A review by scent_of_the_rain
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
4.0
The best word I can find to describe this book is “quiet”. The historical background, The WWII is very violent time in our collective past but this book is situated or before or after it has happened and concentrates mostly on the consequences of it for the lives of 3 women in Germany and their children. Bit by bit we discover their secrets, get to know and understand them better.
Not much happens in this book, most “exciting” things happen off page and are related through flashbacks. This story is about the in-between moments and shows us the life in more natural way.
The characters are well written. Some of them have done questionable things, others did what was necessary to survive, but they expect us to forgive them, in fact the thing I found most refreshing about this book is that the author doesn’t push for forgiveness. She shows us the facts in a matter of fact way and presents the characters in a way that doesn’t necessarily make us like but understand them.
The only thing that disappointed me is the fact that most of the story doesn’t in fact happen in the castle, I was kind of looking forward to that.
But I really didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did.
Not much happens in this book, most “exciting” things happen off page and are related through flashbacks. This story is about the in-between moments and shows us the life in more natural way.
The characters are well written. Some of them have done questionable things, others did what was necessary to survive, but they expect us to forgive them, in fact the thing I found most refreshing about this book is that the author doesn’t push for forgiveness. She shows us the facts in a matter of fact way and presents the characters in a way that doesn’t necessarily make us like but understand them.
The only thing that disappointed me is the fact that most of the story doesn’t in fact happen in the castle, I was kind of looking forward to that.
But I really didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did.