I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was invested in the characters straight away, I found it a quick read as I was so keen to find out how the story panned out. Fanstastic writing style, very emotive, great female characters, a brilliant example of historical fiction.

I have not read anything by Josie Ferguson previously. The writing reminds me of the work of Mandy Robotham, which I love. I was interested to realise on completing the book, that this is based on a true story. Briefly put, a mother has a baby in a hospital on the West side of Berlin. She has to leave him in hospital and return home to the east. Overnight the Berlin wall is erected. The parents cannot reach their son but his teenage sister is determined to cross over and bring him back. The rest is the completion of the story and for you to find out. Just one give away, there are twists in the story. This will make an excellent film or TV series. I hope that it is made. An interesting and page turner of a book.

The Silence In Between is a dual timeline story. In 1961, Lisette takes her sick baby to a West Berlin hospital for treatment. She returns to her home in the East of the city to wash, change clothes and have some sleep, and the next morning she wakes to find the Wall has been erected overnight. She can’t go back for her baby. This traumatic event causes her to lose her voice - which takes her back to the war and the last time she lost her voice.

Lisette lived in Berlin with her mother, and during the last days of WW2, she experienced what many women did at the hands of the Russians. This is brutal, and explains a lot about why Lisette is the mother she is to her daughter Elly.

Elly knows that the only way to make her mother happy is to get the baby back - no matter the cost. She’s a brave, resourceful young woman, who takes death defying risks for her mother.

There’s a lot of hope in this book of survival and loss. Elly is a symbol of determination - she never gives up, and her family is at the heart of all her actions.

The two female characters, mother and daughter, are exceptional women. The history behind their lives has been well researched and is believable, and their story has stayed with me well after finishing this book.

Highly recommended.

I LOVED it! In the heart of divided Berlin, The Silence in Between, weaves a poignant narrative that spans the tumultuous 1940s and the tense 1960s. This gripping story intricately explores the lives of Lisette and her daughter, Elly, against the backdrop of war-torn Germany and the Cold War era.
Ferguson crafts a compelling story filled with well-developed characters that invite readers into a world of fear, uncertainty, and the longing for connection. Lisette's journey is one of a woman caught in the throes of circumstance, while Elly's narrative is that of a young girl searching for familial bonds in a city literally and metaphorically divided by a wall.
What sets this novel apart for me is its emotional depth. The historical context provides a fascinating setting, but it is the unyielding bond between mother and daughter that truly captivates. Ferguson skillfully balances the dark shadows of history with glimmers of hope and resilience, illustrating the enduring strength of family ties and the human spirit.
For fans of historical fiction rich with emotional complexity, The Silence in Between offers a profound reminder of the unbreakable connections that define our lives, even amidst the harshest of divides.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy, all opinions are my own.

As a big fan of historical fiction, I was really excited by the premise of this book and it did not disappoint! The book breaks your heart from the opening chapter and the tension is sustained throughout. A really powerful read!

In 1961 Lisette leaves her baby in hospital overnight intending to come back the following morning. But overnight the Berlin border is closed and she is unable to cross to the west, where the hospital is. Her daughter, Elly, always knowing there was a distance between them sees her mother shut down with the loss of her son. So she makes a plan to get to the west to bring her baby brother home. The other half of the story is from World War 2 in Berlin, and how Lisette and her mother survived it and the horrendous aftermath of the Rape of Berlin, when the revenge of the Russians was taken against the civilian female population. Historical fiction using real events. This is a dual timeline story, both as powerful as each other. Very well written, hard to put down.

What a rollercoasters story and so beautifully told. It has to be a must read for everyone interested in the social history of Germany in the fourties' and sixties in the divided Berlin.

The book focuses on Lisette and her daughter Elly two very musical and talented young women. The story is told on two timelines about their life growing up in Berlin during the fourties’ and the sixties when the wall went up.
How it shaped and altered their lives, dealing with adversity and trauma and the effects of it.

I loved it.

Adored this so much. Beautifully written and brilliantly plotted. Exposed a part of history I wasn't really aware of and it's so deftly done. Highly recommended.

The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson is an historical fiction book, about Germany in the Second World War and the time afterwards. For those living in Berlin, there is the Rape of Berlin 1945, when the Russian soldiers entered Berlin and then there is the Berlin Wall, 13th August 1961 and then finally the wall coming down, 9th November 1989.
This is a debut book by the author and it is a very powerful novel about the women in one family who lived through those hard times. In their piano playing the women have a voice and then in Lisette case, that voice is taken away literally, when she is unable to speak.
An emotive novel with strong female characters who lived through a part of history that is no more.
Highly recommended

This started off well. A woman has to leave her baby in hospital while they run some tests. she returns home, fall asleep and the Berlin border is closed while she sleeps. She is in the east, her baby in the west. I was enjoying the premise and recommended it to a fellow bookworm who happened to be traveling to Berlin.

Unfortunately, for me, the book went down hill quite rapidly. I found the writing clunky, the two time lines annoying and by the second half of the book Elly and feeling the music of other people just got on my nerves.

Not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

A stunningly well researched, emotionally aching book, about the devastating impact of German's history; WWII, the holocaust and division of the counyry by the Berlin Wall on individuals and families lives.

The strength of the two female characters, mother and daughter, was truely inspiring.

