Very interesting book about German twins separated from each other as children. One stayed in Germany and the other was raised in the Netherlands, the lives they led were on opposite sides of the war. Sad and at times very moving.
From Publishers Weekly
Historical and human perspectives clash in this cool, compassionate psychological novel centered around the 1990 chance meeting of two elderly women at Spa, the Belgian health resort. Each woman has come for the famously curative waters. But not by chance does each suffer from debilitating arthritis. The women are twins, separated in childhood by the death of their parents. Anna stays in their native Germany, while Lotte is taken in by relatives in the Netherlands. Consequently, they lose touch with each other and live through the rise of Hitler, the Second World War and the postwar era from opposed positions. The clanking machinery of young Dutch novelist de Loo's premise is at first off-putting, yet in the end she offers a novel of considerable substanceAone that is historically acute and richly imaginative. Lotte despises the Germans and feels disconnected from them, believing that in her sister's place she would have acted differently, since her husband was a Dutch Jew. Anna, meanwhile, though certainly a good woman who harbors only feelings of contempt for the Nazis, married an SS officer from Vienna. What was the degree of her complicity in Nazi horrors? Both sisters lost their husbands in the war, one to random Allied bombing, the other to an Austrian concentration camp. The narrative unfolds through a series of often thorny conversations, as the sisters probe these and other points of contention. De Loo artfully weaves two fully developed fictional personalities into an expertly realized historical background. Overarching questions of guilt and complicity, of good and bad luck, remain unresolved, but the novel subtly illuminates the ambiguities of national identity and family love.
Historical and human perspectives clash in this cool, compassionate psychological novel centered around the 1990 chance meeting of two elderly women at Spa, the Belgian health resort. Each woman has come for the famously curative waters. But not by chance does each suffer from debilitating arthritis. The women are twins, separated in childhood by the death of their parents. Anna stays in their native Germany, while Lotte is taken in by relatives in the Netherlands. Consequently, they lose touch with each other and live through the rise of Hitler, the Second World War and the postwar era from opposed positions. The clanking machinery of young Dutch novelist de Loo's premise is at first off-putting, yet in the end she offers a novel of considerable substanceAone that is historically acute and richly imaginative. Lotte despises the Germans and feels disconnected from them, believing that in her sister's place she would have acted differently, since her husband was a Dutch Jew. Anna, meanwhile, though certainly a good woman who harbors only feelings of contempt for the Nazis, married an SS officer from Vienna. What was the degree of her complicity in Nazi horrors? Both sisters lost their husbands in the war, one to random Allied bombing, the other to an Austrian concentration camp. The narrative unfolds through a series of often thorny conversations, as the sisters probe these and other points of contention. De Loo artfully weaves two fully developed fictional personalities into an expertly realized historical background. Overarching questions of guilt and complicity, of good and bad luck, remain unresolved, but the novel subtly illuminates the ambiguities of national identity and family love.
Book Description
Twin sisters, Lotte and Anna, share a bond that only they can understand. But when war comes between them, they discover that even the deepest bonds have their limits. Over ten years after being cruelly separated as children, Lotte and Anna are at last reunited. Neither had lost of hope of seeing each other again, but with a turbulent Europe now on the verge of war, they find that much between them has changed. Lotte has enjoyed a privileged upbringing in liberal Holland, while Anna endured a life of poverty in a Germany increasingly entranced by Hitler's spell. With Lotte planning to marry a Jewish musician and Anna brainwashed by the anti-semitic propaganda of the Third Reich, it does not take long for the first cracks to appear in their relationship. And this is just the beginning. Can two lives, torn apart by the blood of their separate pasts, ever be reconciled?
My Review
I enjoyed this book very much. It was very interesting reading about the different lifestyles of two twin sisters during WWII who were separated at age six. They went to live with relatives - one sister in Germany and the other sister in Holland. I found this book to be a gripping emotional read and I would recommend it for those who are interested in historical fiction.
Twin sisters, Lotte and Anna, share a bond that only they can understand. But when war comes between them, they discover that even the deepest bonds have their limits. Over ten years after being cruelly separated as children, Lotte and Anna are at last reunited. Neither had lost of hope of seeing each other again, but with a turbulent Europe now on the verge of war, they find that much between them has changed. Lotte has enjoyed a privileged upbringing in liberal Holland, while Anna endured a life of poverty in a Germany increasingly entranced by Hitler's spell. With Lotte planning to marry a Jewish musician and Anna brainwashed by the anti-semitic propaganda of the Third Reich, it does not take long for the first cracks to appear in their relationship. And this is just the beginning. Can two lives, torn apart by the blood of their separate pasts, ever be reconciled?
My Review
I enjoyed this book very much. It was very interesting reading about the different lifestyles of two twin sisters during WWII who were separated at age six. They went to live with relatives - one sister in Germany and the other sister in Holland. I found this book to be a gripping emotional read and I would recommend it for those who are interested in historical fiction.
