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The Mare: The masterful and haunting Holocaust novel, based on a true story
Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize 2025
'Extraordinary' BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour
'Not many novels are unputdownable; this one is' Financial Times
'Uncompromising and supremely disquieting' Prospect
'A story so profound and yet so readable -- a landmark book' Rory Clements
The knock on the door changed everything. Until then, we were happy; we knew who we were. ‘You’ve got the wrong person,’ I told him. ‘My wife is gentle and kind. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
In 1939, when she was just nineteen years old, Hermine Braunsteiner applied for a job in a new prison opening near her home. She had heard the pay was better than working on the factory line. The prison was called Ravensbrück.
A few months later, the Second World War would break like a wave across Europe. By the time it was over, she had become one of the most notoriously cruel and violent guards in the Nazi death camps. The prisoners nicknamed her the Mare – she was known for kicking her victims to death.
After the war, Hermine disappeared back into civilian life. A few years later she met a US war veteran who was holidaying in Europe. He had no idea who she was. He fell in love with her, married her and brought her back to America, where she lived for years as a well-liked suburban housewife, until one day a tip-off from a Holocaust survivor sent a New York Times journalist to her door, and the questions started.
Based on a true story, The Mare offers a gripping portrait of the descent of ordinary people into inhumanity. And it asks what happens after that nadir. It considers the impossible task of defining justice in the face of a crime which involved everyone, and weighs the moral necessity of reckoning with the truth against the overwhelming urge to look away. Absolutely unflinching and charged with urgent contemporary relevance, The Mare examines how we attempt to justify the unjustifiable – and forgive the unforgivable.
'Extraordinary' BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour
'Not many novels are unputdownable; this one is' Financial Times
'Uncompromising and supremely disquieting' Prospect
'A story so profound and yet so readable -- a landmark book' Rory Clements
The knock on the door changed everything. Until then, we were happy; we knew who we were. ‘You’ve got the wrong person,’ I told him. ‘My wife is gentle and kind. She wouldn’t hurt a fly.’
In 1939, when she was just nineteen years old, Hermine Braunsteiner applied for a job in a new prison opening near her home. She had heard the pay was better than working on the factory line. The prison was called Ravensbrück.
A few months later, the Second World War would break like a wave across Europe. By the time it was over, she had become one of the most notoriously cruel and violent guards in the Nazi death camps. The prisoners nicknamed her the Mare – she was known for kicking her victims to death.
After the war, Hermine disappeared back into civilian life. A few years later she met a US war veteran who was holidaying in Europe. He had no idea who she was. He fell in love with her, married her and brought her back to America, where she lived for years as a well-liked suburban housewife, until one day a tip-off from a Holocaust survivor sent a New York Times journalist to her door, and the questions started.
Based on a true story, The Mare offers a gripping portrait of the descent of ordinary people into inhumanity. And it asks what happens after that nadir. It considers the impossible task of defining justice in the face of a crime which involved everyone, and weighs the moral necessity of reckoning with the truth against the overwhelming urge to look away. Absolutely unflinching and charged with urgent contemporary relevance, The Mare examines how we attempt to justify the unjustifiable – and forgive the unforgivable.
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 18, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 137 reviews
June 9, 2025
The Mare is the fictionalised account of the life of Hermine Braunsteiner who served as a prison guard in two concentration camps during WW2. It alternates between the points of view of Hermine herself and her husband, Russell Ryan. Each gives us a very different impression.
Russell meets Hermine in 1957 at a hotel in Austria where she is working. From the very beginning, he is besotted with her. She takes the driving seat in their relationship, whether due to genuine affection for him or because he offers a convenient gateway to a better life. He navigates the complex process of obtaining a marriage licence and facilitating their move to America. Their conventional married life is upended in July 1964 when they are confronted by allegations about Hermine’s past. Russell is unwavering in his support even as damning evidence is revealed during her trial for war crimes. You ask yourself, did he so want to believe the woman he married was not capable of such evil that he accepted her assurances she didn’t do the things she was accused of?
Hermine’s first person narrative takes us through her early life to the annexation of Austria by Germany and the outbreak of the Second World War. She takes a job in a brewery, then in a munitions factory before learning from a German officer with whom she is besotted about a job in a newly built women’s prison. The prison is Ravensbruck. She’s told its purpose is to ‘re-educate criminals through hard work,’ an explanation she naively accepts. (She’ll later tell Russell she only took the job because it was better paid.) Initially, she is shocked by the violence meted out to prisoners. Soon, though, it’s she who is threatened with punishment if she doesn’t ‘toughen up’ and praised for physical violence against prisoners. Eventually, she willingly carries out the acts of brutality that earn her the nickname ‘the Mare’.
One of the most chilling thing about Hermine’s account is her increasing nonchalance about the things she is witnessing and doing. She complains, ‘It doesn’t matter how many prisoners we gas, more just keep on coming’, as if they are a logistical inconvenience rather than fellow human beings she’s consigning to a horrific death. Acts of unspeakable brutality are treated as commonplace or justified as ‘necessary’. And as time goes on she even takes pride in being recognised by her superiors for her ‘efficiency’. It’s disturbing to enter the mind of someone capable of such despicable acts but somehow you can’t look away. You want to understand how someone could get to the point where they lose all concept of humanity. The author makes you confront that question.
The brilliance of the book’s structure is that we get to see the contradictions between Hermine’s own account of her actions and motivations, and what she tells Russell about her wartime experiences: the omissions, the obfuscations, the downright lies. Even more so at her trial when she continues to dispute the evidence of multiple individuals who witnessed her cruelty although we know what they are saying is correct because she has already told us so herself.
It’s possible I overuse the word ‘thought-provoking’ in my book reviews but I genuinely think it’s justified here.
The Mare is an unflinching exploration of humanity’s capacity for violence.
Russell meets Hermine in 1957 at a hotel in Austria where she is working. From the very beginning, he is besotted with her. She takes the driving seat in their relationship, whether due to genuine affection for him or because he offers a convenient gateway to a better life. He navigates the complex process of obtaining a marriage licence and facilitating their move to America. Their conventional married life is upended in July 1964 when they are confronted by allegations about Hermine’s past. Russell is unwavering in his support even as damning evidence is revealed during her trial for war crimes. You ask yourself, did he so want to believe the woman he married was not capable of such evil that he accepted her assurances she didn’t do the things she was accused of?
