Tag Archives: 1940s Berlin

#BookReview ‘Berlin Duet’ by SW Perry @swperry_history #WW2

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It took a hundred pages or so for me to settle into Berlin Duet by SW Perry. It’s the first in a new series by a familiar author as I’ve loved reading Perry’s wonderful historical Jackdaw Mysteries series. Berlin Duet, set in WW2, is completely different. SW PerryThe principal story belongs to American war photographer, Anna Cantrell, with her narrative alternating with that of British spy, Harry Taverner. The timeline jumps around a bit in the beginning – 1942, 1989, 1914, 1934, 1989 again and 1936 – establishing Anna’s backstory from childhood. I struggled to stick with it but I’m glad I did. Anna is an English-American Jew living in Vienna, unknowingly married to a Nazi. Raised by her parents – film camerman Rex and artist Marion – now divorced, both living-on-the-edge kind of characters unafraid of being different, Anna doesn’t like the things she sees on the streets or what she reads in her American newspaper. Feeling trapped in 1930s Austria, her life changes when on a visit to New York she is nearly run over by a young man on a bicycle, a chance incident which draws her into a spy network that will change her life.
Trying to establish herself as a news photographer, and with two young children, Anna must accompany her husband to Berlin where he has a secretive new job. Every piece of information she learns about Ivo disgusts her and she hates what is happening around her. When she meets Josef Goebbels at a party function with Ivo, she decides she must use this opportunity. And so she becomes an official photographer for Goebbels, attending openings, industrial events and party rallies. At each event she takes one set of official photos, and a second set for Harry Taverner. She longs to leave her husband but Ivo has already threatened to take the children from her. Worst of all, Harry confirms war is coming. ‘For Berliners, the subject of war had become much like the weather: would it rain, or would it shine? Whatever the outcome, there was nothing one could do about it.’
Once the timeline settles into a simple year-by-year retelling of Anna’s life from the 1930s, the pace picks up along with the tension. Berlin Duet is a love story, a war story, a spy thriller, all rolled into one. I raced through the second half, predicting incorrectly what was going to happen next. Anna lives through a world changed unimaginably by war, and although this is a period so well documented and featured in books and films Perry has written a blend of fact and fiction, pragmatism and bravery, despair and determination that is full of surprises.
I’m looking forward to reading the next in the Harry Taverner series, Cairo Gambit.

Here are my reviews of the Jackdaw Mysteries series:-
THE ANGEL’S MARK #1JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SERPENT’S MARK #2JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SARACEN’S MARK #3JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE HERETIC’S MARK #4JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE REBEL’S MARK #5JACKDAWMYSTERIES
THE SINNER’S MARK #6JACKDAWMYSTERIES

If you like this, try:-
‘The Second Midnight’ by Andrew Taylor
‘Our Friends in Berlin’ by Anthony Quinn
‘The Silence in Between’ by Josie Ferguson

And if you’d like to share a link:
#BookReview BERLIN DUET by SW Perry @swperry_history https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-ami via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Verity Bright

#BookReview ‘The Silence in Between’ by Josie Ferguson @Inky_Josie #WW2 #BerlinWall

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The Silence in Between by Josie Ferguson is a book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it. Telling the stories of a mother and daughter in 1940s and 1960s Berlin, it is an emotional, sad and realistic story of the long-lasting effects of war on the women left at home while the men went to fight. Josie FergusonLisette and her daughter Elly are alike in their love of music. But while Elly can hear the personal music of everyone she meets, a sensory skill that gives her an insight into character and personality, her mother Lisette has lost her voice and her music. It is 1961 and Lisette has given birth to her second child, Axel, who she knows immediately is her favourite. When Axel is kept in hospital for tests, Lisette goes home overnight to recover. But in the morning a wall has appeared in Berlin, dividing the Soviet-managed sector from that of the Allies. Lisette is in East Germany. Axel’s hospital is in the West. The trauma, helplessness, fear and anger are well-expressed and hard-hitting. Lisette’s oldest child, Elly, is sixteen, a troubled teenager who feels unloved by her mother. The loss of Axel and the torment of her mother makes Elly look with new eyes at the world around her; she takes a courageous and impulsive decision.
In the wartime segment, 1938-1946, Lisette is a teenager going to dances with her girlfriends and wishing her best friend Julius would kiss her. But as first her father then Julius and other schoolfriends go to fight, Lisette sees the world through new eyes. First her father is declared missing in action and her mother Rita begins to act strangely, forgetful with empty blank moments. Lisette becomes the responsible adult in the flat, despite her young age, caring for her mother and elderly neighbour Frau Weber. Then Julius returns on leave and is a haunted man, a shadow of the boy she waved goodbye to, unable to forget the things he has seen and done. And suddenly the war is being lost as the Soviets enter Berlin and no woman is safe.
This is not an easy read but despite this I found myself reading just one more chapter, wanting to know what happens to Lisette and Elly. Both face impossible choices; decisions that will stay with them whatever the outcome, with repercussions stretching into the unimagined future.
A very affecting novel, showing the post-war trauma of the defeated nation and a reminder that German women were victims too.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Aftermath’ by Rhidian Brook
‘White Chrysanthemum’ by Mary Lynn Bracht
‘Homeland’ by Clare Francis

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SILENCE IN BETWEEN by Josie Ferguson @Inky_Josie https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8en via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Fiona Leitch