Synopses & Reviews
Whom do you trust, whom do you love, and who can be saved?
It is 1943—the height of the Second World War—and Berlin has essentially become a city of women.
Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.
But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets.
A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit. A young woman doing her duty-year is out of excuses before Sigrid can even ask her any questions. And then there’s the blind man selling pencils on the corner, whose eyes Sigrid can feel following her from behind the darkness of his goggles.
Soon Sigrid is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.
In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death.
Review
“David Gillham’s excellent new novel, City of Women, is built on one of the most extraordinary and faithful re-creations of a time in history—Berlin in World War II—that I’ve ever read.” —Alan Furst, New York Times–bestselling author of Spies of the Balkans
Review
“In this moving and masterful debut, David Gillham brings war-torn Berlin to life and reveals the extraordinary mettle of women tested to their limits and beyond. Powerful and piercingly real. You won’t soon forget these characters.” —Paula McLain, New York Times–bestselling author of The Paris Wife
Review
“Haunting and sensual, City of Women is a story of survival, of the unfathomable choices made and consequences suffered by those pushed to the brink. David Gillham has depicted a little-known aspect of the war with humanity and grace.” —Pam Jenoff, internationally bestselling author of The Things We Cherished
Review
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Review
“If you enjoy beautiful story telling, gripping suspense, and a distractingly romantic plot, this is the book for you! An exciting, page turning read!” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times–bestselling author of The Kitchen House
Review
“City of Women is a big, brilliant, passionate book, a masterful evocation of Hitler’s Berlin in all its claustrophobia, duplicity, and fear. This is a thriller of searing intensity. . . . I found it utterly compelling.” —Margaret Leroy, New York Times–bestselling author of The Soldier’s Wife
Review
“. . . Philip Kerr and Alan Furst have outdone their literary counterparts. Now, with his first novel,
City of Women, David R. Gillham joins their rank.” —
USA TodayReview
“Gillham's debut novel is a meticulously researched and beautifully told love story—and a remarkable look at life in Germany during World War II.” —
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Review
"You haven't experienced such gray skies since season 1 of
The Killing, but the feel is all
Casablanca. I can't wait for Gillham's next novel—play it again, Sam." —Stephen King
"The writing is a great mix of the literary and commercial, page-turning and suspenseful, with a morally complex, intelligent heroine at its center. If youre a fan of well-written historical novels in the vein of Ann Patchetts Bel Canto, this one is for you."--Slate
“If you enjoy beautiful storytelling, gripping suspense, and distractingly romantic plot, this is the book for you! An exciting page-turning read!”—Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen House
“A thriller of searing intensity that asks the most urgent of questions—how to love, who to trust, what can be saved in the very darkest of times. I found it utterly compelling.” —Margaret Leroy, New York Times bestselling author of The Soldiers Wife
“In this moving and masterful debut, David Gillham brings war-torn Berlin to life and reveals the extraordinary mettle of women tested to their limits and beyond. Powerful and piercingly real. You wont soon forget these characters.”—Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife
“[A] stunning debut . . . Transcendent prose.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“As impossible to put down as it is to forget.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A terrifically tense first novel."—The Times
Review
andldquo;If you enjoy beautiful storytelling, gripping suspense, and distractingly romantic plot, this is the book for you! An exciting page-turning read!andrdquo;andmdash;Kathleen Grissom,
New York Times bestselling author of
The Kitchen House andldquo;A thriller of searing intensity that asks the most urgent of questionsandmdash;how to love, who to trust, what can be saved in the very darkest of times. I found it utterly compelling.andrdquo; andmdash;Margaret Leroy, New York Times bestselling author of The Soldierandrsquo;s Wife
andldquo;In this moving and masterful debut, David Gillham brings war-torn Berlin to life and reveals the extraordinary mettle of women tested to their limits and beyond. Powerful and piercingly real. You wonandrsquo;t soon forget these characters.andrdquo;andmdash;Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife
andldquo;[A] stunning debut . . . Transcendent prose.andrdquo;andmdash;Publishers Weekly (starred review)
andldquo;As impossible to put down as it is to forget.andrdquo;andmdash;Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
One of Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Books of 2012
Review
“Page-turning and suspenseful, with a morally complex, intelligent heroine…If youre a fan of well-written historical novels in the vein of Ann Patchetts Bel Canto, this one is for you.”—Slate
Review
"The latest from Just (Rodins Debutante, 2010, etc.) considers the toll that a life lived upon the great stage of international politics can take on a man of substance.
