This novel is both a love story and also a lesson that aims to show the parallels between the circumstances that allowed the rise of Hitler and the times we live in today.
It is written from the viewpoint of a German protagonist, Hetty Heinrich, a teenage girl, who lives in a pro Nazi German family and follows her relationship with a Jewish boy called Walter who saved her from drowning when she was younger.
Louise Fein creates very relatable characters, and their story is heartbreaking - even more so when you consider what happens to them could have happened to anyone at the time, and if we do not learn from history, could happen again. She writes beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

This novel is partly inspired by the life of the author’s father and his time in Leipzig. He was Jewish and lived under Nazi rule. She aims to show the similarity between these times and the western world inc the crash of 2008, the economic hardship of the 1920s and the rise of extremist views as a result of them both.

Instead of writing from the Jewish point of view, she decided to write from the German one:

“How could a people, a deeply civilsed, democratic nation, become so unbelievably cruel; to dehumanize one another and commit atrocities on such an unimaginable scale?"

She visited Leipzig and particular the area of Gohlis where her father and his family had lived. When you read the story you really get a sense of how personal this must have been for her. It's a shocking story but very interesting to get inside the head of a Nazi in this way. Events unfold and are all the more shocking for how normal it all started and how it all panned out without anyone really doing anything to stop it. Brainwashing and being swept along with it all - now that is a dangerous thing for any people, any country to do, but are we learning from history? Recent events would suggest not, and the author touches upon this in her author's note a t the end.

I felt his was a real honour to read as there was blood, sweat and tears on each and every page. What a story and a lyrical way of writing it. This was a very unique view of the Nazi war story and I would recommend this for a fresh look on something we think we all know about inside out.