Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada, January 10th, 2023

Format: ebook

Pages: 368

Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Four generations of women experience love, loss, war, and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of The German Girl.

Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. As the Nazis rise to power, Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her against Hitler’s deadly ideology of Aryan purity. But as she grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Lilith hidden so Ally sets in motion a dangerous and desperate plan to send her daughter across the ocean to safety.

Havana, 1958: Now an adult, Lilith has few memories of her mother or her childhood in Germany. Besides, she’s too excited for her future with her beloved Martin, a Cuban pilot with strong ties to the Batista government. But as the flames of revolution ignite, Lilith and her newborn daughter, Nadine, find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.

Berlin, 1988: As a scientist in Berlin, Nadine is dedicated to ensuring the dignity of the remains of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Yet she has spent her entire lifetime avoiding the truth about her own family’s history. It takes her daughter, Luna, to encourage Nadine to uncover the truth about the choices her mother and grandmother made to ensure the survival of their children. And it will fall to Luna to come to terms with a shocking betrayal that changes everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.

Separated by time but united by sacrifice, four women embark on journeys of self-discovery and find themselves to be living testaments to the power of motherly love.

My Review:

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the copy of this book.
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Read if you like: multi-generational family sagas.
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This book follows four generations of women as they grapple with love, loss, and heartbreak. I loved how in the end they start to uncover secrets about their family’s past.
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We get to read and explore Nazi Germany, the Cuban Revolution, as well as Germany during and after the Berlin Wall. I was completely entranced by this story. Overall I loved it, but it did feel like the author tried to pack a lot into this book. I would finally get into one character’s part of the story when we would move on to the next. I understand that was the point of the book, but it felt like it just moved really quick.
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Overall a beautiful story!