Hermine’s first person narrative takes us through her early life to the annexation of Austria by Germany and the outbreak of the Second World War. She takes a job in a brewery, then in a munitions factory before learning from a German officer with whom she is besotted about a job in a newly built women’s prison. The prison is Ravensbruck. She’s told its purpose is to ‘re-educate criminals through hard work,’ an explanation she naively accepts. (She’ll later tell Russell she only took the job because it was better paid.) Initially, she is shocked by the violence meted out to prisoners. Soon, though, it’s she who is threatened with punishment if she doesn’t ‘toughen up’ and praised for physical violence against prisoners. Eventually, she willingly carries out the acts of brutality that earn her the nickname ‘the Mare’.
One of the most chilling thing about Hermine’s account is her increasing nonchalance about the things she is witnessing and doing. She complains, ‘It doesn’t matter how many prisoners we gas, more just keep on coming’, as if they are a logistical inconvenience rather than fellow human beings she’s consigning to a horrific death. Acts of unspeakable brutality are treated as commonplace or justified as ‘necessary’. And as time goes on she even takes pride in being recognised by her superiors for her ‘efficiency’. It’s disturbing to enter the mind of someone capable of such despicable acts but somehow you can’t look away. You want to understand how someone could get to the point where they lose all concept of humanity. The author makes you confront that question.
The brilliance of the book’s structure is that we get to see the contradictions between Hermine’s own account of her actions and motivations, and what she tells Russell about her wartime experiences: the omissions, the obfuscations, the downright lies. Even more so at her trial when she continues to dispute the evidence of multiple individuals who witnessed her cruelty although we know what they are saying is correct because she has already told us so herself.
It’s possible I overuse the word ‘thought-provoking’ in my book reviews but I genuinely think it’s justified here.
The Mare is an unflinching exploration of humanity’s capacity for violence.
October 14, 2025
3.5. Hermine Braunsteiner was the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States to face trial in West Germany. The person behind it, the famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal (he played a role in finding Adolf Eichmann) got his lead by chance in Tel Aviv. She was known as the 'Mare', because she took such pleasure in kicking prisoners to death. During her trial the witness testimonies against her not only included taking children from their mothers to be thrown onto the gas chamber-bound trains, but killing children herself.
And yet, after the war, she met a US Air Force mechanic, Russell Ryan, married him and moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, before finally moving to New York. She became an American citizen. Ryan knew almost nothing about her past, only that she had worked in a 'prison'. Then one day a man knocked on their front door. He was from The New York Times; he knew the truth about Braunsteiner, and was going to write an article about her. Their lives very quickly changed.
Hampshire's novel about Braunsteiner's life and trial, focusing mostly on her relationship with Russell Ryan, is an engaging read, though sometimes the writing left something to be desired. It is told in very short chapters, alternating between two timelines and two perspectives: Hermine is the narrator in the war-era chapters, detailing her life as a camp guard, meanwhile Russell is the narrator of the post-war chapters, dealing with their relationship and ultimately, her trial. Even after finding out the truth about Hermine, Ryan decides to stay with his wife, which is something Hampshire explores. That was the most fascinating element of the story for me: how could he stay with a woman after finding out what she did? I had hoped Hampshire would have delved a little bit deeper into it, but equally I understand the difficulty (and controversy) of mining and potentially inventing a real person's thoughts for the sake of character. Hampshire said in an interview that she read hundreds upon hundreds of witness statements so that the violence that occurs in the camp chapters are almost always accounts of real violence.
The story itself is horrible and interesting enough to warrant a read. Hampshire's dialogue is particularly wooden at times and both Ryan and Braunsteiner, as narrators, are clumsy at times (for example, after The New York Times reporter leaves, Ryan speaks to Braunsteiner and she admits that some of what he says is true. Ryan panics, goes into the next room and takes up the calling card the reporter left. The chapter could have ended there, but instead the final line is, 'I need to stop him from writing an article.' The novel is filled with these sorts of clumsy overstatements, as if the reader cannot figure out what Ryan is hoping to achieve by rushing to pick up the reporter's card). I would generally recommend it though; I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Braunsteiner, despite being the first extradited Nazi war criminal from the US. Even though it lacked some of the depth I was hoping for, I did find it a thought-provoking novel, particularly concerning Russell Ryan, the American man who decided to stay as her husband, despite everything.
And yet, after the war, she met a US Air Force mechanic, Russell Ryan, married him and moved to Nova Scotia, Canada, before finally moving to New York. She became an American citizen. Ryan knew almost nothing about her past, only that she had worked in a 'prison'. Then one day a man knocked on their front door. He was from The New York Times; he knew the truth about Braunsteiner, and was going to write an article about her. Their lives very quickly changed.
Hampshire's novel about Braunsteiner's life and trial, focusing mostly on her relationship with Russell Ryan, is an engaging read, though sometimes the writing left something to be desired. It is told in very short chapters, alternating between two timelines and two perspectives: Hermine is the narrator in the war-era chapters, detailing her life as a camp guard, meanwhile Russell is the narrator of the post-war chapters, dealing with their relationship and ultimately, her trial. Even after finding out the truth about Hermine, Ryan decides to stay with his wife, which is something Hampshire explores. That was the most fascinating element of the story for me: how could he stay with a woman after finding out what she did? I had hoped Hampshire would have delved a little bit deeper into it, but equally I understand the difficulty (and controversy) of mining and potentially inventing a real person's thoughts for the sake of character. Hampshire said in an interview that she read hundreds upon hundreds of witness statements so that the violence that occurs in the camp chapters are almost always accounts of real violence.