Harry Sanders is from a family of Connecticut liberals, the moneyed FDR types, those with Marsden Hartley paintings, Killim rugs and Regency tables at which congressional representatives, generals and financiers dine and debate. In the period before American troops arrive en masse, Harry serves with the State Department in Vietnam. Not yet 30, Harrys asked to undertake a not-quite-official mission. It goes awry. Mired in disinformation, Harrys stranded in the jungle, injured, forced to kill. Once the "war turned into an ironists feast, a smorgasbord of contradictions and false hopes," Harry becomes damaged goods, but State owes him, and so comes a lifetime of assignments to Paraguay, Africa, Norway. Theres a comfortable, even loving, marriage to May, but Harry forever remembers Sieglinde, a German woman with whom he had an affair in Saigon. May is warm and welcoming, though never quite of a place, forever shadowed. Sieglinde is haunted by World War II's bloodletting and by Germanys history. Minor characters, especially Harrys ambassador mentor, fascinate and shine with veracity. The narrative follows Harry, albeit with a significant but short detour with Sieglinde (an episode where her character is broadened). Just writes without quotation marks, but the narratives beautifully descriptive story is easily parsed, growing especially intense when Harry is trapped in the jungle and later when he is assaulted by grief. Just offers instances of wry, sardonic observation—as when Harry dismisses Che Guevara as a motivator of female Viet Cong—while also delivering striking imagery, exampled by his description of the jungle as wearing "the tortured face of one of El Grecos saints. A godforsaken face, morose and resigned." Just is sometimes cynical in his appreciation of diplomacy and existential in regard to God, but Harry, as much a realist as a romantic, is a man astride the American century.
Another brilliant novel from Just: wise, introspective and full of humanity."--Kirkus
"Justs 18th novel (after Rodins Debutante) tells the sensitive, elegant stories of a young, desperately naïve American foreign service officer and the two women who love him. Harry Sanders is a low-level diplomat with the U.S. embassy in Saigon in the early 1960s. Its an exotic posting for a young bachelor, with the excitement of an emerging guerrilla war and the passion of a beautiful, restless German girlfriend, Sieglinde. Harrys budding career, however, takes a fatal turn when he is duped into a secret, unsanctioned negotiation with the North Vietnamese and his actions come back to haunt him. Years later, Harry marries May, and she follows him through 30 years of global postings and ambassadorships, during which time Harrys early career idealism becomes cynical posturing. And although he loves his wife, he cannot forget Sieglinde. In his work, he struggles to justify American interference in other countries affairs, while in his personal life, he is torn between his feelings for the two women. Only after he retires does Harry finally understand something about his life. Justs clever plot reveals a man conflicted by duty and loyalty, adroitly playing the State Department career game, but always wondering what might have happened if he had just made one or two different choices in his life. Its also a fascinating portrayal of American embassy operations and the treacherous shoals of international diplomacy and duplicity."--Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
"Justs writing in American Romantic is so good it makes any writer jealous...American Romantic is the cats meow as it moves to a surprise ending."--Buffalo News
"If Ward Just were a painter, he might be a figurative artist like Stone Roberts, whose Old Masterly polish gives his contemporary images a spooky resonance. "American Romantic," Mr. Just's 18th novel over four decades, is an excursion into the near past—this time, the early days of the war in Vietnam—that leads to wise and elegiac recognition of the fading of American confidence and competence in ordering an unruly world."--Wall Street Journal
Synopsis
It is 1943—the height of the Second World War. With the men taken by the army, Berlin has become a city of women. And while her husband fights on the Eastern Front, Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.