Definitely a brilliant read for those that love recent historical writing & a string character study. A stunning debut, will read anything they write in the future.

I couldn't put this one down and read it over a weekend. Engaging Characters and writing. Recommended 5 star read.

Imagine waking up and a wall has divided your city in two. Imagine that on the other side is your child..

In post war Berlin Lisette is on one side of the wall with her husband, 15 year old daughter Elly and dementia suffering mother, on the other side is her newborn son in hospital with a heart condition

The story moves between the perspectives of Lisette and Elly, and as we go back in time we discover the reason for their strained relationship

I love historical fiction, especially WW2 but it’s been a while since I’ve read one this good! It was really interesting to hear from the point of view of the German citizens, and the repercussions felt by them at the end of the war.

Can certainly see why this has been so popular and very pleased to say that for me it lived up to the hype.

The Silence In Between by Josie Ferguson resonates through the heart and soul. I am a GenXr, I remember when the Berlin Wall came down, I remember the lessons in school about the Eastern bloc and the wall going up, but this, this is a heart-rending story of the human experience of living divided by the wall


This is a debut, but in no way shape or form would I have believed it unless I had seen it in writing. This title is gripping, heart-rending, compelling and with a narrative that will keep you hooked start to finish

Imagine being seperated from your newborn. Imagine being seperated by your home being cleaved in two due to a political regime. Imagine a no-mans land of barbed wire monitored 24/7 by armed soldiers. To try to cross means to not reach the other side alive

In a stunning narrative of two sides of a wall, two completely different worlds less than a mile apart. One standing still in time, one moving forward with the rest of Europe. Will the families ever reunite?

Absolutely brilliant

Thank you to NetGalley , Random House UK, Transworld Publishers | Doubleday and Josie Ferguson for this incredible ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

It’s difficult to review the book. It’s the kind that stays with you long after it’s been read. All I can say is read it, you will learn things you never knew and be changed as a result

This book was right up my street. I’ve not read much about Germany and the era of the Berlin Wall and it’s just harrowing - having a young son myself, I couldn’t even imagine the pain and anguish these parents went through being separated from their children. The fractured relationship between Elly and her mother is a theme that runs throughout this story, and the development between them is actually quite beautiful. This story was very well researched, and filled with bravery, despair, tragedy and hope. It’s a great debut novel and I’d highly recommend it.

A truly interesting exploration of a fractured past. Beautifully written and the choice of timing and situation for the plot only deepened the despair of the moment.

A fantastic historical novel showing the reality of living in East Germany for women during and after WWII
Beautifully written - it’s a harrowing, powerful, emotional debut read, showing the strength and resilience of these women
It’s told from two perspectives across two timelines (WWII & 1961)
It shows the shared guilt of many German citiziens during and after the war - “we did nothing and in doing nothing, we gave our consent”
Loved how music played such an unique strand to the story - that everyone has their own personal song who reveals who they are
“Mozart said that music is not in the notes but in the silence in between. I think that’s where our souls are - hidden in that silence”
Thank you @josie_fergusonauthor @doubledaybooks & @netgalley for the amazing debut historical read - one of my 5 star reads for 2024

I was completely hooked on this book. It is a thoughtful and well balanced examination of the life of an ordinary family in Berlin, both during and after WWII. The author does not shy away from the culpability of the German population , either by supporting the nazis or, at best, looking the other way in a denial of what was happening. However, the plight of the women left behind to suffer at the hands of the occupying forces is also laid bare. The numbers of women raped by victorious armies are appalling and, as a weapon of war, it seems never ending. Having visited Berlin, it's hard to imagine the terror and despair felt when the wall went up almost overnight. How was it allowed to happen? 'To the Victor's, come the spoils' but at what cost to ordinary men women and children?

This sensational debut perfectly illustrates why I enjoy historical fiction so much: because it uncovers truths that you won’t find discussed in regular history books. And because it highlights the stories of ordinary people, who are often ignored in official accounts, but whose experiences are the most valid of all.

Set in post-war Berlin, The Silence In Between is the story of mother Lisette, her teenage daughter Elly, and hospitalized baby brother Axel, who is separated from his family when, overnight in August 1961, the Berlin Wall goes up, dividing the city in two.

While the shock renders Lisette mute, Elly resolves to find a way, despite the many dangers, to recover Axel and bring him home.

What follows is an emotionally resonant, vividly evoked story of resilience, courage, and the legacy of war. It makes for haunting reading, as shocking as it is inspiring. And it raises a multitude of questions: about human brutality, about the shame and guilt of complicity through inaction, and about the thick, weighty silence of traumas that can never be spoken aloud.

In Lisette and Elly, author Josie Ferguson has given us not one but two extraordinary female protagonists, each endowed with a voice that echoes plaintively down the decades; Elly’s from 1961, and Lisette’s from WWII and the hell hole that was East Berlin under Russian occupation

From the beginning, we know there’s a void between Lisette and Elly; a sense in Elly of her mother being emotionally distant. It’s why she so desperately wants to bring Axel home; to gain Lisette’s love and approval.

It is this intrigue, tantalizingly played out, that forms the backbone of Ferguson’s multilayered narrative; finally exploding in a horrific, unforgettable scene, where everything falls neatly into place.

Ultimately, this story is a tribute to the unbreakable bonds of family, the healing capacity of love, and the power of both combined to overcome the worst kind of trauma. I loved it.