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The Munich Girl
Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s mistress were friends. The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna’s. Plunged into the world of the “ordinary” Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante—and a tyrant’s lover—Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. With Hannes’s help, she retraces the path of two women who met as teenagers, shared a friendship that spanned the years that Eva Braun was Hitler’s mistress, yet never knew that the men they loved had opposing ambitions. Eva’s story reveals that she never joined the Nazi party, had Jewish friends, and was credited at the Nuremberg Trials with saving 35,000 Allied lives. As Anna's journey leads back through the treacherous years in wartime Germany, it uncovers long-buried secrets and unknown reaches of her heart to reveal the enduring power of love in the legacies that always outlast war.
356 pages, Paperback
First published January 7, 2016
567 people are currently reading
21708 people want to read
About the author
Phyllis Edgerly Ring
5 books356 followersI love the written word, creative expression, travel -- and most of all -- the noblest possibilities in the human heart. I'm always curious to discover how history, culture, relationship, spirituality and the natural world influence us and point the way for our human family on its shared journey.
I've worked as writer, editor, nurse, tour guide, program director at a Baha’i conference center, taught English to kindergartners in China, and served as instructor for the Long Ridge Writer’s Group. I've written for dozens of magazines, including Christian Science Monitor, Ms., and Writer’s Digest, and worked as editor for several publications.
My nonfiction books explore how to create balance between the spiritual and material requirements of our life. I write fiction because, like so much of art, it can help us discover just what shape this balance is taking within our own lives, and where that is leading our heart.
I've worked as writer, editor, nurse, tour guide, program director at a Baha’i conference center, taught English to kindergartners in China, and served as instructor for the Long Ridge Writer’s Group. I've written for dozens of magazines, including Christian Science Monitor, Ms., and Writer’s Digest, and worked as editor for several publications.
My nonfiction books explore how to create balance between the spiritual and material requirements of our life. I write fiction because, like so much of art, it can help us discover just what shape this balance is taking within our own lives, and where that is leading our heart.
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July 2, 2024
While I enjoyed the first 1/3 of this book, it is all over the place. Titled The Munich Girl, a reference to Eva Braun, one of Adolf Hitler's mistresses, the book is barely about her at all. That's fine, as I'm not here to read about glorified Nazi supporters.
This book is about Anna, her mother, and the German side of her family. It is also about the research Anna begins to do about Eva. "Aha," you say, "so this book is about Eva Braun." But, it isn't.
We delve into Anna's terrible marriage with her husband Lowell, who that I had to re-read the pages to make sure I got it all straight. I did. This is where the book begins to veer off into weird territory. Major edits are needed from this point forward.
There's also a man named Hannes that pops up to help Anna with research. This is pre-Lowell. I ended up skimming the latter portions of this book, because nothing was believable, and this isn't a fantasy.
📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Whole Sky Books
This book is about Anna, her mother, and the German side of her family. It is also about the research Anna begins to do about Eva. "Aha," you say, "so this book is about Eva Braun." But, it isn't.
We delve into Anna's terrible marriage with her husband Lowell, who that I had to re-read the pages to make sure I got it all straight. I did. This is where the book begins to veer off into weird territory. Major edits are needed from this point forward.
There's also a man named Hannes that pops up to help Anna with research. This is pre-Lowell. I ended up skimming the latter portions of this book, because nothing was believable, and this isn't a fantasy.
📖 Thank you to Goodreads and Whole Sky Books
March 8, 2016
Growing up in the Netherlands, where every first week of May is basically dedicated to WWII, and with parents who were both born during the war (my mother even before Germany invaded Holland), I thought I was pretty well-informed on the topic. I studied History for two years in which, again, a lot of WWII was covered. Then I started reading this book and realized I still only know so little.
I think I already knew who Eva Braun was when I was around 8 years old, but I never actually knew the face and the story behind the wife of Hitler. I always imagined she was a stern looking lady, with dark brown hair (maybe due to her last name as well) and a riding crop in her hand. Someone to match Hitler perfectly. Now look at the cover of this book. That's actually Eva Braun.
The Munich Girl tells us the story of three women: Anna (the main character), Peggy (Anna's mother), and Eva Braun.
Anna's story takes place in 1995, exactly fifty years after the war has ended. Her mother has recently died and she and her husband Lowell are now living in her mother's old house. Lowell is a first class douchebag and Anna just meekly lets him order her around. When Lowell's life work, a giant volume on the life and times of Hitler, is about to be published, he forces Anna into editing an accompanying article for it in a magazine he owns. When Anna meets Hannes, a German guy, who's roughly the same age as her (Anna is fifty years old) and appointed by her husband as the new head of writing and editing for the magazine, she feels pulled towards him right away. Anna's mother was also from Germany which is one of the reasons why they instantly connect.
Hannes gives Anna the assignment to write an article about Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress/wife. When Anna starts digging into the subject, she discovers Eva was actually friends with her mother.
The story is told from three different perspectives: Anna's life in 1995, and Peggy and Eva's life pre- and post-wartime. There aren't only fifty plus year old flashbacks, but also flashbacks within 1995 itself: before and after a plane accident (this is no spoiler because the book starts with Anna looking back at the accident) Anna is involved in.
This book describes a journey towards finding out who Eva Braun was as a person and how that reflected on the lives of Anna and her mother.
The author did an amazing job at mixing historical fiction with historical facts. I sometimes forgot I was reading a novel instead of a biography. Even though relatively little is known about Eva and her relationship with Hitler, extensive research and filling in the gaps with fiction make Eva come alive as if she has only died recently, instead of almost 71 years ago.
I felt incredibly compelled to find out more about her while reading this book. She seems like such a warm person, with a sincere childlike playfulness to her. Which makes you wonder what on earth she was doing with Hitler? It wasn't as if she was unaware of the hideous atrocities he was committing at the time. She knew. Yet it's almost like she didn't care about any of it. As if all she ever wanted was to marry Hitler, live a normal life with him and have his babies. He was her sun and stars.
