The Women in the Castle

Three ladies, tormented by their pasts and secrets

The story of three widows whose lives and fates become entangled is powerful and captivating, set at the end of World War II in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once hosted all of German high society. This novel, written by the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Hazards of Good Breeding, is affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive.Marianne von Lingenfels visits her husband's family' once-grand castle, an immense stone fortification that has collapsed after years of conflict, in the aftermath of Nazi Germany's defeat. Marianne, a resistance widow whose husband was killed in the abortive attempt to kill Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944, intends to honour the pledge she made to her husband's gallant cronies to track down and shield their spouses, the other resistance widows.

Initially, Marianne saves Martin, the six-year-old son of her closest childhood friend, from a place for reeducation under the Nazis. Together, they traverse the smouldering remains of their own nation to Berlin, where Martin's lovely and innocent mother, Benita, has been taken prisoner by Red Army forces. Next, she finds Ania, the wife of another resister, and her two sons, who are now refugees residing in one of the numerous camps housing the millions of people who have been displaced by the conflict.

Marianne is certain that their common suffering and situation will bind this improvised family together as she puts it together from the remnants of her husband's resistance activity. But she soon finds that the world of her privileged past, which was black and white and quite principled, has become considerably more convoluted, full of dark emotions and secrets that threaten to destroy them. All three of the ladies eventually had to face the decisions that shaped their lives before to, during, and after the war—each with its own special set of difficulties.

Jessica Shattuck's powerful and completely captivating tale, written with the terrible emotional impact of The Nightingale, Sarah's Key, and The Light Between Oceans, gives a new viewpoint on one of the most turbulent moments in history. The Women in the Castle is a dramatic but nuanced depiction of war and its effects that examines what it means to endure, love, and, eventually, forgive in the face of unthinkable adversity. It does this by combining keen sociological insight with a rich historical environment.