A captivating novel of a Berlin girl on the run from the guilt of her past and the boy from Brooklyn who loves her 1955 in New York City: the city of instant coffee, bagels at Katz's Deli, and ultramodern TVs. But in a certain walk-up in Chelsea, the past is as close as the present. Rashka Morgenstern, now Rachel Perlman, came to Manhattan with her uncle Fritz in a wave of displaced Jews who had managed to survive the horrors of war. She had hoped to find freedom from pain, in New York and in the arms of her new American husband, Aaron. But this child of Berlin cannot outrun her guilt simply by assuming the role of American housewife, not until she can shake off the ghosts of her past. And when Uncle Fritz discovers the most shocking portrait her mother had ever painted, sitting in a dreary midtown pawnshop, Rachel's memories begin to terrorize her, forcing her to face the choices she made to stay alive-choices that might be her undoing. From the cafés of war-torn Germany to the frantic drumbeat of 1950s Manhattan, Shadows of Berlin dramatically explores survival, guilt, redemption, and the ways in which we attempt to love and forgive across impossible divides.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND ONE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS' BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR It is 1943 the height of the Second World War. With the men away at the front, Berlin has become a city of women. On the surface, Sigrid Schröder is the model German soldier's wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime. But behind this facade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman of passion who dreams of her former Jewish lover, now lost in the chaos of the war. But Sigrid is not the only one with secrets she soon finds herself caught between what is right and what is wrong, and what falls somewhere in the shadows between the two . . . READERS GUIDE INSIDE