Their entire relationship reminds me a bit of the 'loverboy' phenomenon, in which young men recruit vulnerable young girls by seducing them and then pimping them out to their friends, and later on, strangers. I'm not comparing Hitler to a loverboy, but I'm comparing Eva Braun to those girls who are so madly in love with their 'captors' that they are willing to do anything for them, even though they know it's wrong. Until there is no way back.
Now this isn't an entirely fair comparison because technically, Eva was free to go at any time. She didn't even have to become a member of the Nazi party, apparently, because she never was one. 'Adi' was all that mattered to her and she was completely neutral when it came to his politics. In fact, it seems like she only hoped to win the war (or have it over with, at least) so they could finally settle down together and lead a normal life. Naive? Yes, but not a very uncommon behaviour because there are lots of women out there who make similar sacrifices to be with their men.
This is probably all she ever wanted.
I think Eva Braun just needed a really good therapist. And maybe some ECT along the way. I mean, it's pretty clear that she was suffering from some mental issues in the first place after trying to commit suicide twice because her boyfriend took her for granted. We can, again, still see that behaviour in people nowadays as well. It's safe to say that Eva suffered from fear of abandonment. As Anna, later on in the story, says about her life with Lowell:
"It's as if I have always felt, somehow, that I had to do the right thing, so he wouldn't stop loving me. Wouldn't leave."
I think this is what applied to Eva as well (and is actually a pretty big similarity when it comes to the relationships between Anna and Lowell, and Eva and Hitler).
"Adi had given her a life she would otherwise never had known. She would not betray this generosity, or relinquish the honor of being one of the few who had this trust."
Something I can't understand from a trivial point of view, though, is that Hitler appeared to be chronically flatulent, had very bad teeth and smelled like a cesspool not only from his balloon knot but also from his mouth. How can you be so smitten with someone who doesn't only have a horrible personality, but is also giving me gag reflexes just by thinking about having to make out with him? YUCK!
Back to the book. Even though this book was mind-blowing and had me browsing the internet for hours on end when it comes to Eva and Hitler, I didn't end up with giving it 5 brownies, but 4 instead, due to a few reasons.
One is that there's a lot of German in the book. Now I can understand German just fine, so that wasn't an issue for me, but it was just too much. I can only imagine people who don't understand the language will get a bit frustrated with it. Luckily for them, though, the author does translate all of it into English as well right away, but still. I would've appreciated a little less German.
Then there's Anna's ignorance when it comes to finding things out about Eva Braun and her mother. I mean, if I can see things coming from a mile away, then what kind of reporter/researcher are you to be so blind to the information that is given to you? Maybe it has something to do with subjectivity.
The biggest problem I had (I don't know if you can really call it a problem, though, because I really liked this book) is the avalanche of revelations in the end. I can appreciate it when storylines are nicely tied up instead of having to guess half of their outcomes, yet it was about 10% (I honestly don't know how many pages that is) of revelation after revelation, coming to a point where I got a little confused about what was going on exactly.
That being said, the rest of the book is great, the author has a very pleasant writing style and a way of describing things which made me want to go back to Germany pronto. Apart from that, she gave Eva a voice, and a darn good one. I could feel the pain behind it and actually felt sorry for her tragic ending, in which she committed suicide together with Hitler in his underground bunker, just one day after he finally agreed to marry her.
Which brings me to the question you can ask yourself throughout the entire book: does Eva Braun deserve our sympathy?
I'm going to answer it by quoting a line from the book.
"One could look at another's life and judge or envy what it seemed to show. But things were almost always more complex than they appeared."
In my hours of reading and looking at all things Eva Braun, I encountered her home videos on Youtube. I think they are extremely fascinating to look at and they really correspond well with The Munich Girl because of certain scenes in it which describe Eva's life at Hitler's villa near Berchtesgaden. It's very interesting to actually see the terrace which Anna dreams and speaks about so often.
I'm recommending this book to everyone with even the slightest interest in history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQUp-...
A big thank you to Phyllis Edgerly Ring for providing me with a copy of her book in exchange for an honest review.
If you want to know more about this book and the author, this review was first published here, accompanied by an interview with Phyllis Edgerly Ring.
I think I already knew who Eva Braun was when I was around 8 years old, but I never actually knew the face and the story behind the wife of Hitler. I always imagined she was a stern looking lady, with dark brown hair (maybe due to her last name as well) and a riding crop in her hand. Someone to match Hitler perfectly. Now look at the cover of this book. That's actually Eva Braun.
The Munich Girl tells us the story of three women: Anna (the main character), Peggy (Anna's mother), and Eva Braun.
Anna's story takes place in 1995, exactly fifty years after the war has ended. Her mother has recently died and she and her husband Lowell are now living in her mother's old house. Lowell is a first class douchebag and Anna just meekly lets him order her around. When Lowell's life work, a giant volume on the life and times of Hitler, is about to be published, he forces Anna into editing an accompanying article for it in a magazine he owns. When Anna meets Hannes, a German guy, who's roughly the same age as her (Anna is fifty years old) and appointed by her husband as the new head of writing and editing for the magazine, she feels pulled towards him right away. Anna's mother was also from Germany which is one of the reasons why they instantly connect.
Hannes gives Anna the assignment to write an article about Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress/wife. When Anna starts digging into the subject, she discovers Eva was actually friends with her mother.
The story is told from three different perspectives: Anna's life in 1995, and Peggy and Eva's life pre- and post-wartime. There aren't only fifty plus year old flashbacks, but also flashbacks within 1995 itself: before and after a plane accident (this is no spoiler because the book starts with Anna looking back at the accident) Anna is involved in.
This book describes a journey towards finding out who Eva Braun was as a person and how that reflected on the lives of Anna and her mother.
The author did an amazing job at mixing historical fiction with historical facts. I sometimes forgot I was reading a novel instead of a biography. Even though relatively little is known about Eva and her relationship with Hitler, extensive research and filling in the gaps with fiction make Eva come alive as if she has only died recently, instead of almost 71 years ago.
