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Crooked Cross #2
The Prisoner
The novel opens in August 1933, just a few weeks after Crooked Cross ended. Set mostly in Munich, it describes the lives of the Kluger family as Nazism strengthens its grip on Germany: we watch as Erich’s commitment to the Party grows, while Helmy's struggles to accept its strictures threatens to be the family’s undoing. This is a most unusual and unforgettable novel: an English woman, and therefore an outsider, writing about two perfectly ordinary German men who become, or are meant to become, implacable Nazis – as early as 1933.
As one contemporary review put it, 'Sally Carson, who gave us such a vivid picture of Germany inside with her clever book Crooked Cross, has given her readers another wonderful story showing the terrible crisis through which the German nation is passing today in spite of the mad enthusiasm so often displayed... Although presented as a story, the reader cannot get away from the feeling that all the time he is reading the true drama of a great nation which appears to have made a god of its present leader.'
Described on its initial publication as 'a novel of unusual power and poignant interest', ‘a deeply moving story’ and ‘the finest novel on modern Germany’, reading The Prisoner today one can't help but wonder whether, if Sally Carson’s book had had a wider audience at the time, it might have changed the course of history. But alas, it was ‘only’ a woman’s novel.
Written by Sally Carson whilst she was holidaying in a Bavarian resort town in the summer of 1935 and then first published in the spring of 1936, The Prisoner offers a rare contemporaneous account, and from a female perspective, of what it really felt like to live through this terrible period in history.
As one contemporary review put it, 'Sally Carson, who gave us such a vivid picture of Germany inside with her clever book Crooked Cross, has given her readers another wonderful story showing the terrible crisis through which the German nation is passing today in spite of the mad enthusiasm so often displayed... Although presented as a story, the reader cannot get away from the feeling that all the time he is reading the true drama of a great nation which appears to have made a god of its present leader.'
Described on its initial publication as 'a novel of unusual power and poignant interest', ‘a deeply moving story’ and ‘the finest novel on modern Germany’, reading The Prisoner today one can't help but wonder whether, if Sally Carson’s book had had a wider audience at the time, it might have changed the course of history. But alas, it was ‘only’ a woman’s novel.
Written by Sally Carson whilst she was holidaying in a Bavarian resort town in the summer of 1935 and then first published in the spring of 1936, The Prisoner offers a rare contemporaneous account, and from a female perspective, of what it really felt like to live through this terrible period in history.
413 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1936
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 2, 2026
Would very much like the third one now please and thank you
May 19, 2026
The second excellent book in Sally Carson’s trilogy, Crooked Cross. I shall get to writing a review shortly.
April 24, 2026
“I’m crying for everything…for lots of things I ought to have cried about long ago.”
May 21, 2026
Years of education and consuming all sorts of media, books, movies, series, about the Nazis, World War II, and fascism had made the whole thing feel very plain and almost trivial to me. Nazis were simply evil. Some evil people, born with an evil nature, doing evil things. I had simplified the whole movement into one easy explanation: evil.
I had completely forgotten to think of these people as human beings. I had forgotten to think of Hitler and his SS men as products of the economic and social conditions after World War I, instead of monsters who emerged out of a vacuum from nowhere.
I came across Crooked Cross by sheer randomness. I was visiting an old historical bookshop in Paris, one that had not yet become the copy-paste version of every modern bookshop with the same list of BookTok recommendations, and Crooked Cross had a small staff recommendation attached to it. The beautiful Persephone Books cover design, combined with the topic itself, immediately drew me in.
I had to order The Prisoner literally five minutes after finishing Crooked Cross. I wish I could order A Traveller Came By too. I cannot wait for it to be republished.
These books genuinely shifted my mindset.
At a time when right-wing extremism and fascism are once again gaining power around the world, rebuilding themselves on propaganda, lies, fear, and ridiculous economic populist promises directed at frustrated young people, these books hit differently.
Seeing the parallels with the period in which Nazism was slowly gaining power, watching the ideology spread like cancer into homes and families, was deeply unsettling. The novels show how ordinary people gradually became capable of seeing even the people they loved differently, capable of turning against a soon-to-be son-in-law they once adored and suddenly viewing him as lesser, contaminated, almost alien.
One thing throughout both books deeply unsettled me. I could not fathom how they kept their relationships with the Nazi supporters around them. I was angry that Thea remained friends with Elsa after what they did to Hermann.
But after a while, I realized how disconnected I was from the reality of the situation when I thought that way.
These were not strangers. These were not suddenly cartoon villains with horns growing out of their heads. These were the people they had loved for years, friends, family members, neighbors. People who had laughed with them at dinner tables, celebrated birthdays with them, shared ordinary life with them.
Understanding the complexity of that, and comparing it to the world we are living in today, made everything much more frightening to me.
Because when you start seeing evil for what it often really is, ordinary human beings, brainwashed, frightened about the future, desperate for hope, clinging to false promises offered by terrible leaders, it hits differently.
