Tag: WW2

About the Book

Werner Zilch was adopted as an infant, and knows nothing of his biological family. But when, in 1970s New York, he meets the family of Rebecca, the woman he has fallen in love with, a mysterious link means he must uncover the truth of his past, or run the risk of losing her.

Spanning 1945 Dresden, the Bavarian Alps and uncovering Operation Paperclip, this is a riveting novel of family and love that seamlessly blends fact with fiction.

Format: Paperback (352 pages)   Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 12th July 2018 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Last of Our Kind on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

---

My Review

I’ve been attempting to continue the good work started through taking part in NetGalley November by reading some of the older books on my NetGalley To-Read shelf. The Last of Our Kind is one of those, having been on my shelf for longer than I care to mention.

The plot of the novel depends on a huge helping of coincidence, starting with a chance encounter between Werner Zilch and Rebecca Lynch in a New York restaurant in 1969. From the moment he sees Rebecca, Werner becomes convinced she is the woman for him, christening her ‘the love of my life’ (TLOML) and frequently referring to her by that moniker or as ‘my beauty’. They embark on an affair which sees them hanging out in trendy bars and restaurants, listening to Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Nina Simone perform on stage, and hobnobbing with Andy Warhol at his studio, The Factory. ‘At the Electric Circus, evening gowns mingled with flowery sundresses, men with slick-backed hair talked with guys covered in tattoos, and a man dressed as a Roman emperor could come on to a model in a sequinned minidress.’   

The relationship between Werner and Rebecca is a torrid affair and at one point Rebecca disappears from Werner’s life after a particularly uncomfortable meeting with her family. He professes himself bereft although he manages to find consolation elsewhere before long.

Despite the tragic circumstances of his birth, I didn’t find Werner a particularly likeable character. He is brash, arrogant and self-obsessed, seemingly motivated by a combination of ambition and lust, and completely convinced he is irresistible to women. The fact he was adopted and knows little about his birth parents didn’t seem to me to entirely excuse his behaviour and his attitude towards women. His sister, Lauren, and best friend and business partner, Marcus, do their best to control Werner’s worst excesses with, it has to be said, limited success.

Alternating between the story of Werner’s relationship with Rebecca are chapters set in Germany during World War 2 in which we learn about Werner’s birth and his early life in the care of Magda, the sister of his birth mother. Through her harrowing story the reader witnesses the horrors of the Nazi regime. I thought these sections of the book were much more compelling and powerful than Werner’s story in the later timeline.

The two storylines are written in very different styles and for a lot of the time they felt like two separate books stapled together only in the final few chapters. The point at which the storylines come together introduces the element of mystery referred to in the book description but again this relies on a generous  amount of coincidence. I found myself agreeing with Werner when he observes, ‘It’s impossible that out of all four billion people who live on this planet we managed to meet…’.

The Last of Our Kind had many elements I admired but overall I was left a little disappointed. In this respect I seem to be out of step with critical opinion as the book won the Académie Francaise Grand Prix du Roman 2016, one of the most prestigious literary awards in France.

I received a review copy courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley.

In three words: Dramatic, emotional, uneven

Try something similar: The Lost Girl in Paris by Jina Bacarr

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

---

About the Author

Adélaïde de Clermont-Tonnerre’s first novel, Fourrure, won five literary prizes in France. Le Dernier des Nôtres (The Last of Our Kind) was the winner of both the Académie Francaise Grand Prix du Roman and the 2016 inaugural Filigranes prize, awarded to the book with the widest general appeal. It was on the longlist for the 2016 Renaudot prize, on the shortlist of four for the 2016 Landerneau prize, and longlisted for the Prix de Flore. (Photo: Twitter profile)

Connect with Adélaïde
Website | Twitter

About the Book

Forced to protect him. Determined to bring him down…

Germany, 1943. Magda Ritter longs for a peaceful life. But war is drawing closer, and soon she is forced to serve the one man she hoped never to encounter – Hitler.