I felt incredibly compelled to find out more about her while reading this book. She seems like such a warm person, with a sincere childlike playfulness to her. Which makes you wonder what on earth she was doing with Hitler? It wasn't as if she was unaware of the hideous atrocities he was committing at the time. She knew. Yet it's almost like she didn't care about any of it. As if all she ever wanted was to marry Hitler, live a normal life with him and have his babies. He was her sun and stars.
Their entire relationship reminds me a bit of the 'loverboy' phenomenon, in which young men recruit vulnerable young girls by seducing them and then pimping them out to their friends, and later on, strangers. I'm not comparing Hitler to a loverboy, but I'm comparing Eva Braun to those girls who are so madly in love with their 'captors' that they are willing to do anything for them, even though they know it's wrong. Until there is no way back.
Now this isn't an entirely fair comparison because technically, Eva was free to go at any time. She didn't even have to become a member of the Nazi party, apparently, because she never was one. 'Adi' was all that mattered to her and she was completely neutral when it came to his politics. In fact, it seems like she only hoped to win the war (or have it over with, at least) so they could finally settle down together and lead a normal life. Naive? Yes, but not a very uncommon behaviour because there are lots of women out there who make similar sacrifices to be with their men.
This is probably all she ever wanted.
I think Eva Braun just needed a really good therapist. And maybe some ECT along the way. I mean, it's pretty clear that she was suffering from some mental issues in the first place after trying to commit suicide twice because her boyfriend took her for granted. We can, again, still see that behaviour in people nowadays as well. It's safe to say that Eva suffered from fear of abandonment. As Anna, later on in the story, says about her life with Lowell:
"It's as if I have always felt, somehow, that I had to do the right thing, so he wouldn't stop loving me. Wouldn't leave."
I think this is what applied to Eva as well (and is actually a pretty big similarity when it comes to the relationships between Anna and Lowell, and Eva and Hitler).
"Adi had given her a life she would otherwise never had known. She would not betray this generosity, or relinquish the honor of being one of the few who had this trust."
Something I can't understand from a trivial point of view, though, is that Hitler appeared to be chronically flatulent, had very bad teeth and smelled like a cesspool not only from his balloon knot but also from his mouth. How can you be so smitten with someone who doesn't only have a horrible personality, but is also giving me gag reflexes just by thinking about having to make out with him? YUCK!
Back to the book. Even though this book was mind-blowing and had me browsing the internet for hours on end when it comes to Eva and Hitler, I didn't end up with giving it 5 brownies, but 4 instead, due to a few reasons.
One is that there's a lot of German in the book. Now I can understand German just fine, so that wasn't an issue for me, but it was just too much. I can only imagine people who don't understand the language will get a bit frustrated with it. Luckily for them, though, the author does translate all of it into English as well right away, but still. I would've appreciated a little less German.
Then there's Anna's ignorance when it comes to finding things out about Eva Braun and her mother. I mean, if I can see things coming from a mile away, then what kind of reporter/researcher are you to be so blind to the information that is given to you? Maybe it has something to do with subjectivity.
The biggest problem I had (I don't know if you can really call it a problem, though, because I really liked this book) is the avalanche of revelations in the end. I can appreciate it when storylines are nicely tied up instead of having to guess half of their outcomes, yet it was about 10% (I honestly don't know how many pages that is) of revelation after revelation, coming to a point where I got a little confused about what was going on exactly.
That being said, the rest of the book is great, the author has a very pleasant writing style and a way of describing things which made me want to go back to Germany pronto. Apart from that, she gave Eva a voice, and a darn good one. I could feel the pain behind it and actually felt sorry for her tragic ending, in which she committed suicide together with Hitler in his underground bunker, just one day after he finally agreed to marry her.
Which brings me to the question you can ask yourself throughout the entire book: does Eva Braun deserve our sympathy?
I'm going to answer it by quoting a line from the book.
"One could look at another's life and judge or envy what it seemed to show. But things were almost always more complex than they appeared."
In my hours of reading and looking at all things Eva Braun, I encountered her home videos on Youtube. I think they are extremely fascinating to look at and they really correspond well with The Munich Girl because of certain scenes in it which describe Eva's life at Hitler's villa near Berchtesgaden. It's very interesting to actually see the terrace which Anna dreams and speaks about so often.
I'm recommending this book to everyone with even the slightest interest in history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQUp-...
A big thank you to Phyllis Edgerly Ring for providing me with a copy of her book in exchange for an honest review.
If you want to know more about this book and the author, this review was first published here, accompanied by an interview with Phyllis Edgerly Ring.
February 2, 2018
The Munich Girl was a book I won in a giveaway, one of my favorite features on Goodreads. The intent in the Giveaway program, is to hopefully create a buzz for the author. The problem becomes, what if my review is not stellar? I have so much respect for the authors who pour their time and energy and lifeblood into a project, and who can create a book. I so don't want to do anything that would inhibit a reader from choosing this book - after all, I am just one person with one opinion, at one brief moment in time. I say this. My remarks may have been what hit the spot for me, but you may find the subject matter or the style of writing to suit your tastes far better. I'm not clear my thoughts would resonate with everyones. So my take my review as that - see if what I describe piques your interest.
For starters, this is a historical fiction book that centers on the elusive character of Eva Braun, renowned mistress and confidante of Adolf Hitler. I was immediately drawn into wanting to know more about her, even if the account was in part fictionalized. Much of this year is dedicated and devoted to a range of "Remarkable Women in Historical Fiction," so she "fit" for me. I still don't feel like I have a total grasp and hold on Eva, but I enjoyed learning more.
We find that the Munich Girl refers to Eva herself, the main character Anna, and Anna's mother Peggy, who orbited in the circle of Eva Braun. There is an unfolding story that links Anna to Eva and to her mother's history. That story is the part of the book that I really enjoyed.
