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The Women in the Castle A Novel Jessica Shattuck Books

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

GoodReads Choice Awards Semifinalist 

"Moving . . . a plot that surprises and devastates."—New York Times Book Review

"A masterful epic."—People magazine

"Mesmerizing . . . The Women in the Castle stands tall among the literature that reveals new truths about one of history’s most tragic eras."—USA Today

Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold

Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined—an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Hazards of Good Breeding.

 Amid the ashes of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to the once-grand castle of her husband’s ancestors, an imposing stone fortress now fallen into ruin following years of war. The widow of a resister murdered in the failed July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Marianne plans to uphold the promise she made to her husband’s brave conspirators to find and protect their wives, her fellow resistance widows.

First Marianne rescues six-year-old Martin, the son of her dearest childhood friend, from a Nazi reeducation home. Together, they make their way across the smoldering wreckage of their homeland to Berlin, where Martin’s mother, the beautiful and naive Benita, has fallen into the hands of occupying Red Army soldiers. Then she locates Ania, another resister’s wife, and her two boys, now refugees languishing in one of the many camps that house the millions displaced by the war.

As Marianne assembles this makeshift family from the ruins of her husband’s resistance movement, she is certain their shared pain and circumstances will hold them together. But she quickly discovers that the black-and-white, highly principled world of her privileged past has become infinitely more complicated, filled with secrets and dark passions that threaten to tear them apart. Eventually, all three women must come to terms with the choices that have defined their lives before, during, and after the war—each with their own unique share of challenges.

Written with the devastating emotional power of The Nightingale, Sarah’s Key, and The Light Between Oceans, Jessica Shattuck’s evocative and utterly enthralling novel offers a fresh perspective on one of the most tumultuous periods in history. Combining piercing social insight and vivid historical atmosphere, The Women in the Castle is a dramatic yet nuanced portrait of war and its repercussions that explores what it means to survive, love, and, ultimately, to forgive in the wake of unimaginable hardship.

The Women in the Castle A Novel Jessica Shattuck Books

"The Women in the Castle" by Jessica Shattuck, is ​an engrossing novel ​about three German women after WWII​ and it includes ​all the usual Big Themes of right/wrong, guilt/innocence, revenge/forgiveness.​ ​

Marianne, Benita, and Ania, are the surviving wives of men who participated in the July 20, 1944, failed assassination attempt on Hitler (aka as Operation Valkyrie). Marianne, the strongest and the leader, promised to take care of the wives and children of the would-be assassins (all executed). In a rustic "castle" in northern Germany, the three very different women, with very different backgrounds and war-time experiences, band together to protect their children and each other in the chaotic days following the defeat of the Nazis.

I won't outline to plot except to say that the story is immediately interesting, and provides suspense and mystery as it unfolds over the course of several years. As a piece of historical fiction I learned some things I hadn't known. For example, just after the war and before the Cold War got into full-swing, there was a "Sprunkammer" or a "denazification council" that assigned Germans (including ex-Nazis) to groups based on their "guilt" and they were officially sanctioned accordingly. Shattuck's novel is well-researched and it spun me off on several illuminating Wikipedia trails.

One big question the novel asks is, can you love someone without knowing or caring what atrocities they may have committed in the past? Can one truly have a fresh start? Can it be deserved? Walking down the street in Germany after the war, what kinds of suspicions would one harbor? Did that man execute Jewish children? Did that woman rat out her neighbor? It's a fascinating time and place in history. I also HIGHLY recommend: "City of Women" by David Gillham, and "Skeletons at the Feast" by Chris Bohjalian.


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The Women in the Castle A Novel Jessica Shattuck Books Reviews

This was a good read. I tried to put myself in these women shoes, it is not a walk I would want to walk. Even though it is labeled fiction it was very informative on what happen in Germany and continues to happen around the world. Man's inhumanity towards man. I would hardly put the book down.
The Women in the Castle focuses on three women in post WWII Germany. These women are brought together by Marianne, the wife of one of the men executed for attempting to assassinate Hitler. She had promised that if the plot failed that she would find her fellow resister widows and protect them.

I liked the unique perspective of this WWII fiction occurring primarily during post-war Germany. It highlights the choices and actions of German citizens during WWII. Some chose the path of resistance and some chose to support the Nazi party. Post-war, they must come to terms with their secrets and actions and try to move on. If they can they move on.

It's a really unique book, so I wish I would have enjoyed it more. The first half of the story was slow and tedious and it took a long time to really connect with the characters. I nearly bailed on the story. Overall, it was just an okay read for me.
I bought this as a possibility for our book club - and heard the usual groans when I pulled it out and explained the premise. I'm known as being obsessed with WWII stories. This novel takes a very different look at that time period - from the experiences of those who were left behind in a divided Germany. Not only left behind, but in shame and guilt, as they were the wives of the men who tried to assassinate Hitler. Three very different women, with different backgrounds and experiences, all drawn together only because they were the wives of assassins who were executed.
I couldn't put the book down - read it in two days. Four stars because it is just a darn good read - a story well told from beginning to end. Comparing it to the Nightengale, there is less suspense and intrigue - and much more about the emotions of these women - the way they are treated, and how they look at themselves in the aftermath.
It was chosen by the book club as the September read, as there is much to discuss after reading it. So little attention has been given to the Germans who were left behind to scratch out a life - perhaps they had no sympathy or support for Hitler - but they are treated, nonetheless, as the enemy by the Russian invaders - and more sympathetically by the Americans.
It is interesting to find out how life turned out for them. The author obviously spent time on her research, as there is a ring of truth and realism in her writing. I'm looking forward to the discussion of the book in September - and highly recommend the novel - reading it is time well spent.
I read a lot of this period, generally from the Jewish point a view, when Hitler forged the world war ll for world dominance. I rarely have read from the Germans prospective, those who were against Hitler's insane view. The effect the invasion had on these three women and how they dealt with it was pretty amazing. I liked this book and would recommend it.
"The Women in the Castle" by Jessica Shattuck, is ​an engrossing novel ​about three German women after WWII​ and it includes ​all the usual Big Themes of right/wrong, guilt/innocence, revenge/forgiveness.​ ​

Marianne, Benita, and Ania, are the surviving wives of men who participated in the July 20, 1944, failed assassination attempt on Hitler (aka as Operation Valkyrie). Marianne, the strongest and the leader, promised to take care of the wives and children of the would-be assassins (all executed). In a rustic "castle" in northern Germany, the three very different women, with very different backgrounds and war-time experiences, band together to protect their children and each other in the chaotic days following the defeat of the Nazis.

I won't outline to plot except to say that the story is immediately interesting, and provides suspense and mystery as it unfolds over the course of several years. As a piece of historical fiction I learned some things I hadn't known. For example, just after the war and before the Cold War got into full-swing, there was a "Sprunkammer" or a "denazification council" that assigned Germans (including ex-Nazis) to groups based on their "guilt" and they were officially sanctioned accordingly. Shattuck's novel is well-researched and it spun me off on several illuminating Wikipedia trails.

One big question the novel asks is, can you love someone without knowing or caring what atrocities they may have committed in the past? Can one truly have a fresh start? Can it be deserved? Walking down the street in Germany after the war, what kinds of suspicions would one harbor? Did that man execute Jewish children? Did that woman rat out her neighbor? It's a fascinating time and place in history. I also HIGHLY recommend "City of Women" by David Gillham, and "Skeletons at the Feast" by Chris Bohjalian.