Taken to his mountain retreat, she is assigned the most dangerous job of all. She is to be the Führer’s ‘taster’ and check his food for poison. Desperate to escape, Magda joins an underground resistance group intent on ending Nazi rule.

To stop the atrocities around her, Madga must risk everything – her position, her family, and even her life.

Format: Paperback (400 pages)  Publisher: Avon Books
Publication date: 3rd May 2018 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Hitler’s Taster on Goodreads

Purchase links
Bookshop.org
Disclosure: If you buy a book via the above link, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops

Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

---

My Review

I’ve been attempting to continue the good work started whe I took part in NetGalley November by reading some of the older books on my NetGalley To-Read shelf. Hitler’s Taster is one of those having been on my shelf for so long that it was originally published as Her Hidden Life.

Hitler’s Taster is described as ‘a poignant tale of hope, danger and betrayal from the heart of history’s darkest moments’. The fact that Hitler employed a number of women to taste his food for fear of poison was a surprise to me, although not that he was paranoid enough to do so or that he was willing to have others die instead of him. After all, many millions did as a result of his actions.

Having arrived at Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, Magda quickly forms a relationship with Captain Karl Weber, an SS officer in charge of security in the kitchen where she and the other tasters perform their duties. From Karl she learns about the realities of the Nazi regime – the persecution of Jews and other minorities, the concentration camps and countless other atrocities. This is information which, for propaganda purposes, is being kept hidden from the German population, as is the truth about how badly things are really going in the war. Magda realises that not all Germans support Hitler’s regime, even within the ranks of his own army.

It was interesting to get a ‘behind the scenes’ look at what it was like to be close to the Führer and the rather bizarre nature of life in his household. At one point, Magda is invited to take tea and his favourite apple cake with Adolf Hitler, there are dances organised and showings of films such as Gone With The Wind for those stationed at Berghof. As she observes, ‘We were trapped in a make-believe world propagated by the Reich while all around us battles were being fought, troops slaughtered and innocents butchered’.

On a brief trip to Berlin to visit her family Magda discovers the reality of what ordinary Germans are experiencing: food shortages, nightly bombing raids, buildings reduced to rubble, hospitals overwhelmed by the injured and the dying. It’s this, along with other events, that makes her determined that Hitler must die. She fantasises about the ways she personally might achieve this. Some are rather outlandish, others are no doubt similar to those being considered by the Allies. However, all of them are likely to end in her own demise.

At this point in the book, any notion the focus will mainly be on Magda and Karl’s relationship is rudely shattered as the story gets progressively darker with Magda experiencing first-hand the worst aspects of the Nazi regime. If anything, it becomes darker still including nightmare scenes as the soldiers of the Red Army overrun Berlin and take their revenge on German citizens.   Students of history will know how Hitler’s reign of terror ends but perhaps cannot quite imagine what it would have been like to witness it in person.

Hitler’s Taster surprised me. It took a direction I was not expecting with some scenes that were distressing to read, not least of which because they depict things that happened in real life to real people. In fact, no doubt those real life experiences were worse than described in the book. I don’t think any of us would disagree with the author when he writes in his afterword, ‘Another global war would surely lead to annihilation; therefore, we must maintain a constant vigil against those who would use their power to destroy’.

I received a review copy courtesy of Avon Books via NetGalley.

In three words: Dramatic, emotional, intense

Try something similar: People Like Us by Louise Fein

Follow this blog via Bloglovin

---

About the Author

V. S. Alexander is an ardent student of history and the arts and loves writing historical fiction with strong women protagonists. The author of several novels and short stories, Alexander’s first novel was The Magdalen Girls, an Amazon best seller, set in 1962 Dublin. Her Hidden Life is V. S. Alexander’s second book. The author lives in South Florida where summer is never far away. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

Connect with V. S. Alexander
Goodreads | Twitter