Here are my observations however. (Note that I am trying not to use negative words like complaints or personal challenges. Again, I am making a vote for subjectivity and personal bias and taste.) Perhaps its just me or my momentary mood, but I found the writing and the story jumpy. It moves from various points of time in the present, to the recent present, to the unfolding past. I felt very jerked around in time. I don't mind dual storylines, past and present, I like them. But when it feels jumpy to me, and I don't know whether its happening now, last week, six months ago, or in 1938, I get a little crazy personally. So that was a personal challenge for me. I also found certain parts of it contrived, which I recognize is the mechanism about how most books are written. It may not be a worthy complaint. But the circumstances that everyone finds themselves in, felt like unnaturally placed and as vehicles to move the story, rather than a magical happenstance of unfolding that is life.
Anna is not a reliable reporter, despite the fact that in other places of the book, she is an intelligent researcher. However in some instances, she has the disorientation and clueless inability to make connections, similar to the lead female in Girl on a Train. I found her character inconsistent, and her mental capacity and intellect somewhat variable. Still, you want to root for her, all the while shaking her. The love story, feels a bit forced. Even if everyone can see it from the beginning, I like it to grow a little, and not have immediate obsession/devotion before it has a chance to build. I did like the unfolding story, I just wish it had flowed better for me, or got sectioned off differently. Its a different writing style to my preference. But as a commercial book, plenty would prefer it to what I would choose. I also wish the psychic experiences of mother and daughter were emphasized in a way that I could follow and integrate better. I certainly liked how it all came together in the end, but was still left wondering about Eva. I also wish I had a better handle on her, and understood her relationship with Peggy better.
Brava to the author, again I give you props for tackling a difficult and emotional topic, and producing a book. There's a lot in there that is good and worthy, despite my personal challenges with it. I wish you luck and love on your and its journey.
For starters, this is a historical fiction book that centers on the elusive character of Eva Braun, renowned mistress and confidante of Adolf Hitler. I was immediately drawn into wanting to know more about her, even if the account was in part fictionalized. Much of this year is dedicated and devoted to a range of "Remarkable Women in Historical Fiction," so she "fit" for me. I still don't feel like I have a total grasp and hold on Eva, but I enjoyed learning more.
We find that the Munich Girl refers to Eva herself, the main character Anna, and Anna's mother Peggy, who orbited in the circle of Eva Braun. There is an unfolding story that links Anna to Eva and to her mother's history. That story is the part of the book that I really enjoyed.
Here are my observations however. (Note that I am trying not to use negative words like complaints or personal challenges. Again, I am making a vote for subjectivity and personal bias and taste.) Perhaps its just me or my momentary mood, but I found the writing and the story jumpy. It moves from various points of time in the present, to the recent present, to the unfolding past. I felt very jerked around in time. I don't mind dual storylines, past and present, I like them. But when it feels jumpy to me, and I don't know whether its happening now, last week, six months ago, or in 1938, I get a little crazy personally. So that was a personal challenge for me. I also found certain parts of it contrived, which I recognize is the mechanism about how most books are written. It may not be a worthy complaint. But the circumstances that everyone finds themselves in, felt like unnaturally placed and as vehicles to move the story, rather than a magical happenstance of unfolding that is life.
Anna is not a reliable reporter, despite the fact that in other places of the book, she is an intelligent researcher. However in some instances, she has the disorientation and clueless inability to make connections, similar to the lead female in Girl on a Train. I found her character inconsistent, and her mental capacity and intellect somewhat variable. Still, you want to root for her, all the while shaking her. The love story, feels a bit forced. Even if everyone can see it from the beginning, I like it to grow a little, and not have immediate obsession/devotion before it has a chance to build. I did like the unfolding story, I just wish it had flowed better for me, or got sectioned off differently. Its a different writing style to my preference. But as a commercial book, plenty would prefer it to what I would choose. I also wish the psychic experiences of mother and daughter were emphasized in a way that I could follow and integrate better. I certainly liked how it all came together in the end, but was still left wondering about Eva. I also wish I had a better handle on her, and understood her relationship with Peggy better.
Brava to the author, again I give you props for tackling a difficult and emotional topic, and producing a book. There's a lot in there that is good and worthy, despite my personal challenges with it. I wish you luck and love on your and its journey.
February 6, 2016
I got this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
My Review (may contain spoilers!):
During my read of this novel, there were times that I wasn’t sure if it was fiction or not. The information spread throughout the story seems so realistic that you would think you were reading a memoir from Hitler’s time.
Of course, I don’t know too much about that time period so I’m not entirely sure exactly how much of the information was true and how much was fiction. However, I enjoyed following Anna on her journey as she researched her mother’s past as well as Hitler’s mistress.
I enjoyed the characters enough that I actually cared about what Anna was going to find about her past. Every character was well written and developed well. The only character I had a problem with was Anna’s husband… But I’m sure we’re not really supposed to like him.
I loved the subtle genres in this novel. It’s historical fiction, with a hint of mystery and romance. I love mysteries and it was fun to piece together Anna’s past along with her and Hannes.
Speaking of Anna and Hannes, their romance was perfect. I’m not one for romance, but their love story was subtle enough that we knew they were a match, but it took time. It wasn’t dramatic love-at-first-sight.
The writing style fit the story as well as the timeline for the story. Phyllis Edgerly Ring wrote this story perfectly. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t normally read this genre.
The Munich Girl by Phyllis Edgerly Ring gets 5 out of 5 stars.
Favorite Quote:
“And I think there’s wisdom in those dreams. Your heart knows there’s only one thing worth searching for. And it has absolutely nothing to do with him.” –Phyllis Edgerly Ring, The Munich Girl
My Review (may contain spoilers!):
During my read of this novel, there were times that I wasn’t sure if it was fiction or not. The information spread throughout the story seems so realistic that you would think you were reading a memoir from Hitler’s time.
Of course, I don’t know too much about that time period so I’m not entirely sure exactly how much of the information was true and how much was fiction. However, I enjoyed following Anna on her journey as she researched her mother’s past as well as Hitler’s mistress.
I enjoyed the characters enough that I actually cared about what Anna was going to find about her past. Every character was well written and developed well. The only character I had a problem with was Anna’s husband… But I’m sure we’re not really supposed to like him.