You realize that this part of history was never some impossible anomaly. It can repeat itself at any moment.
And maybe it already is repeating itself.
I do not even know whom I hated most in these books. Herr Kluger? Frau Kluger? Helmy? Erich? I genuinely do not know. I do not know whether I hate the people completely consumed by the ideology more, or the bystanders who became complicit through silence.
That question haunted me long after I finished the books.
When I finished The Prisoner, I immediately searched for information about Sally Carson. I wanted to know when she died. Did she live long enough to see the end of it all? Did she get to see the world step out of that darkness?
Sadly, she did not.
She died in 1941, but The Prisoner itself was written under the shadow of those years, while fascism was still unfolding across Europe. There is something profoundly sad about reading a book written from inside that uncertainty rather than from the safety of hindsight.
These books reminded me that history is not made only by monsters. Sometimes it is made by ordinary people slowly learning how to justify cruelty to themselves. And I think that realization frightened me more than any simplified version of evil ever could.
I had completely forgotten to think of these people as human beings. I had forgotten to think of Hitler and his SS men as products of the economic and social conditions after World War I, instead of monsters who emerged out of a vacuum from nowhere.
I came across Crooked Cross by sheer randomness. I was visiting an old historical bookshop in Paris, one that had not yet become the copy-paste version of every modern bookshop with the same list of BookTok recommendations, and Crooked Cross had a small staff recommendation attached to it. The beautiful Persephone Books cover design, combined with the topic itself, immediately drew me in.
I had to order The Prisoner literally five minutes after finishing Crooked Cross. I wish I could order A Traveller Came By too. I cannot wait for it to be republished.
These books genuinely shifted my mindset.
At a time when right-wing extremism and fascism are once again gaining power around the world, rebuilding themselves on propaganda, lies, fear, and ridiculous economic populist promises directed at frustrated young people, these books hit differently.
Seeing the parallels with the period in which Nazism was slowly gaining power, watching the ideology spread like cancer into homes and families, was deeply unsettling. The novels show how ordinary people gradually became capable of seeing even the people they loved differently, capable of turning against a soon-to-be son-in-law they once adored and suddenly viewing him as lesser, contaminated, almost alien.
One thing throughout both books deeply unsettled me. I could not fathom how they kept their relationships with the Nazi supporters around them. I was angry that Thea remained friends with Elsa after what they did to Hermann.
But after a while, I realized how disconnected I was from the reality of the situation when I thought that way.
These were not strangers. These were not suddenly cartoon villains with horns growing out of their heads. These were the people they had loved for years, friends, family members, neighbors. People who had laughed with them at dinner tables, celebrated birthdays with them, shared ordinary life with them.
Understanding the complexity of that, and comparing it to the world we are living in today, made everything much more frightening to me.
Because when you start seeing evil for what it often really is, ordinary human beings, brainwashed, frightened about the future, desperate for hope, clinging to false promises offered by terrible leaders, it hits differently.
You realize that this part of history was never some impossible anomaly. It can repeat itself at any moment.
And maybe it already is repeating itself.
I do not even know whom I hated most in these books. Herr Kluger? Frau Kluger? Helmy? Erich? I genuinely do not know. I do not know whether I hate the people completely consumed by the ideology more, or the bystanders who became complicit through silence.
That question haunted me long after I finished the books.
When I finished The Prisoner, I immediately searched for information about Sally Carson. I wanted to know when she died. Did she live long enough to see the end of it all? Did she get to see the world step out of that darkness?
Sadly, she did not.
She died in 1941, but The Prisoner itself was written under the shadow of those years, while fascism was still unfolding across Europe. There is something profoundly sad about reading a book written from inside that uncertainty rather than from the safety of hindsight.
These books reminded me that history is not made only by monsters. Sometimes it is made by ordinary people slowly learning how to justify cruelty to themselves. And I think that realization frightened me more than any simplified version of evil ever could.
May 3, 2026
Not an easy read but definitely a must read as we all need to be aware of how quickly someone like Hitler can ruin so many lives.
April 24, 2026
This is the sequel to Crooked Cross - and easily one of the best series I’ve read in my adult life. The fact that these were written at the same time as World War II is incredible - I feel like we were always taught in school that the rest of the world had no idea what was going on in Germany, that concentration camps were that bad, etc. The fact that these exists proves that wrong.
The prose in these is incredible, and they feel remarkably relevant to our time. My one regret is that Crooked Cross was available in ebook format and for some reason, The Prisoner is not (at least not yet), so I had to listen in audiobook. I normally don’t mind audiobooks, but for these, I specifically want to read the prose so I can highlight my favorite passages.
The prose in these is incredible, and they feel remarkably relevant to our time. My one regret is that Crooked Cross was available in ebook format and for some reason, The Prisoner is not (at least not yet), so I had to listen in audiobook. I normally don’t mind audiobooks, but for these, I specifically want to read the prose so I can highlight my favorite passages.
