The Girl From Berlin

The Girl From Berlin was a book that consumed a lot of my time last week. I started reading it right before bed one night, with the intentions of only reading a few pages before I turned off the light. Instead, I didn't put the book down until I was a hundred pages in.

Catherine and Liam have been called by a friend to assist his aunt who is being evicted from her property in Italy.  She has a deed to the land, but so does a powerful company that is set on taking ownership.  The two promise their friend nothing, but set off to meet his aunt and investigate the situation a bit further.

As they embark on their journey, Catherine is given a story to read, a manuscript written by a woman named Ada that encompasses her entire life from the early 1900s until World War II.  As the story unfolds, Catherine has more questions: Who is Ada? How is she connected to Senora Vincenzo and the property she is trying to protect? And what happened to Ada after World War II?

Although I loved how Balson weaved the present day and the past together, I found myself racing to get to Ada's story, wanting to know what happened to her, afraid a bit of the answer.  Her experience as an acclaimed musician and as a Jew in Germany during Hitler's reign was such a well researched and interesting part of this novel that I found myself thoroughly engrossed in this book.  

The Girl from Berlin does so many things so well. Each time I picked it up to read, I looked forward to getting lost in the story. I love World War II novels and I've enjoyed Balson's previous work, so the bar for this one was set high - and happily it exceeded any expectations I had about it.  

I am happily recommending this one to all readers, but especially those who enjoy historical fiction, a little suspense, and great writing.  

Thanks to St. Marten's Press for providing a copy of this book for me to review.  All opinions expressed are, as always, my own.