I loved the subtle genres in this novel. It’s historical fiction, with a hint of mystery and romance. I love mysteries and it was fun to piece together Anna’s past along with her and Hannes.
Speaking of Anna and Hannes, their romance was perfect. I’m not one for romance, but their love story was subtle enough that we knew they were a match, but it took time. It wasn’t dramatic love-at-first-sight.
The writing style fit the story as well as the timeline for the story. Phyllis Edgerly Ring wrote this story perfectly. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t normally read this genre.
The Munich Girl by Phyllis Edgerly Ring gets 5 out of 5 stars.
Favorite Quote:
“And I think there’s wisdom in those dreams. Your heart knows there’s only one thing worth searching for. And it has absolutely nothing to do with him.” –Phyllis Edgerly Ring, The Munich Girl
January 13, 2021
First chapter of this book was very baffling for me because it looks like it was taken from the middle of the story and shifted to the beginning. So it starts with fifty-something Anna, sitting on a plane to Munich. She is fighting with recollections of a traumatic flight that nearly killed her but is determined to suffer through. After the first chapter we are suddenly getting transported couple months back to meet Lowell, Anna's despicable husband, and Hannes, Anna's super-handsome colleague. As you can foresee the romance will ensue with Anna behaving like a teenager (she decides that Hannes is not interested in her because he is talking to another woman), Hannes becoming increasingly attentive (to the levels of being creepy) and Lowell becoming more and more repulsive. In a meantime we will get a family mystery with very out-of-blue inserts of suicide and rape sprinkled with references to Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress/wife. Did I mentioned that there will be a cute bakery too? And lost family and dreams that foretell the future and amnesia. A lot of things happen in this book so I guess everyone will find something interesting for them. I really enjoyed pieces of it (I am a sucker for bakeries and multigenerational families!) and was disappointed with others (it felt like the parts about Eva Braun were a bit detached and didn't fit the overall story and Hannes was giving me real creeps). Solid read with few complains.
My thanks to author for sharing her book with me.
My thanks to author for sharing her book with me.
November 24, 2015
Phyllis Ring in 'The Munich Girl' masterfully weaves an intriguing story that draws the reader in wanting to know more as each page is turned and soon you discover that it is both a mystery and a love story. It is a story of a woman’s quest to discover why there was a portrait of Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler’s mistress, hanging on the wall in her family’s dining room and just what connection if any, Braun had with her family. The story introduces us to Eva Braun and the time just before and during World War II in Germany. But it is also so much more. It is about the human spirit, survival, friendship, love, betrayal, discovery and denial as the reader is seamlessly taken on a journey through time and place. Ring draws the reader in with her unique ability to bring her characters to life—and compels you to want to get to know them. Although this is a work of fiction, it is also an historical portrait about real life characters. Ring expertly paints a mosaic through dialogue and setting that allows for the possibility to imagine that this story just might have taken place.
Anyone who enjoys a good mystery, a love story, and/or history will thoroughly enjoy 'The Munich Girl' by Phyllis Ring.
Anyone who enjoys a good mystery, a love story, and/or history will thoroughly enjoy 'The Munich Girl' by Phyllis Ring.
January 3, 2016
I read a number of excellent novels in 2015 all of which offered various perspectives on the events of World War 2, and I learned much that I’d never fully grasped before. The Munich Girl is a highly original slant on what by the end of the year had become a story I felt I knew by heart. Not so! This took me into the very epicentre of what felt like the most taboo of places – the relationship between Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. The novel was sent to me as a gift, and what an amazing gift it turned out to be. It kept me gripped from the first page to the very last, all through the December winter holidays. The author has skilfully woven a captivating, emotional story of empowerment unfolding in present time about her central character, Anna, juxtaposed with that of her German mother, Peggy, whose secret friendship with Eva Braun is gradually revealed through her diaries and her own fictionalised account of Eva’s last days. There are parallels in both their lives, and intriguing psychic connections that are never overplayed but which resonate throughout the novel. Phyllis Edgerly Ring is a masterful story teller who must have researched meticulously and dug deep into her own feelings to bring to such vibrant life the events and people of the time before and after Hitler’s rise to power. What makes this book so memorable and affecting is the emotional content. A book has succeeded for me when I forget entirely the author behind the words and become so immersed in the story that the characters are real for me – so real that when they face grief or joy, I feel it too. At times tears flowed as I kept on reading - as mesmerised by Eva and Peggy’s story as is Peggy’s daughter, Anna, reading her mother’s journal. Even knowing that Eva’s story can only end one way, reduced to utter despair in the bunker with Hitler, I had to discover how that came about. To create a genuine rounded person out of the dark myth that surrounds Eva Braun is a real accomplishment, and this author’s writing is so richly multi-layered and fluent it kept me spellbound. This exemplary novel doesn’t simply explore the fictionalised relationship between Eva and Peggy and the men they love, but is a fascinating insight into the plight of the ordinary German people, trying to continue their everyday lives despite all the deprivations brought about by the Nazi regime and the constant bombardments by the allies. And Anna herself ... her story is beautifully, soulfully written, with a denouement that touched as well as surprised me. This is a book I urge you to read – one that will stay with you, which you will want to read again and share with others, as I have done. I am delighted to have discovered this brilliant author and look forward to reading more of her work.
March 22, 2017
Anna Dahlberg’s mother, Peggy has asked her to come over to talk. She has something important to tell her. However, Peggy dies before Anna can get there. What did she want to tell her? Not long after, Anna moved into her mother’s house with her husband, Lowell. Lowell has been writing a book about Hitler and also owns a magazine called “The Fighting Chance”. Although Anna has a job lined up, Lowell demands that she write some articles for the magazine to help the promotion of his upcoming book.
A German man by the name of Hannes runs the magazine for Lowell and he respects Anna’s work, unlike her husband. Anna and Hannes decide that she should write an article on Eve Braun, Hitler’s mistress. She gets to work with research and is surprised at what she finds. It turns out that Eve was friends with Anna’s mother. As she digs deeper, Anna unearths many family secrets.