The story itself is horrible and interesting enough to warrant a read. Hampshire's dialogue is particularly wooden at times and both Ryan and Braunsteiner, as narrators, are clumsy at times (for example, after The New York Times reporter leaves, Ryan speaks to Braunsteiner and she admits that some of what he says is true. Ryan panics, goes into the next room and takes up the calling card the reporter left. The chapter could have ended there, but instead the final line is, 'I need to stop him from writing an article.' The novel is filled with these sorts of clumsy overstatements, as if the reader cannot figure out what Ryan is hoping to achieve by rushing to pick up the reporter's card). I would generally recommend it though; I'm not sure I'd ever heard of Braunsteiner, despite being the first extradited Nazi war criminal from the US. Even though it lacked some of the depth I was hoping for, I did find it a thought-provoking novel, particularly concerning Russell Ryan, the American man who decided to stay as her husband, despite everything.
August 25, 2026
The Mare is an exceptionally powerful novel about Hermine Braunsteiner, a young woman who was a prison guard at Ravensbruck and Majdanek. Whilst Hermine was a real person, Hampshire is clear that the story she relates is pure fiction and her portrayal of Hermine and husband, Russel Ryan, are inventions.
The novel is divided into two timelines - Hermine's life following the war when she meets (and falls in love with) a young American, Russell Ryan. The second timeline describes Hermine's life just before and during the war.
Whilst the actual narrative is fiction Hermine was traced by Simon Wiesenthal and did stand trial for war crimes. We are shown some parts of what Hermine's life as a guard could have been like and it is hard to stay even vaguely objective, knowing how the camps were run and the sheer brutality shown to the Jews and Poles who inhabited them.
This is a horrific read at times, juxtaposed with Hermine's later life before she is tracked down. Whilst Hampshire does give you pause for thought with Hermine's age when she became a guard, she was nonetheless, given the nickname The Mare for a reason.
Very highly recommended. Angharad Hampshire has written a thought-provoking novel which will, however, sicken readers at times.
Thankyou very much to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the digital review copy.
The novel is divided into two timelines - Hermine's life following the war when she meets (and falls in love with) a young American, Russell Ryan. The second timeline describes Hermine's life just before and during the war.
Whilst the actual narrative is fiction Hermine was traced by Simon Wiesenthal and did stand trial for war crimes. We are shown some parts of what Hermine's life as a guard could have been like and it is hard to stay even vaguely objective, knowing how the camps were run and the sheer brutality shown to the Jews and Poles who inhabited them.
This is a horrific read at times, juxtaposed with Hermine's later life before she is tracked down. Whilst Hampshire does give you pause for thought with Hermine's age when she became a guard, she was nonetheless, given the nickname The Mare for a reason.
Very highly recommended. Angharad Hampshire has written a thought-provoking novel which will, however, sicken readers at times.
Thankyou very much to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the digital review copy.
November 5, 2024
This is an incredibly powerful book that confronts difficult issues about the nature of evil and love.
By fictionalising the life of a female concentration guard, Angharad Hampshire is able to explore how ordinary people commit unthinkable acts of violence and how they live with themselves and compose their identity in the years afterwards.
Half of the narrative in told from the perspective of the man who chose to stand by his wife through the initial journalistic article that reveals her past, a long trial in Germany listening to victims testify of the horrors committed against them, and her prison sentence and eventual release due to illness.
It is expertly written by an author who always seems fully in control of both the darkness and humanity of her subject matter.
By fictionalising the life of a female concentration guard, Angharad Hampshire is able to explore how ordinary people commit unthinkable acts of violence and how they live with themselves and compose their identity in the years afterwards.
Half of the narrative in told from the perspective of the man who chose to stand by his wife through the initial journalistic article that reveals her past, a long trial in Germany listening to victims testify of the horrors committed against them, and her prison sentence and eventual release due to illness.
It is expertly written by an author who always seems fully in control of both the darkness and humanity of her subject matter.
October 30, 2024
This is a tricky book to assess. Yes, it is gripping - based on the true story of The Mare of Majdanek, camp guard at both Ravensbrück and Majdanek, daughter, wife, kindly neighbour, vicious brute. The psychology of how ordinary people became killers, torturers and sadists is partially what this story is trying to tell. It is also a story of love and blind belief.
Told in two voices, one 1st person (Hermine telling her life from childhood to being saved from the Red Army) and 2nd person, told by her husband, Russell, though the ‘you’ isn’t the reader, it is Hermine herself.
There is nothing held back about life in the camps, either the work camps or the death camps, and it makes for grim reading as Hermine slowly loses all sense of self, becoming as cruel and unfeeling as those she once despised. Her story, and her character, is built from trial transcripts, interviews etc with the fictional story binding the rest into a whole. His story is entirely fictionalised.
Did I enjoy it? Not sure enjoy is the right word. I’m going to think on this further, as I’m not sure about how I feel about the idea of the few being executed for collective national guilt. If indeed that is what the book was implying. Her crimes were real, maybe not all, but certainly more than enough. Her excuse was - that was how things were! What would you have done? Good question.
I’m curious too, when other female and male camp guards were hanged not long after the war, how did these other cases take so long to come to trial? And then for the trials to last seemingly up to six years. As i said, I’m still thinking.
Told in two voices, one 1st person (Hermine telling her life from childhood to being saved from the Red Army) and 2nd person, told by her husband, Russell, though the ‘you’ isn’t the reader, it is Hermine herself.
There is nothing held back about life in the camps, either the work camps or the death camps, and it makes for grim reading as Hermine slowly loses all sense of self, becoming as cruel and unfeeling as those she once despised. Her story, and her character, is built from trial transcripts, interviews etc with the fictional story binding the rest into a whole. His story is entirely fictionalised.
Did I enjoy it? Not sure enjoy is the right word. I’m going to think on this further, as I’m not sure about how I feel about the idea of the few being executed for collective national guilt. If indeed that is what the book was implying. Her crimes were real, maybe not all, but certainly more than enough. Her excuse was - that was how things were! What would you have done? Good question.
I’m curious too, when other female and male camp guards were hanged not long after the war, how did these other cases take so long to come to trial? And then for the trials to last seemingly up to six years. As i said, I’m still thinking.
August 5, 2026
The Mare by Angharad Hampshire shook me to my core
In a fictional retelling of a true story, Angharad Hampshire creates an account of Hermine Braunsteiner, the first person to be extradited from the US in respect of Nazi war crimes during WW2.
