Wunderland
East Village, 1989 Things had never been easy between Ava Fisher and her estranged mother Ilse Too many questions hovered between them Who was Ava s father Where had Ilse been during the war Why had she left her only child in a German orphanage during the war s final months But now Ilse s ashes have arrived from Germany, and with them, a trove of unsent letters addressed to someone else unknown to Ava Renate Bauer, a childhood friend As her mother s letters unfurl a dark past, Ava spirals deep into the shocking history of a woman she never truly knewBerlin, 1933 As the Nazi party tightens its grip on the city, Ilse and Renate find their friendship under siege and Ilse s increasing involvement in the Hitler Youth movement leaves them on opposing sides of the gathering storm Then the Nuremburg Laws force Renate to confront a long buried past, and a catastrophic betrayal is set in motionAn unflinching exploration of Nazi Germany and its legacy, Wunderland is a at once a powerful portrait of an unspeakable crime history and a page turning contemplation of womanhood, wartime, and just how far we might go in order to belong. Free Download Wunderland [ Author ] Jennifer Cody Epstein [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr A friendship destroyed by the perils of WWII A betrayal that will take your breath away This book is why I read.As a reader, there are times when I fall into that dreaded pattern of reading just to read Do you know what I mean I find myself picking up the same types of stories and I feel like I m in the movie Groundhog Day However, there are also those precious gems that quicken your heart, put a bounce in your step, and make you fall in love with reading all over again This was one of t A friendship destroyed by the perils of WWII A betrayal that will take your breath away This book is why I read.As a reader, there are times when I fall into that dreaded pattern of reading just to read Do you know what I mean I find myself picking up the same types of stories and I feel like I m in the movie Groundhog Day However, there are also those precious gems that quicken your heart, put a bounce in your step, and make you fall in love with reading all over again This was one of them Classic historical fiction, shi...There aren t any horrific scenes of the death camps here, yet it is a story that is very much a story of the holocaust, a chilling depiction of Nazi Germany before WWII, evoking in me anger, fear, sadness This was an emotional read about friendship and betrayal and the desire for redemption We see how the Nazi ideology became so ingrained in Germans, in this case the focus on young people and the impact on the daily lives of Jews moving from being restricted to being taken from their homes and There aren t any horrific scenes of the death camps here, yet it is a story that is very much a story of the holocaust, a chilling depiction of Nazi Germany before WWII, evoking in me anger, fear, sadness This was an emotional read about friendship and betrayal and the desire for redemption We see how the Nazi ideology became so ingrained in Germans, in this case the focus on young people and the impact on the daily lives of Jews moving from being restricted to being taken from their homes and sent, and as we know six million of them were to be annihilated in death camps The impact of this inexplicab...This historical fiction isof a family drama We see Ava as an adult in New York, dealing with her memories and questions after the death of her mother Ilse We also see Ilse, from a young teenager in 1930s Germany through the war and beyond What has led to their estrangement We are given glimpses Ilse unwilling to answer Ava s questions about her paternity, her abandonment at the end of the war I can t remember another book I ve read that covers Germany in the lead up to WWII How ord This historical fiction isof a family drama We see Ava as an adult in New York, dealing with her memories and questions after the death of her mother Ilse We also see Ilse, from a young teenager in 1930s Germany through the war and beyond What has led to their estrangement We are given glimpses Ilse unwilling to answer Ava s questions about her paternity, her abandonment at the end of the war I can t remember another book I ve read that covers Germany in the lead up to WWII How ordinary Germans became caught up in the excitement of the Nazi propaganda How people were so willing to believe the hype that they overlooked their prior friendships and alliances Flip side, Epstein also shows the slowly encroaching hardship for the Jews Which while better known, is wonderfully detailed If I m reading historical fiction, I want to learn something Epstein achieves that She effortlessly slips facts into the story without disrupting the flow This book does bounce around, from time period to t...3.5 Ilse and Renata, young girls in Berlin, inseparable friends, they tell each other everything, do everything together That is until Ilse joins the women s part of the Hitler s youth, Renata s family refusing to sign the papers To once again be close to her friend, she forges the papers, but what happens next is totally unexpected, and will change things for both girls In the present day, Ava, with a child of her own, wants to know the secrets her mother, Renata, is keeping from her Estran 3.5 Ilse and Renata, young girls in Berlin, inseparable friends, they tell each other everything, do everything together That is until Ilse joins the women s part of the Hitler s youth, Renata s family refusing to sign the papers To once again be close to her friend, she forges the papers, but what happens next is totally unexpected, and will change things for both girls In the present day, Ava, with a child of her own, wants to know the secrets her mother, Renata, is keeping from her Estranged for many years, it will take a death for the secrets to be revealed.No matter how many books, fiction or nonfiction I read, there is always something to learn, something new, of a different take In this novel the author does a good job describing how the young came to embrace the Nazi ideology Brainwashing, idealistic goals, and fear, are some of their methods How so many families, friends were divided, how hate became pervasive.Also shows how the eff...The beginning of Wunderland is clunky but persevere as it improves greatly afterwards It starts with fragmented scenes from the main characters lives beginning in 1989, switches to another character in 1933, back to the initial character in 1977 and onto yet another character in 1937 This would be fine if a discernible connection existed at this point but it didn t I wasn t quite sure what to make of it but as I continued to read the connections eventually became apparent Essentially a story The beginning of Wunderland is clunky but persevere as it improves