May 18, 2026
Published in 1936 this novel follows on from Crooked Cross. It is centred on the Kluger family as the grip of Hitler and the Nazi party gets stronger. Definitely not a cheery book!
"To hang a flag out...was an order". The suppression of free speech, free elections and violent attacks results in a climate of fear.
"To hang a flag out...was an order". The suppression of free speech, free elections and violent attacks results in a climate of fear.
May 25, 2026
This is a powerful follow up to The Crooked Cross and we can only be grateful to Persephone Books for publishing these important texts. Again, I listened to it on Audible where it was fabulously narrated by Stephanie Racine. The story continues after the events of the first book as Nazism gains a stranglehold on Germany and the Kluger family have to come to terms (or not) with both the fascist ideology in practice and the death of their beloved Lexa. For her two brothers, this tragedy impacts in very different ways and it is this that is the main focus of the book. As a portrait of a society and culture harshly transitioning into a new world it is educational, chilling and prescient. The Prisoner could refer to any or many of the characters. Compelling. I hope the final book of the trilogy follows soon.
May 16, 2026
Having read Crooked Cross by the same author I was keen to read this, the second book in her trilogy set in Germany in the 1930s. The fortunes of the Kruger family are again central to the story, their lives becoming increasingly difficult. The main focus is on Helmy who, after the death of his sister Lexa, and his resulting increasing doubts about Nazism, spirals down into a nervous breakdown.It is hard to read about his deterioration. The sense of fear which dominates everyday life is vividly conveyed but in places the writing is rather florid and long-winded.
I hope that Persephone Books will publish the third volume.
I hope that Persephone Books will publish the third volume.
May 21, 2026
Set not long after the tragic ending of Crooked Cross, this 1936 sequel shows the Kluger family falling apart (or not) while Nazi Germany continues on its evil path. How can a person deal with personal grief, loss, and guilt, along with disillusionment, fear, and horror, as your country transforms into a brutal totalitarian state?
It’s a sad, hard, necessary read. Both a domestic drama and contemporaneous snapshot of the rise of the Nazi party. And once again, I am astonished that a young Englishwomen wrote these novels in the 1930s. Sally Carson’s books expose the comfortable lie that “we didn’t know.”
I’m hoping Persephone Books publishes the final book in the trilogy next year.
It’s a sad, hard, necessary read. Both a domestic drama and contemporaneous snapshot of the rise of the Nazi party. And once again, I am astonished that a young Englishwomen wrote these novels in the 1930s. Sally Carson’s books expose the comfortable lie that “we didn’t know.”
I’m hoping Persephone Books publishes the final book in the trilogy next year.
May 21, 2026
Continues on from first book.
The rise the nazis and facism becoming normalized. With lexa dead start of book and micheals greif being the thing makes him now fully awake about what happens in germany.
Thoughtful profound and ahead of its time like first novel.
Helmey is lost (someone loves him in secret) elsa. Enruich is fully suck cost falacy in nazi party now.
Only read if your ready for an emtional rollacoster.
The rise the nazis and facism becoming normalized. With lexa dead start of book and micheals greif being the thing makes him now fully awake about what happens in germany.
Thoughtful profound and ahead of its time like first novel.
Helmey is lost (someone loves him in secret) elsa. Enruich is fully suck cost falacy in nazi party now.
Only read if your ready for an emtional rollacoster.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The Prisoner opens shortly after the final events of Crooked Cross, events that have changed for the Kruger family for good. Here Herr Kruger has decided to move the family to Munich, to try to get away from what has happened. Erich is still doing well as a storm trooper, and has come to terms with what happened. Helmy, on the other hand is struggling with his conflicting feelings. It is hard for him to remain a loyal member of the party after what has happened, and he becomes increasingly disillusioned about what is happening in Germany.
Sally Carson would often stay in Germany in the early 1930's, so she could see what was happening there, which makes these novels feel more insightful than many with the same setting. What seems truly horrifying is just how normal the Nazi characters come across as. Many are simply trying to get some direction in life. It's this depiction of them that makes for such a chilling read, showing us how easy it can be for ordinary people to fall in line with such hateful ideas.
With thanks to Persephone Books for sending me a copy for review.
Edit 24/4. I'm going to The launch party for this book tomorrow, so picking up for a quick reread.
Sally Carson would often stay in Germany in the early 1930's, so she could see what was happening there, which makes these novels feel more insightful than many with the same setting. What seems truly horrifying is just how normal the Nazi characters come across as. Many are simply trying to get some direction in life. It's this depiction of them that makes for such a chilling read, showing us how easy it can be for ordinary people to fall in line with such hateful ideas.
With thanks to Persephone Books for sending me a copy for review.
Edit 24/4. I'm going to The launch party for this book tomorrow, so picking up for a quick reread.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews