*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.
Title: The German Child
Author: Catherine Hokin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★
Berlin, 1944.
‘No! Not my child!’ Annaliese screams, her voice breaking as she pounds the
window uselessly. But no-one looks up as the man in the SS uniform cradles her
precious baby and strides away…
She lies unmoving on the threadbare cot, her throat hoarse
from long hours of screaming but her tears keep falling. Her heart has been
cleaved in two, now the Nazis have taken the only thing she has left – her
child. She is utterly powerless against them. But as Annaliese cries herself to
sleep, she makes a vow - she will find her precious baby again.
Whatever it takes.
Berlin, 1979. Lawyer Evie has come to the city to
investigate the horrifying stories of infants torn from their mothers during
the war. One of the cases is Sebastian,
whose yellowing birth certificate tells a heartbreaking tale. Evie is drawn to
this lost man, and vows to do all that she can to help him.
But poring through old records, it is Evie who recognises
the faded photo in a newspaper article. Her heart stops as she realises her
whole life has been a devastating lie – and that her and Sebastian’s pasts are
impossibly, unimaginably connected…
The German Child
is the latest novel from historical fiction author Catherine Hokin.
The story is told
through a dual-timeline narrative, switching between chapters set in the USA in
1979/80 and chapters set in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War Two (WW2). In
1979/80, we follow Washington-based lawyer Evie as she investigates the
Nazi Lebensborn programme on behalf of the newly formed Office of Special
Investigations (OSI). I do find the work of the OSI and the history surrounding
the number of former Nazis and their collaborators who ended up in the United
States after the war to be truly fascinating so it was great to see this explored
through historical fiction. The chapters set in the 1940s then supplement the
information we’ve learnt through Evie’s investigating, in particular exploring
life in the Lebensborn homes and the work of the notorious Brown Sisters who
searched through villages and towns in Nazi-occupied countries looking for
Aryan-looking children to kidnap and place in the homes of loyal Nazis.
I want to split
my review into two sections, one focusing on the 1979/1980 timeline and one
focusing on the WW2 timeline as I have vastly different views on each one.
To start with I
will discuss the WW2 timeline, which was by far my favourite part of the story.
The history was clearly very well researched and the compelling writing
really captures your emotions as a reader and takes you on a heart-wrenching
journey. Catherine
Hokin does writes antagonists incredibly well and the character of Helene was a
truly vile piece of work who made my blood boil whenever she appeared. The
opening chapters set in WW2 were really powerful and hooked me into the story
so I was disappointed when this interest was lost as the story progressed, for
reasons I’ll explore below.
Unfortunately, the
1979/1980 timeline really let the rest of the book down for me. The chapters were
quite try and slowly paced and I found myself longing to be back in the WW2 timeline.
Evie felt quite unlikeable as a protagonist unfortunately, and don’t get me
started on her beyond infuriating behaviour when they visited East Germany. Within this part
of the narrative, we have a blossoming romance between Evie and Sebastian and I
will say that unfortunately this was not an aspect of the book I enjoyed. Their
romance felt quite forced and out of place against the rest of the story which
did mean that it at times felt like it was taking away from the rest of the
narrative.
At the forefront of focus
in this later timeline is a big ‘twist’ regarding the connection between Evie and Sebastian
but I found this to be very predictable from very early on in the story, as
were many of the other twists. I did find that having predicted it so early on meant
that the shock factor which gripped other readers to the story just wasn’t
there for me unfortunately. But I will say that based on other reviews I’ve
read of The German Child I do seem to be in the minority here.
It felt a real shame
that so much of the book focused on the 1979/1980 timeline as it would have
been better to structure the book in a way which focused on the more
interesting WW2 timeline with then supplementary chapters set in 1979/1980 as
Evie completes her investigation. Focusing so heavily on the 1979/1980 timeline
meant that certain
aspects of the WW2 story also weren’t explored in the depth I was craving. This
is particularly true with Annaliese’s story as, despite her being implied as a main
character in the book synopsis and playing such a significant role in the plot,
we do see very little from her.
It's been a while
since I’ve read a book I’ve had such mixed feelings about and it has taken me a
week or so to process my thoughts enough to determine a fitting star rating. I
was incredibly torn as for me the WW2 timeline gave the book real 5* potential but
the other chapters really tarnished this rating and reduced it to a 3* read.
That being said, I do think The German Child would be good for readers who like historical fiction but want something different to your typical Second World War fiction books and are interested in a read which is predominately set in the 1970s/80s.
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