The Munich Girl is told by Anna and her mother, Peggy, via a manuscript Anna found. It shifts back and forth from the 1990’s to World War II. It is a story of the self discovery of Anna Dahlberg, lost family, history, romance, and of course, the real life person from history, Eve Braun.
I was a bit worried about how I would feel reading about Hitler’s mistress. How could anyone have cared for the monster, let alone slept with him, willingly. However, woman throughout history have made poor choices in men. I included, my first husband was not a nice person. So over the course of the book, I did build some sympathy for Eva. I would have liked an author’s note at the end of the book to find out if that sympathy was really warranted. I loved Anna’s character and how she developed and grew over time. Actually all of the characters were well drawn out. The sense of time and place were also well written and Phyllis Edgerly Ring’s descriptions of World War II Germany were excellent. I highly recommend ‘The Munich Girl’!
4.5/5
A German man by the name of Hannes runs the magazine for Lowell and he respects Anna’s work, unlike her husband. Anna and Hannes decide that she should write an article on Eve Braun, Hitler’s mistress. She gets to work with research and is surprised at what she finds. It turns out that Eve was friends with Anna’s mother. As she digs deeper, Anna unearths many family secrets.
The Munich Girl is told by Anna and her mother, Peggy, via a manuscript Anna found. It shifts back and forth from the 1990’s to World War II. It is a story of the self discovery of Anna Dahlberg, lost family, history, romance, and of course, the real life person from history, Eve Braun.
I was a bit worried about how I would feel reading about Hitler’s mistress. How could anyone have cared for the monster, let alone slept with him, willingly. However, woman throughout history have made poor choices in men. I included, my first husband was not a nice person. So over the course of the book, I did build some sympathy for Eva. I would have liked an author’s note at the end of the book to find out if that sympathy was really warranted. I loved Anna’s character and how she developed and grew over time. Actually all of the characters were well drawn out. The sense of time and place were also well written and Phyllis Edgerly Ring’s descriptions of World War II Germany were excellent. I highly recommend ‘The Munich Girl’!
4.5/5
March 13, 2016
An uplifting (and in parts sad) story
Bear with me when I am talking about myself. I am German and both my parents have lived through WWII and it was something we often talked about in my family. And in my time at school we were taught a lot about the war and Nazism. Later I read a lot of articles and several books about this dark period of German history. But for some reason I always shied away from learning more about Eva Braun, probably because I couldn’t understand why a young woman would willingly devote herself to a man like Hitler. So when I learned that Phyllis Edgerly Ring had written a book about her I became very curious.
I like the picture that the author has drawn of Eva Braun, her pride and her ambition, her insecurities and loneliness, her devotion and heartbreaking friendship and the story of her life.
But, and this is more important: This book is offering so much more. The story of three women (and only one of them is Eva) and how their lives crossed and intertwined. The story of a family and their complicated, but heartwarming connections. And even a love story I enjoyed. (And I seldom enjoy love stories, mostly they are too cheesy and sweet.)
Bear with me when I am talking about myself. I am German and both my parents have lived through WWII and it was something we often talked about in my family. And in my time at school we were taught a lot about the war and Nazism. Later I read a lot of articles and several books about this dark period of German history. But for some reason I always shied away from learning more about Eva Braun, probably because I couldn’t understand why a young woman would willingly devote herself to a man like Hitler. So when I learned that Phyllis Edgerly Ring had written a book about her I became very curious.
I like the picture that the author has drawn of Eva Braun, her pride and her ambition, her insecurities and loneliness, her devotion and heartbreaking friendship and the story of her life.
But, and this is more important: This book is offering so much more. The story of three women (and only one of them is Eva) and how their lives crossed and intertwined. The story of a family and their complicated, but heartwarming connections. And even a love story I enjoyed. (And I seldom enjoy love stories, mostly they are too cheesy and sweet.)
January 7, 2016
With her new book, The Munich Girl, author Phyllis Edgerly Ring points out that an entire nation can’t be understood or explained with one label.
She does this by examining the life of one almost-invisible woman: Eva Braun, the “Munich Girl” who was Hitler’s mistress from the time the seventeen-year-old girl met the man over twenty years her senior until their wedding followed a day later by her suicide at his side when she was 33.
Although The Munich Girl has the feel of a memoir, it is a historical fiction that tells the story of three women. We first meet Anna, an American woman married to history professor Lowell. Anna has grown up in a house full of secrets, one of which is her father Rod’s war-spoils portrait that has hung in their dining room all her life. The second is her mother, Peggy, who has died just before the story begins. And of course, the third is Eva, and her doomed relationship with Adolf Hitler. As Anna is clearing out Peggy’s house, she comes across a manuscript that tells both Peggy’s story and that of her unlikely friend, Eva.
Anna’s story is told in alternating points of view. First we have her own experience as a child born in Germany at the end of the war, but raised in the United States. Having grown up feeling like an outsider and desperate to belong, she subverts her entire life into supporting her husband Lowell’s career and goals. When he orders her to work at an inherited family magazine that he thinks will help his career, she is at first reluctant but then captivated by her assignments, including Eva Braun’s story. But most of all she’s drawn to the magazine’s German-American editor, Hannes. But when Anna finds that her mother knew Eva Braun, and when she starts to suspect that Peggy’s secrets go beyond the portrait signed with Adolf Hitler’s initials, Anna’s interest becomes an obsession.
This is an amazing story full of layers and meaning. The settings are beautifully detailed and seem both timeless and perfectly anchored in their little bubbles of time. But within those stories, author Phyllis Edgerly Ring has created three fully-realized women who are very different, but who manage to have so many themes in common.
One theme is the deals women make with themselves to allow others to achieve happiness or satisfaction, often by denying themselves those very things.