Hermine Brausteiner was born into poverty in Austria, to a deeply religious family of seven children. After an unremarkable adolescence and a couple of jobs impeded by her low level of literacy, Brausteiner began work in an arms factory when Nazi Germany took over Austria in 1938. However, in 1939, Brausteiner learned of opportunities to work in the concentration camps, for four times the hourly wage she was earning. She did not hesitate to apply. What followed was a horrific litany of abuse at her hands, the cruelty earning her the name "The Mare of Madjenek" which remained with her when she transferred to Genthin
After the war (and her 3 year imprisonment), she met and married Russell Ryan, an American who had no clue about her history or her part in the war. They moved to Nova Scotia and then to America where Brausteiner gained American citizenship, only to be deported in 1973 after being found by a New York journalist/ Nazi Hunter.
The dual pov is striking in that it explores the subject from the perspective of Braunsteiner for the duration of the war and from the perspective of her husband, Russell Ryan after the war. This is a bold but relevant choice and works well to understand the facade that Braunsteiner put on and how she managed to fly under the radar of accountability for so long.
The story of Braunsteiner is tragic and upsetting but a part of history that cannot be sugarcoated or erased. Justice was only partially served and this book highlights the different persepctives and factors involved in how a person can become so evil, if it is inherent and how they can change their skin depending on their life at the time. The perspective of the husband absolutely boggled my mind, having been lied to for theentirety of their relationship, and how he supported her throughout (and despiite of her behaviour during) her trial
This book is raw and gritty. It doesn't pull punches and gets straight to the point. An easy read it is not, but it is certainly an important one
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business | Penguin . My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own
In a fictional retelling of a true story, Angharad Hampshire creates an account of Hermine Braunsteiner, the first person to be extradited from the US in respect of Nazi war crimes during WW2.
Hermine Brausteiner was born into poverty in Austria, to a deeply religious family of seven children. After an unremarkable adolescence and a couple of jobs impeded by her low level of literacy, Brausteiner began work in an arms factory when Nazi Germany took over Austria in 1938. However, in 1939, Brausteiner learned of opportunities to work in the concentration camps, for four times the hourly wage she was earning. She did not hesitate to apply. What followed was a horrific litany of abuse at her hands, the cruelty earning her the name "The Mare of Madjenek" which remained with her when she transferred to Genthin
After the war (and her 3 year imprisonment), she met and married Russell Ryan, an American who had no clue about her history or her part in the war. They moved to Nova Scotia and then to America where Brausteiner gained American citizenship, only to be deported in 1973 after being found by a New York journalist/ Nazi Hunter.
The dual pov is striking in that it explores the subject from the perspective of Braunsteiner for the duration of the war and from the perspective of her husband, Russell Ryan after the war. This is a bold but relevant choice and works well to understand the facade that Braunsteiner put on and how she managed to fly under the radar of accountability for so long.
The story of Braunsteiner is tragic and upsetting but a part of history that cannot be sugarcoated or erased. Justice was only partially served and this book highlights the different persepctives and factors involved in how a person can become so evil, if it is inherent and how they can change their skin depending on their life at the time. The perspective of the husband absolutely boggled my mind, having been lied to for theentirety of their relationship, and how he supported her throughout (and despiite of her behaviour during) her trial
This book is raw and gritty. It doesn't pull punches and gets straight to the point. An easy read it is not, but it is certainly an important one
Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business | Penguin . My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own
September 27, 2026
unsettling and right now all I can think about, I think I even saw dreams about this last night
April 27, 2026
The thing about The Mare is that Angharad Hampshire avoids the usual literary theatrics. She lays out the facts of Hermine Braunsteiner’s life and lets them sit there. You have a woman who ditched a factory job for a guard position at Ravensbrück because the pay was better. It wasn't a grand ideological shift; it was a career move that ended with her kicking prisoners to death. Then the story shifts to Queens, New York, decades later. She is a housewife. She makes lunch. Her American husband thinks she is the gentlest person alive. That transition is what actually gets under your skin.
The logic here isn’t really about the camps themselves. It is about how elastic the human conscience can be. Hampshire looks at how someone can slide out of a uniform and into a suburban kitchen without missing a beat. It is a study of the "ordinariness" that makes atrocities possible, stripped of any academic cushion. It suggests that becoming a monster isn't some dramatic, cinematic transformation. It is just a sequence of small, pragmatic choices made for comfort. The terrifying part isn't the cruelty, but the ease of the slide back into "normal" life.
The husband, Russell, is the most abrasive part of the book. His devotion is a jagged pill. In an era where we demand absolute moral clarity, watching a man offer radical empathy to a war criminal feels almost offensive. He isn't just ignorant; he actively maintains a version of her that fits his living room. It forces a realization that monsters aren't usually hiding in the shadows. They are often being cherished by people who find it easier to love them than to acknowledge the truth. Love, in this context, looks a lot like complicity.
Hampshire’s prose is lean. She isn't interested in making you cry or manipulating your feelings with heavy adjectives. There is a sharp, observational distance that feels much more honest than a typical historical drama. She isn't giving a history lesson; she is pointing out that the people who built the scaffolds were neighbors looking for a raise. There is no sugarcoating the reality that the line between a civilian and a criminal is mostly a matter of circumstance. It is a brutal look at how easily the past can be tucked away behind a floral apron.
The logic here isn’t really about the camps themselves. It is about how elastic the human conscience can be. Hampshire looks at how someone can slide out of a uniform and into a suburban kitchen without missing a beat. It is a study of the "ordinariness" that makes atrocities possible, stripped of any academic cushion. It suggests that becoming a monster isn't some dramatic, cinematic transformation. It is just a sequence of small, pragmatic choices made for comfort. The terrifying part isn't the cruelty, but the ease of the slide back into "normal" life.
The husband, Russell, is the most abrasive part of the book. His devotion is a jagged pill. In an era where we demand absolute moral clarity, watching a man offer radical empathy to a war criminal feels almost offensive. He isn't just ignorant; he actively maintains a version of her that fits his living room. It forces a realization that monsters aren't usually hiding in the shadows. They are often being cherished by people who find it easier to love them than to acknowledge the truth. Love, in this context, looks a lot like complicity.
