph she finds amongst her mother’s possessions.

As the truth of what happened under the
occupation begins to be revealed, the lives of Dora, a Jewish refugee, and Joe, a Catholic priest, begin to unravel in shocking and surprising ways. The consequences of the lives they lived under the Germans and the lies that followed
are as unexpected as they are devastating.

MY THOUGHTS: I was lulled into a false sense of security at the beginning of The Hidden. It was such a comfortable read that I wanted to move in with these people. Now? No thank you!

Mary Chamberlain has perfected the art of contrasting the everyday, the mundane, with the horrors of the war. She details great beauty and great cruelty with equal passion. She makes us fall in love with her main characters, both the 1940s versions, and the people that they become.

She has introduced me to aspects of the war of which I was previously unaware. The Hidden had me falling in love with Jersey, and crying at the atrocities that took place. I stayed up late last night, reading, and was late to work this morning because I lingered over this book. I read it at morning tea, taking myself off to a quiet corner, and finished it over lunch with tears trickling down my cheeks.

The Hidden is a book that I unreservedly recommend. It is written with a great depth of feeling and the subject has been well researched.

❤💜🧡💛

THE AUTHOR: Mary Chamberlain is a novelist and historian. Her book Fenwomen was the first book to be published by Virago Press in 1975. Since then, she has published six other works of history, and edited a further five. Her first novel, The Mighty Jester was published by Dr. Cicero Books in the US. Her British debut novel, The Dressmaker of Dachau was published by HarperCollins in the UK and, under the title The Dressmaker's War, by Random House in the USA. In all, it sold to 19 countries and was an international best-seller. Her last novel, The Hidden, was published by OneWorld Publications in February 2019. The Sunday Times listed it as their MUST READ choice of the best recent books in February 2019.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to One World Publications via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system, please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage

Thanks to NetGalley, Oneworld Publications and Mary Chamberlain for giving me a chance to read and review her new book: The Hidden.
I have read her previous book The Dressmaker Of Dachua and it's also called The Dressmakers War.

The Hidden: is a fictional story based around true facts about the German occupation of The Channel Islands during the second world war and how the island of Jersey was cut off from England for five years.
Jersey and the people who remained living there were completely isolated from the mainland from 1940 to 1945. They had to live with the German's controlling everything on the Island, they suffered terribly due to shortages of basic every day items such as food, medicine, new clothes, new shoes, bicycle tires and even soap!

The Hidden has a dual timeline that connects the past with the present time of 1985, it's a story about WW II, isolation, love, secrets, betrayal, trust., survival, humanity, shame and it's a very emotional book to read.

The story is based on three main characters living on the Island of Jersey during the second world war, Dora Simon is the local midwife, Joe O'Cleary is an unhappy Irish priest and Geoffrey Laurent an lonely widowed farmer.
They all of course knew each other, they all had issues from their pasts that they wanted to keep hidden and they found themselves caught up in a very unique situation during WW II and being stranded on Jersey. They had no idea who they could trust and they had to deal with the constant threat from the German soldiers who were looking to arrest anyone who broke the rules or hid their true heritage.

In 1985, Barbara Hummel is going through her deceased mothers Trude's things when she discovers some old photo's of a mystery woman with a German officer and they were taken during WW II on the island Jersey?
Her mother had always told her that her father died in the war but Barbara had always had her doubts about this being true? She has a feeling the mysterious woman in the photo might be able to help her find out the truth and she begins her search to discover who she is?

England 1985, Dora is contacted by Barbara and she also visits her, but she's very reluctant to tell her anything about her past, what happened to her during the war and especially about her Jewish heritage.
Barbara also travels to Jersey, she meets Joe who's living in a caravan on Geoffrey's land and he's taking care of the aging Geoffrey.

All three are connected by the past and are hiding what happened to them during the second world war on the island of Jersey. They don't want to talk about the terrible suffering they all experienced, it's a tragic story full of secrets. hardship and abuse.

I really enjoyed reading The Hidden by Mary Chamberlain, like her previous book it's a brilliant emotional world war two story and I gave her latest book 5 stars.

Thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review
The setting of this book in the wonderful channel islands starts off BRILLIANT good strong characters by the time you get to the middle its wearing a bit thin and rather an abrupt ending I think some if the middle could be cut as it was going over the same things and add a bit on at the end it had a great story line