[Quote:] This was the incomplete “bargain” she had accepted in return for the love she offered, when Lowell hadn’t been any more capable of real sharing than Rod had. Or Hitler. Hadn’t ever truly been available to her at all. [End quote]
Another theme is the secrets we keep from others and from ourselves. The one question that history demands of Germany—how could you follow a monster like Hitler?—is brought down to the personal level. Why would Eva remain with Hitler? Why would Peggy leave her love behind to go to America with Rod, a man she doesn’t love? Why would Anna stay with Lowell when he doesn’t make any attempt to understand or support her? The obvious answer—for love—is actually incidental to the real answer, which is control. Hitler and the Nazis have control in Germany. The men in this book have overt control over the women. But the women carve back their own hard-won, often secretive methods of controlling at least parts of their destinies. As Peggy promises to the memory of Eva:
[Quote:] Why must I always choose one thing and deny or lose another, when both are a part of me? It’s no different than when the Nazis pressed so hard to control everything, and the only safety was in shuttering the voice of your own heart.
If I cannot speak of you, I’ll carry you with me in shrouded silence, like the church bells in Lübeck they’re going to leave where they fell to earth the night that city was bombed. So as to never forget. I’ll set Nadelkissen’s watch to the time you died—almost 3:30 on a beautiful spring day—and never wind it again.
I refuse to choose between two things this time. I’ll bring them both with me. [End quote]
This book has so many layers that I couldn’t possibly name all the other themes. But there are a few which stood out for me:
* Like the portrait of Eva Braun and the manuscript Anna finds at her mother’s house, there are so many realities hidden in plain sight, but there for those who commit to searching out their truths. For example, Anna’s husband Lowell is frustrated with her fascination with Eva Braun.
[Quote:] When Anna didn’t reply, Lowell said, “She was a nobody, Anna. In the scheme of things, she just doesn’t matter.”
“To you, you mean? Or to ‘historians’?” Anna spoke the word derisively.
“Yes. That’s a point you and others have made plain enough.
“But believe it or not,” her voice grew quieter now, “she matters to some people. We look at her life. Then maybe we look at our own, and begin to see things.”
Lowell all but snorted, “What? More ways men have wronged women?”
“No, Lowell. We see the truth. About what it is we don’t do, when we could make different choices. And we begin to see what it is we do instead.” [End quote]
History labels Hitler a monster, and quite rightly so. But the problem with giving someone a larger-than-life reality is that it masks the fact that they are human beings who made choices, as did the human beings around them. By re-humanizing Hitler through his affair with Eva Braun, the author doesn’t attempt to rehabilitate him but rather to explain Eva’s choices. These choices are reflected against those made by Peggy and by Anna as well. Lowell is Anna’s “Hitler” in the sense that he robs her of her own identity as surely as Hitler does when he consigns Eva and their relationship to complete anonymity. Rod does it when his hatred of Germans leads Peggy to deny her own family. Anna’s husband Lowell not only denies her right to her own identity, but he literally steps on her when their plane is on fire so that he can escape himself. So Anna’s vision of his death (set in the Berlin bunker where Hitler and Braun committed suicide) is both a connection to the past and a premonition of the future. The difference is that where it eventually frees Anna to grow into her own person, it kills Eva.
[Quote:] The “triumph” of life with Hitler also brought an enforced invisibility that weighed on her as the years dragged by. From that point, Anna knew, it required a great deal of fantasy, and of medicating herself with alcohol and pills, for Eva to keep her illusions alive. She had to focus entirely on the prize, rather than the price it exacted. [End quote]
Life with Hitler also required that she relinquish the opportunity to make any decisions about her own future. Even when he left doors open to her about her life, she, almost reflexively, stepped forward to close them, to close off any possibility of self-determination, and the possible loss of her dream.
This is already an overly-long review, so I probably shouldn’t go into the beautiful metaphors that sweep through, such as the juxtaposition of the “whole sky” image that Eva longs for with the “fog” that is artificially created by machines designed to hide the existence of the Nazi’s bunker. [**I did love that the name the author chose for her self-publishing is “Whole Sky”!]
There are also a few things that I disliked intensely on the first read through (although much less the second time once I had the whole story). While the women’s characters are well-developed, the men—even the perfect Hannes—come across as somewhat flat, almost caricatures. Even more difficult is that there are no good fathers. Eva, Peggy, and Anna’s fathers sexually and physically abuse their daughters. And even Hannes, while mouthing all the correct feminist-supporting statements, painfully extends the tension between himself and Anna WAY longer than seems even remotely reasonable to “protect” her but actually because of his own fears.
Also troubling is that the relationship between Peggy and Eva—apparently life-shaking to Peggy—was based on just a handful of meetings between the two. Nevertheless, in Peggy’s manuscript she seems privy to all of Eva’s most secret thoughts and wishes, despite the fact that the two never reveal details to each other of their private lives or lovers.
So—did author Phyllis Edgerly Ring do it? Did she convince me that Eva was a compelling person with good reasons for her actions? Were the shared pieces of her life, the revelation that Eva might have been at least partially responsible for preventing the deaths of over thirty-five thousand prisoners at the end of the war, the meticulous research and descriptions of life in wartime Germany enough? Do I like the woman while agreeing with Peggy that I hate the monster she loved?
No. I believe that with the length of time Eva spent as Hitler’s mistress, she did nothing to influence events or show any signs that she didn’t agree with him. The fact that there was probably very little she could do doesn’t help here. But I do believe that within the bounds of historical fiction, The Munich Girl presents a fascinating, well-researched, and thought-provoking look at women, their choices, and their compromises. For that it deserves every one of five stars.
*I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
She does this by examining the life of one almost-invisible woman: Eva Braun, the “Munich Girl” who was Hitler’s mistress from the time the seventeen-year-old girl met the man over twenty years her senior until their wedding followed a day later by her suicide at his side when she was 33.
Although The Munich Girl has the feel of a memoir, it is a historical fiction that tells the story of three women. We first meet Anna, an American woman married to history professor Lowell. Anna has grown up in a house full of secrets, one of which is her father Rod’s war-spoils portrait that has hung in their dining room all her life. The second is her mother, Peggy, who has died just before the story begins. And of course, the third is Eva, and her doomed relationship with Adolf Hitler. As Anna is clearing out Peggy’s house, she comes across a manuscript that tells both Peggy’s story and that of her unlikely friend, Eva.