Hampshire’s prose is lean. She isn't interested in making you cry or manipulating your feelings with heavy adjectives. There is a sharp, observational distance that feels much more honest than a typical historical drama. She isn't giving a history lesson; she is pointing out that the people who built the scaffolds were neighbors looking for a raise. There is no sugarcoating the reality that the line between a civilian and a criminal is mostly a matter of circumstance. It is a brutal look at how easily the past can be tucked away behind a floral apron.
April 5, 2026
This is a difficult book for me to review. I had to stop reading it for a bit because the subject matter was messing with my head. It is a well-written book, compelling to read, which surprised me because this is written in first person, which I don't typically love, and told in alternating POV chapters between the husband and wife. Oh my god, they are both gross. And it's one thing to read something entirely fictional, and another to read something based on fact, like this novel. This person did these things, this person is the definition of the "banality of evil," and really I am ready for my next book club book to be a total palate cleanser because I feel gross now.
September 7, 2025
Very interesting story but I couldn’t get past how badly it was written sorry
October 4, 2026
Feels odd to ‘rate’ a book about the Holocaust where the descriptions of the some of the most awful events ever to occur never fail to be harrowing.
The juxtapositions which the author uses in this book were very effective and I found it fascinating how quickly you lose sympathy for Hermine. The man is so outrageously blinded by his love for her he can’t see the obvious lies and half truths she tells.
As a reader the flashbacks to reality undermining her present presentation to her husband and the courts underscored how morally corrupt and ultimately deservedly culpable she was as she couldn’t see or find issue with the abhorrent things she had done.
The author suggests some wider reading at the end which I will likely check out. In a world where the right is rising once again the devastating reality of what that can be like is all the more important to read and remind ourselves of.
The juxtapositions which the author uses in this book were very effective and I found it fascinating how quickly you lose sympathy for Hermine. The man is so outrageously blinded by his love for her he can’t see the obvious lies and half truths she tells.
As a reader the flashbacks to reality undermining her present presentation to her husband and the courts underscored how morally corrupt and ultimately deservedly culpable she was as she couldn’t see or find issue with the abhorrent things she had done.
The author suggests some wider reading at the end which I will likely check out. In a world where the right is rising once again the devastating reality of what that can be like is all the more important to read and remind ourselves of.
October 4, 2026
Excellently written.
A fictional account about Hermine Braunsteiner (The Mare) and her extradition from America to Germany to be tried for War Crimes having been a female concentration camp guard.
Through duel time lines we follow her and her actions in the camps and later life and extradition and trial. As we the reader learn about her past so does her husband as her struggles to reconcile his love for the woman her knows with her actions during the war.
Whilst this is a work of fiction it’s is still a difficult read at times. The author completed extensive research on the subject and brings in actual accounts of events that at times it’s is hard to identify fiction against reality.
A fictional account about Hermine Braunsteiner (The Mare) and her extradition from America to Germany to be tried for War Crimes having been a female concentration camp guard.
Through duel time lines we follow her and her actions in the camps and later life and extradition and trial. As we the reader learn about her past so does her husband as her struggles to reconcile his love for the woman her knows with her actions during the war.
Whilst this is a work of fiction it’s is still a difficult read at times. The author completed extensive research on the subject and brings in actual accounts of events that at times it’s is hard to identify fiction against reality.
October 13, 2026
I hadn't had a visceral reaction to a book in a long time until I read The Mare. So readable but extremely chilling. Asks incredibly hard questions and is unflinching in its retelling of the disgusting consequences of fascist ideology
August 30, 2026
complex, saddening and infuriating
October 14, 2026
Such a psychologically interesting book. Also announcement! My lack of reading has been due to having lost my kindle, but we got reunited this weekend, so lots more reading to come! Alsoooo first review with this star update: HALLELUJAH!!!
July 6, 2025
A gruelling read in terms of the subject matter but an important examination of the consequences when ordinary people, who consider themselves good and kind, are able to convince themselves that those who are ‘different’ are a threat to their way of life and must be exterminated. The potential for evil lies in all of us once we allow ourselves to be brainwashed by propaganda. A salutary warning for our times.
Sadly, however, the author did not do justice to the material despite the thorough research she has obviously conducted. The back and forth between Hermine’s war years and the later story of her marriage to Russell and subsequent court case were disappointing and trite. The war chapters were very short, often little more than a page or two with little space for anything more than one horror after another, a litany of brutality interwoven with trite romances and rivalries amongst the guards, none of which was convincing.
There was little attempt at characterisation: the guards were as featureless as their sad victims. In the post war chapters, the twee romance with a nerdy American tourist as her escape route brings Hermine to suburban America where she embarks on a humdrum existence with her lapdog of a husband. We are told it is a passionate romance but it seems little more than a marriage of convenience, whatever Russell tells himself.
There are clumsy attempts to humanise Hermine through her love for birds, plants and dogs, and pages of repetitive and stilted dialogue between the couple and their friends that is particularly wooden and unconvincing , and often quite risible.
The final section, the trial and imprisonment reads like summarised notes ands the final heartsearching is perfunctory.
Unless the author has some more profound insights to share, non fiction would be the better format with material like this.
Sadly, however, the author did not do justice to the material despite the thorough research she has obviously conducted. The back and forth between Hermine’s war years and the later story of her marriage to Russell and subsequent court case were disappointing and trite. The war chapters were very short, often little more than a page or two with little space for anything more than one horror after another, a litany of brutality interwoven with trite romances and rivalries amongst the guards, none of which was convincing.
There was little attempt at characterisation: the guards were as featureless as their sad victims. In the post war chapters, the twee romance with a nerdy American tourist as her escape route brings Hermine to suburban America where she embarks on a humdrum existence with her lapdog of a husband. We are told it is a passionate romance but it seems little more than a marriage of convenience, whatever Russell tells himself.
There are clumsy attempts to humanise Hermine through her love for birds, plants and dogs, and pages of repetitive and stilted dialogue between the couple and their friends that is particularly wooden and unconvincing , and often quite risible.
The final section, the trial and imprisonment reads like summarised notes ands the final heartsearching is perfunctory.
Unless the author has some more profound insights to share, non fiction would be the better format with material like this.