greatly afterwards It starts with fragmented scenes from the main characters lives beginning in 1989, switches to another character in 1933, back to the initial character in 1977 and onto yet another character in 1937 This would be fine if a discernible connection existed at this point but it didn t I wasn t quite sure what to make of it but as I continued to read the connections eventually became apparent Essentiall...You all know I love an emotional read about friendship I never tire of stories of friendship Wunderland is a story of enduring friendship that will stand the test of time Told in two timelines, the first is in New York in 1989 Ava and her mother, Ilse, haven t gotten along There s this empty space between them filled with unanswered questions, important ones Ava wants to know who her father is She has no idea where Ilse was during World War II Ilse has passed away, and her ash You all know I love an emotional read about friendship I never tire of stories of friendship Wunderland is a story of enduring friendship that will stand the test of time Told in two timelines, the first is in New York in 1989 Ava and her mother, Ilse, haven t gotten along There s this empty space between them filled with unanswered questions, important ones Ava wants to know who her father is She has no idea where Ilse was during World War II Ilse has passed away, and her ashes arrive from Germany Along with her ashes are unsent letters to Renate Bauer, a childhood friend of Ilse s, completely unknown to Ava The letters hold the answers to many of Ava s questions and then some Ilse s dark past is revealed to her daughter, and Ava realizes she never truly knew her mother The second timeline is Berlin in 1933 The Nazi party is gaining power, and Ilse and Renate s friendship ...Wunderland is a beautifully written story about two friends, Renate and Ilse, and their struggle to fit and survive during time in Germany, when Nazism was growing and spreading like wildfire Both girls face impossible and horrifying situations They have to make choices with which consequences they will have to live for the rest of their lives This was a hard book to read for me I have connected with both, Renate and Ilse, on a personal and emotional level and reading their stories was heart Wunderland is a beautifully written story about two friends, Renate and Ilse, and their struggle to fit and survive during time in Germany, when Nazism was growing and spreading like wildfire Both girls face impossible and horrifying situations They have to make choices with which consequences they will have to live for the rest of their lives This was a hard book to read for me I have connected with both, Renate and Ilse, on a personal and emotional level and reading their stories was heart wrenching at times I loved Renate s character and I rooted for her and her family, while I tried so hard to understand Ilse s choices and actions It is so easy to dislike Ilse and all she stands for Her actions and her way of justifying them was making me sick and unco...It s been a long time since I ve felt compelled to stay up late into the night in order to finish a book because I couldn t bear to put the book down without finding out how it ends Things get especially complicated when it is a book that had me emotionally invested in the story and in its characters for practically the entire time I was reading it Having said that, I will be one of the first to admit that this book was not an easy one to read for several reasons First, the subject matter h It s been a long time since I ve felt compelled to stay up late into the night in order to finish a book because I couldn t bear to put the book down without finding out how it ends Things get especially complicated when it is a book that had me emotionally invested in the story and in its characters for practically the entire time I was reading it Having said that, I will be one of the first to admit that this book was not an easy one to read for several reasons First, the subject matter having read many boo...Wunderland is a beautiful and haunting and utterly magnificent novel a wrenching tale of friendship and betrayal in Nazi Germany It s also a page turner that kept me reading until two in the morning one night and three in the morning the next It s that good.I received a free publisher s digital advance reviewing copy, via Netgalley.The novel is told in the voices of three women Ilse, Renate and Ava and in different places and time periods, ranging from Germany in the 1930s to New York in 1977 and 1989 Ilse and Renate are young girls and friends in 1930s Berlin, and Ava is Ilse s daughter who lives in New York in the 1970s and 1980s chapters The book bounces around a lot between different time periods and characters But each chapter identifies th I received a free publisher s digital advance reviewing copy, via Netgalley.The novel is told in the voices of three women Ilse, Renate and Ava and in different places and time periods, ranging from Germany in the 1930s to New York in 1977 and 1989 Ilse and Renate are young girls and friends in 1930s Berlin, and Ava is Ilse s daughter who lives in New York in the 1970s and 1980s chapters The book bounces around a lot between different time periods and characters But each chapter identifies the character and the time, so as long as you pay attention to that, it s not confusing.The strength of Epstein s novel is that she takes us into the minds of her characters and makes us share their experience... Sacrifices have to be made.This recurring refrain becomes almost a motto for one of the primary characters in this multigenerational novel that faces up to some of the essential issues of daily life in mid 1930s Germany As the reparations costs for WWI continue to bankrupt the country, susceptibility to a savior becomes strong, as does the pull for scapegoats The central characters of the story, Renate and Ilse, are early teens as the Nazis begin their ascent in German politics and society Th Sacrifices have to be made.This recurring refrain becomes almost a motto for one of the primary characters in this multigenerational novel that faces up to some of the essential issues of daily life in mid 1930s Germany As the reparations costs for WWI continue to bankrupt the country, susceptibility to a savior becomes strong, as does the pull for scapegoats The central characters of the story, Renate and Ilse, are early teens as the Nazis begin their ascent in German politics and society They are initially unbothered by these new ruffians whose presence gradually increases The other major character is Ilse s daughter Ava who is trying to sort out her mother s role in the war, her complete parentage, and what to expect from life.The...
- English
- 14 April 2018 Jennifer Cody Epstein
- Hardcover
- 373 pages
- 0525576908
- Jennifer Cody Epstein
- Wunderland