But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former Jewish lover, who is now lost in the chaos of the war.
Sigrid’s tedious existence is turned upside down when she finds herself hiding a mother and her two young daughters—whom she believes might be her lover’s family—and she must make terrifying choices that could cost her everything.
Synopsis
Who do you trust, who do you love, and who can be saved?
It is 1943—the height of the Second World War—and Berlin has essentially become a city of women.
Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model German soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. Her lover is a Jew.
But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets.
A high ranking SS officer and his family move down the hall and Sigrid finds herself pulled into their orbit. A young woman doing her duty-year is out of excuses before Sigrid can even ask her any questions. And then there’s the blind man selling pencils on the corner, whose eyes Sigrid can feel following her from behind the darkness of his goggles.
Soon Sigrid is embroiled in a world she knew nothing about, and as her eyes open to the reality around her, the carefully constructed fortress of solitude she has built over the years begins to collapse. She must choose to act on what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two.
In this page-turning novel, David Gillham explores what happens to ordinary people thrust into extraordinary times, and how the choices they make can be the difference between life and death.
Synopsis
A
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND ONE OF
KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
It is 1943the height of the Second World War. With the men away at the front, Berlin has become a city of women.
On the surface, Sigrid Schröder is the model German soldiers wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.
But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman of passion who dreams of her former Jewish lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. But Sigrid is not the only one with secretsshe soon finds herself caught between what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two . . .
READERS GUIDE INSIDE
Synopsis
ONE OFand#160;
KIRKUS REVIEWS'and#160;
BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
It is 1943and#151;the height of the Second World War. With the men away at the front, Berlin has become a city of women.
On the surface, Sigrid Schrand#246;der is the model German soldierand#8217;s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.
But behind this faand#231;ade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman of passion who dreams of her former Jewish lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. But Sigrid is not the only one with secretsand#151;she soon finds herself caught between what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two . . .
READERS GUIDE INSIDE
Synopsis
ONE OFand#160;
KIRKUS REVIEWS'and#160;
BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
It is 1943and#151;the height of the Second World War. With the men away at the front, Berlin has become a city of women.
On the surface, Sigrid Schrand#246;der is the model German soldierand#8217;s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.
But behind this faand#231;ade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman of passion who dreams of her former Jewish lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. But Sigrid is not the only one with secretsand#151;she soon finds herself caught between what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two . . .
READERS GUIDE INSIDE
Synopsis
From American master Ward Just, returning to his trademark territory of
Forgetfulness and
The Weather in Berlin, an evocative portrait of diplomacy and desire set against the backdrop of America's first lost war
Synopsis
Harry Sanders is a young foreign service officer in 1960s Indochina when a dangerous and clandestine meeting with insurgents—ending in quiet disaster—and a brief but passionate encounter with Sieglinde, a young German woman, alter the course of his life.
Absorbing the impact of his misstep, Harry returns briefly to Washington before eventual assignments in Africa, Scandinavia, and the Mediterranean. He marries the captivating May, who is fleeing her own family disappointments in worn-out upper New England and looking for an escape into Harrys diplomatic life. On the surface, they are a handsome, successful couple—but the memory of Sieglinde persists in Harrys thoughts, and May has her own secrets too. As Harry navigates the increasingly treacherous waters of diplomacy in an age of interminable conflict, he also tries to bridge the distances between himself and the two alluring women who have chosen to love him.
Ward Just, returning to his trademark territory of Forgetfulness and The Weather in Berlin, delivers an utterly compelling story of Americans trying to run the world, yet failing to master their lives.
About the Author
WARD JUST's seventeen previous novels include Exiles in the Garden, Forgetfulness, the National Book Award finalist Echo House, A Dangerous Friend, winner of the Cooper Prize for fiction from the Society of American Historians, and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award and a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.