January 29, 2025
I’m really struggling with this book but all the reviews are so positive I’m confused. There is the seed, no, a nearly fully fledged plant of an interesting, engaging read here but the narrative style is extremely difficult to get into and one of the perspectives from which the story is told, the husband, is so soppy as to be totally unbelievable. On top of that, there are occasional lines that are so clunky as to be akin to yanking the gear stick out without pressing the clutch. What makes matters worse is the excruciatingly slow pace it takes to get beyond what we’re told on the blurb. It will make a good film. Maybe that’s what the author is going for, getting a clunky poorly edited book out quick so someone can buy the rights to adapt it.
August 27, 2025
A tricky book to read. Very powerful as we try to learn from a history which repeats…but never again
April 1, 2025
Dual timeline novel set in WW2 and beyond
4.5*
Dual timeline novel set in WW2 and after
This novel is the fictionalised account of the life of Hermine Braunsteiner. who served as a prison guard – an Aufseherin – in two concentration camps during WW2.
The chapters are short and punchy and move between the years during WW2 and the post War period in America. The chapters alternate between Hermine’s experiences during the war and her subsequent life with her husband Russell, whom she met in Austria after the war; Russell’s running narrative addresses his wife directly as ‘you’ as the story unfolds.
The structure of this novel, I thought at first, would be off putting, I am not overly fond of a storyline whereby one character addresses another character directly. I thought I would struggle to engage. Further, when the present tense is used, it needs a capable writing hand to confidently handle prose and can often fall flat, but here, it works well, as it offers pathos and immediacy – it feels like we are peering over the shoulders of the characters. This is very competent, snappy writing and storytelling and the chosen format works really well, as the narrative is propelled forward through the war years and beyond.
Hermine is an average Austrian young woman, who is in her early twenties during the war years. Work was scarce at that time and she was offered the opportunity of working as a guard at Ravensbrück, a burgeoning women’s camp. At first it seemed like a run-of-the-mill job but as the numbers of prisoners began to swell, the brutality rose incrementally – and much of the novel looks at the complicity of the overseers, whilst balancing the notion that the ‘warped logic of Nazism held you in its thrall’. Spurned by her early lover, she exacts revenge on the nearest humble being. She fell in love but was betrayed (or, so she saw it) and seeks to move to another camp. She lands at Majdenek, which is beyond description. Disease is rife and several times she herself is felled by typhus, coming close to death on at least one occasion. It is beyond intolerable and she requests a transfer back to Ravensbrück.
A couple of decades after the war, she is extradited and put on trial in Germany, examining her time in Majdanek and for the atrocities she is deemed to have committed there. Her defence is that she suffered repeat attacks of typhus and was confined to bed during the alleged mistreatment/killing of prisoners. She also ‘doesn’t remember‘, although plenty of witnesses are prepared to testify against her.
Her husband’s blind faith in her is, of course, rattled but he is a loyal soul who sacrifices his life and friendships because of his (almost) unwavering commitment to her. During the trial, however, he is shocked to the core by what he hears but cannot reconcile the woman he married with the eponymous ‘mare’ of the book title, someone who kicked prisoners to death with her steel capped boots.
This is a very interesting fictional rendition of Braunsteiner’s life, weaving a great many recorded events into the storyline and set against the unfolding political developments in Europe, Vietnam and the USA. It encourages the reader to think about the situation from a good many perspectives and ponders the notion of amnesia and whether it can be a physical manifestation when someone has behaved barbarically, or whether it is a useful tool to avoid admitting culpability. How can someone live with themselves when they have been responsible for murdering thousands? How, even, is a monster created?
Justice for the victims is fittingly served and the reader is left to reflect on the reading experience. This novel set in in Ravensbrück / Majdanek and New York is well worth picking up, the research shines through.
4.5*
Dual timeline novel set in WW2 and after
This novel is the fictionalised account of the life of Hermine Braunsteiner. who served as a prison guard – an Aufseherin – in two concentration camps during WW2.
The chapters are short and punchy and move between the years during WW2 and the post War period in America. The chapters alternate between Hermine’s experiences during the war and her subsequent life with her husband Russell, whom she met in Austria after the war; Russell’s running narrative addresses his wife directly as ‘you’ as the story unfolds.
The structure of this novel, I thought at first, would be off putting, I am not overly fond of a storyline whereby one character addresses another character directly. I thought I would struggle to engage. Further, when the present tense is used, it needs a capable writing hand to confidently handle prose and can often fall flat, but here, it works well, as it offers pathos and immediacy – it feels like we are peering over the shoulders of the characters. This is very competent, snappy writing and storytelling and the chosen format works really well, as the narrative is propelled forward through the war years and beyond.
Hermine is an average Austrian young woman, who is in her early twenties during the war years. Work was scarce at that time and she was offered the opportunity of working as a guard at Ravensbrück, a burgeoning women’s camp. At first it seemed like a run-of-the-mill job but as the numbers of prisoners began to swell, the brutality rose incrementally – and much of the novel looks at the complicity of the overseers, whilst balancing the notion that the ‘warped logic of Nazism held you in its thrall’. Spurned by her early lover, she exacts revenge on the nearest humble being. She fell in love but was betrayed (or, so she saw it) and seeks to move to another camp. She lands at Majdenek, which is beyond description. Disease is rife and several times she herself is felled by typhus, coming close to death on at least one occasion. It is beyond intolerable and she requests a transfer back to Ravensbrück.
A couple of decades after the war, she is extradited and put on trial in Germany, examining her time in Majdanek and for the atrocities she is deemed to have committed there. Her defence is that she suffered repeat attacks of typhus and was confined to bed during the alleged mistreatment/killing of prisoners. She also ‘doesn’t remember‘, although plenty of witnesses are prepared to testify against her.
Her husband’s blind faith in her is, of course, rattled but he is a loyal soul who sacrifices his life and friendships because of his (almost) unwavering commitment to her. During the trial, however, he is shocked to the core by what he hears but cannot reconcile the woman he married with the eponymous ‘mare’ of the book title, someone who kicked prisoners to death with her steel capped boots.
This is a very interesting fictional rendition of Braunsteiner’s life, weaving a great many recorded events into the storyline and set against the unfolding political developments in Europe, Vietnam and the USA. It encourages the reader to think about the situation from a good many perspectives and ponders the notion of amnesia and whether it can be a physical manifestation when someone has behaved barbarically, or whether it is a useful tool to avoid admitting culpability. How can someone live with themselves when they have been responsible for murdering thousands? How, even, is a monster created?
Justice for the victims is fittingly served and the reader is left to reflect on the reading experience. This novel set in in Ravensbrück / Majdanek and New York is well worth picking up, the research shines through.
August 30, 2026
What would you do if your wife or husband or someone else you loved took part in a genocide?
That question is what drives “the Mare”, the astonishingly good debut novel by Angharad Hampshire.
Based on the real life story of Hermine Braunsteiner, who was a guard at Ravensbrück & Majdanek and her husband Russell Ryan. We explore the book which is made up of very short chapters from the POV of Russell (present) and Hermine (past).
Hampshire does a terrific job in showing how ordinary these people were, how they were almost, almost, lured into the horrific deeds they did.
Even though the author doesn’t shy away from describing the atrocities committed, the book is easily readable. A rare feat!
In the chapters of Ryan, we really see him struggle when it comes to light what Hermine did during the war. The struggle he’s facing, the friends who don’t want anything to do with them anymore and the frenzy by the media.
“i’m sorry, you say, I know this is hard for you but I cannot be made to feel ashamed of everything my country did. It’s not fair. I’m not responsible for everything that happened. I thought you of all people understood that but now it feels like even you are turning against me. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was only six years of my life all the rest of my life I’ve been kind if I could erase those years, I would but I can’t.”
That question is what drives “the Mare”, the astonishingly good debut novel by Angharad Hampshire.
Based on the real life story of Hermine Braunsteiner, who was a guard at Ravensbrück & Majdanek and her husband Russell Ryan. We explore the book which is made up of very short chapters from the POV of Russell (present) and Hermine (past).
Hampshire does a terrific job in showing how ordinary these people were, how they were almost, almost, lured into the horrific deeds they did.
Even though the author doesn’t shy away from describing the atrocities committed, the book is easily readable. A rare feat!
In the chapters of Ryan, we really see him struggle when it comes to light what Hermine did during the war. The struggle he’s facing, the friends who don’t want anything to do with them anymore and the frenzy by the media.
“i’m sorry, you say, I know this is hard for you but I cannot be made to feel ashamed of everything my country did. It’s not fair. I’m not responsible for everything that happened. I thought you of all people understood that but now it feels like even you are turning against me. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was only six years of my life all the rest of my life I’ve been kind if I could erase those years, I would but I can’t.”
November 12, 2025
After seeing this book reviewed and enjoyed by many people, and as it is being reprinted so it was a last chance to get it before then, I read it myself to see what it was all about.
Hermine Braunsteiner, a prison guard at Ravensbruck and Majdanek concentration camp during the war, age 20, became known as The Mare as she kicked prisoners to death, and was the first person to be extradited from the US to Germany to face war crime trials. After the war, she fled back to Vienna, met an American who she fell in love with and moved to America with him. He knew nothing of her past, and she was a perfect and kind wife who loved nature and birds and looking after her husband.
The novel, based on a true story, told in alternating narratives by Hermine and Russell, begins as a love story, and intertwines the brutality of the prisons and camps with normal life and how a person can go from filling beer cans to working as a guard for the Nazi regime. How can we reconcile the degradation and filth of life then, the killing, beatings, filth, sickness, starvation and cruelty with a woman who loved nature and was essentially kind. Do we do what we have to do, do we believe the lies, or do we just look away for fear of retribution ourselves? And is it fair to blame individuals for what a regime imposed and those within the system had to follow...
Relevant today, with what is happening and the hysteria that is being whipped up, we are clearly not there yet, but how far will people go when they are told what they should believe about a group of people. Plus it was war. No excuses for the atrocities at all, but it is a fascinating book that makes you wonder how did that happen and how did it go so far?
@angharadhampshirewriter #themare #booksreadin2025 #bookreview #bookreviewersofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #booksirecommend
Hermine Braunsteiner, a prison guard at Ravensbruck and Majdanek concentration camp during the war, age 20, became known as The Mare as she kicked prisoners to death, and was the first person to be extradited from the US to Germany to face war crime trials. After the war, she fled back to Vienna, met an American who she fell in love with and moved to America with him. He knew nothing of her past, and she was a perfect and kind wife who loved nature and birds and looking after her husband.
The novel, based on a true story, told in alternating narratives by Hermine and Russell, begins as a love story, and intertwines the brutality of the prisons and camps with normal life and how a person can go from filling beer cans to working as a guard for the Nazi regime. How can we reconcile the degradation and filth of life then, the killing, beatings, filth, sickness, starvation and cruelty with a woman who loved nature and was essentially kind. Do we do what we have to do, do we believe the lies, or do we just look away for fear of retribution ourselves? And is it fair to blame individuals for what a regime imposed and those within the system had to follow...
Relevant today, with what is happening and the hysteria that is being whipped up, we are clearly not there yet, but how far will people go when they are told what they should believe about a group of people. Plus it was war. No excuses for the atrocities at all, but it is a fascinating book that makes you wonder how did that happen and how did it go so far?
@angharadhampshirewriter #themare #booksreadin2025 #bookreview #bookreviewersofinstagram #booksbooksbooks #booksirecommend
September 26, 2026
The Mare was perhaps a little different from what I would normally pick up, but what a story.
There was something about this book that completely drew me in. It took me somewhere I wasn’t expecting to go, and sometimes those are the books that stay with you the longest. It may be a little outside my usual reading comfort zone, but I was so absorbed in the story that it simply didn’t matter.
Unexpected, intriguing and full of moments that kept me wanting to know what would happen next. Sometimes a book doesn’t have to fit your usual taste to completely surprise you — it just has to tell one hell of a story.
And The Mare certainly does that.
There was something about this book that completely drew me in. It took me somewhere I wasn’t expecting to go, and sometimes those are the books that stay with you the longest. It may be a little outside my usual reading comfort zone, but I was so absorbed in the story that it simply didn’t matter.
Unexpected, intriguing and full of moments that kept me wanting to know what would happen next. Sometimes a book doesn’t have to fit your usual taste to completely surprise you — it just has to tell one hell of a story.
And The Mare certainly does that.
October 10, 2026
Masterful storytelling, fantastic utilization of time jumps, incredible characterization, and exploration of memory and perception. This was a page turner, and perhaps the best book I’ve read all year.
The dual POV perfectly illustrated the tension of the story and relationship, creating a powerful juxtaposition and dramatic irony that taught me this lesson: proximity is justice.
The dual POV perfectly illustrated the tension of the story and relationship, creating a powerful juxtaposition and dramatic irony that taught me this lesson: proximity is justice.
August 13, 2025
Can be confronting at times but primarily does not focus solely on the holocaust victims but rather Hermine Braunsteiner, a WW2 prison guard who became the first woman in the USA to be extradited for war crimes.
it is both humane and inhumane and leads you to the question of whether Hermine's actions were the result of her circumstances.
Well written and constructed, particularly from the husband's point of view, who knew only fragments of his wife's past life and who dutifully remained loyal to her to the end.
Written as a novel, it was an excellent read.
it is both humane and inhumane and leads you to the question of whether Hermine's actions were the result of her circumstances.
Well written and constructed, particularly from the husband's point of view, who knew only fragments of his wife's past life and who dutifully remained loyal to her to the end.
Written as a novel, it was an excellent read.
October 8, 2026
What a powerful, remarkable, searing book. It has been written with immense skill. It is unflinching in the retelling of atrocities inflicted in the name of war, and makes you look deep within yourself in order to seek answers to very uncomfortable questions.
December 31, 2025
The Mare is a book like no other. It was deeply thought-provoking and made me look at the situation from so many different points of view. At times, what I was reading was shocking, but the story was handled with such care and restraint that it never felt gratuitous. The writing was impeccable, and it held me from beginning to end. This is a story I know will stay with me forever.
August 29, 2026
Would undoubtedly say this is one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve ever read. Truly unnerving, powerful and harrowing right until the very last page
July 23, 2025
Thought provoking and unsettling
October 20, 2026
4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️
September 21, 2025
This is one of the most extraordinary, harrowing, thought provoking and brilliant books I have read.
On their first meeting Russell and Hermine discuss plants and edelweiss. As their relationship develops, he wants to take her back to New York with him. It takes months to secure her US citizenship. They settle happily together, get a house and a dog. Then there’s a knock on the door and a New York Times journalist blows Hermine’s story apart, alleging that she served as a guard in German concentration camps. Witnesses have identified Hermine as ‘the mare’ a guard accused of extreme cruelty. This novel is based on the true story of Hermine Braunsteiner a female concentration camp guard. She had not told her anything of this history.
Short chapters move between Hermine’s past, the camps, her relationship with Russell; between Hermine’s and Russell's narratives. Hermine protests her innocence, ‘I only did what everyone else did back then. I just did my job.’ ‘If you had been me, you would have done the work too.’ Russell believes culpability lies with those in power, but nevertheless his narratives betrays doubt. Scenes in the camp document appalling cruelty. The structure made me feel like being in a courtroom, piecing together a story, sifting through evidence, weighing up housewife Hermine with The Mare. I found myself in the role of judge and juror. Three people were on trial..
Russell. Why did he continue to believe in his wife?
Hermine - Was she simply carrying out orders?
Myself - would I have done the same in these circumstances?
The author uses the medium of fiction so brilliantly, imagining dialogues, and allowing Hermine’s character to reveal itself through her own fictionalised narrative. She complains about her constant illness whilst showing no compassion for the prisoners; she comments, “Everyone here seems to side with the Jews.” She chooses the prison work because of the higher salary. One scene really stuck out for me as the prison guards head out for a meal in a horse-drawn carriage, “as if in a fairytale..’
This contrasts to the picture of Hermine the wife, the friend, the daughter. A woman devoted to her family, a hard and conscientious worker. Where do the two sides of Hermine intersect and how can she be both?
This book completely absorbed me. I found myself looking at old reels of Hermine’s trial, reading articles by the author and others and talking about it to anyone who would listen. I found this quote from the author, “The true horror of genocide is found in the similarity between us and the perpetrators, not in the difference.’
One of my top reads of 2025.
On their first meeting Russell and Hermine discuss plants and edelweiss. As their relationship develops, he wants to take her back to New York with him. It takes months to secure her US citizenship. They settle happily together, get a house and a dog. Then there’s a knock on the door and a New York Times journalist blows Hermine’s story apart, alleging that she served as a guard in German concentration camps. Witnesses have identified Hermine as ‘the mare’ a guard accused of extreme cruelty. This novel is based on the true story of Hermine Braunsteiner a female concentration camp guard. She had not told her anything of this history.
Short chapters move between Hermine’s past, the camps, her relationship with Russell; between Hermine’s and Russell's narratives. Hermine protests her innocence, ‘I only did what everyone else did back then. I just did my job.’ ‘If you had been me, you would have done the work too.’ Russell believes culpability lies with those in power, but nevertheless his narratives betrays doubt. Scenes in the camp document appalling cruelty. The structure made me feel like being in a courtroom, piecing together a story, sifting through evidence, weighing up housewife Hermine with The Mare. I found myself in the role of judge and juror. Three people were on trial..
Russell. Why did he continue to believe in his wife?
Hermine - Was she simply carrying out orders?
Myself - would I have done the same in these circumstances?
The author uses the medium of fiction so brilliantly, imagining dialogues, and allowing Hermine’s character to reveal itself through her own fictionalised narrative. She complains about her constant illness whilst showing no compassion for the prisoners; she comments, “Everyone here seems to side with the Jews.” She chooses the prison work because of the higher salary. One scene really stuck out for me as the prison guards head out for a meal in a horse-drawn carriage, “as if in a fairytale..’
This contrasts to the picture of Hermine the wife, the friend, the daughter. A woman devoted to her family, a hard and conscientious worker. Where do the two sides of Hermine intersect and how can she be both?
This book completely absorbed me. I found myself looking at old reels of Hermine’s trial, reading articles by the author and others and talking about it to anyone who would listen. I found this quote from the author, “The true horror of genocide is found in the similarity between us and the perpetrators, not in the difference.’
One of my top reads of 2025.
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