Anna’s story is told in alternating points of view. First we have her own experience as a child born in Germany at the end of the war, but raised in the United States. Having grown up feeling like an outsider and desperate to belong, she subverts her entire life into supporting her husband Lowell’s career and goals. When he orders her to work at an inherited family magazine that he thinks will help his career, she is at first reluctant but then captivated by her assignments, including Eva Braun’s story. But most of all she’s drawn to the magazine’s German-American editor, Hannes. But when Anna finds that her mother knew Eva Braun, and when she starts to suspect that Peggy’s secrets go beyond the portrait signed with Adolf Hitler’s initials, Anna’s interest becomes an obsession.
This is an amazing story full of layers and meaning. The settings are beautifully detailed and seem both timeless and perfectly anchored in their little bubbles of time. But within those stories, author Phyllis Edgerly Ring has created three fully-realized women who are very different, but who manage to have so many themes in common.
One theme is the deals women make with themselves to allow others to achieve happiness or satisfaction, often by denying themselves those very things.
[Quote:] This was the incomplete “bargain” she had accepted in return for the love she offered, when Lowell hadn’t been any more capable of real sharing than Rod had. Or Hitler. Hadn’t ever truly been available to her at all. [End quote]
Another theme is the secrets we keep from others and from ourselves. The one question that history demands of Germany—how could you follow a monster like Hitler?—is brought down to the personal level. Why would Eva remain with Hitler? Why would Peggy leave her love behind to go to America with Rod, a man she doesn’t love? Why would Anna stay with Lowell when he doesn’t make any attempt to understand or support her? The obvious answer—for love—is actually incidental to the real answer, which is control. Hitler and the Nazis have control in Germany. The men in this book have overt control over the women. But the women carve back their own hard-won, often secretive methods of controlling at least parts of their destinies. As Peggy promises to the memory of Eva:
[Quote:] Why must I always choose one thing and deny or lose another, when both are a part of me? It’s no different than when the Nazis pressed so hard to control everything, and the only safety was in shuttering the voice of your own heart.
If I cannot speak of you, I’ll carry you with me in shrouded silence, like the church bells in Lübeck they’re going to leave where they fell to earth the night that city was bombed. So as to never forget. I’ll set Nadelkissen’s watch to the time you died—almost 3:30 on a beautiful spring day—and never wind it again.
I refuse to choose between two things this time. I’ll bring them both with me. [End quote]
This book has so many layers that I couldn’t possibly name all the other themes. But there are a few which stood out for me:
* Like the portrait of Eva Braun and the manuscript Anna finds at her mother’s house, there are so many realities hidden in plain sight, but there for those who commit to searching out their truths. For example, Anna’s husband Lowell is frustrated with her fascination with Eva Braun.
[Quote:] When Anna didn’t reply, Lowell said, “She was a nobody, Anna. In the scheme of things, she just doesn’t matter.”
“To you, you mean? Or to ‘historians’?” Anna spoke the word derisively.
“Yes. That’s a point you and others have made plain enough.
“But believe it or not,” her voice grew quieter now, “she matters to some people. We look at her life. Then maybe we look at our own, and begin to see things.”
Lowell all but snorted, “What? More ways men have wronged women?”
“No, Lowell. We see the truth. About what it is we don’t do, when we could make different choices. And we begin to see what it is we do instead.” [End quote]
History labels Hitler a monster, and quite rightly so. But the problem with giving someone a larger-than-life reality is that it masks the fact that they are human beings who made choices, as did the human beings around them. By re-humanizing Hitler through his affair with Eva Braun, the author doesn’t attempt to rehabilitate him but rather to explain Eva’s choices. These choices are reflected against those made by Peggy and by Anna as well. Lowell is Anna’s “Hitler” in the sense that he robs her of her own identity as surely as Hitler does when he consigns Eva and their relationship to complete anonymity. Rod does it when his hatred of Germans leads Peggy to deny her own family. Anna’s husband Lowell not only denies her right to her own identity, but he literally steps on her when their plane is on fire so that he can escape himself. So Anna’s vision of his death (set in the Berlin bunker where Hitler and Braun committed suicide) is both a connection to the past and a premonition of the future. The difference is that where it eventually frees Anna to grow into her own person, it kills Eva.
[Quote:] The “triumph” of life with Hitler also brought an enforced invisibility that weighed on her as the years dragged by. From that point, Anna knew, it required a great deal of fantasy, and of medicating herself with alcohol and pills, for Eva to keep her illusions alive. She had to focus entirely on the prize, rather than the price it exacted. [End quote]
Life with Hitler also required that she relinquish the opportunity to make any decisions about her own future. Even when he left doors open to her about her life, she, almost reflexively, stepped forward to close them, to close off any possibility of self-determination, and the possible loss of her dream.
This is already an overly-long review, so I probably shouldn’t go into the beautiful metaphors that sweep through, such as the juxtaposition of the “whole sky” image that Eva longs for with the “fog” that is artificially created by machines designed to hide the existence of the Nazi’s bunker. [**I did love that the name the author chose for her self-publishing is “Whole Sky”!]
There are also a few things that I disliked intensely on the first read through (although much less the second time once I had the whole story). While the women’s characters are well-developed, the men—even the perfect Hannes—come across as somewhat flat, almost caricatures. Even more difficult is that there are no good fathers. Eva, Peggy, and Anna’s fathers sexually and physically abuse their daughters. And even Hannes, while mouthing all the correct feminist-supporting statements, painfully extends the tension between himself and Anna WAY longer than seems even remotely reasonable to “protect” her but actually because of his own fears.
Also troubling is that the relationship between Peggy and Eva—apparently life-shaking to Peggy—was based on just a handful of meetings between the two. Nevertheless, in Peggy’s manuscript she seems privy to all of Eva’s most secret thoughts and wishes, despite the fact that the two never reveal details to each other of their private lives or lovers.
So—did author Phyllis Edgerly Ring do it? Did she convince me that Eva was a compelling person with good reasons for her actions? Were the shared pieces of her life, the revelation that Eva might have been at least partially responsible for preventing the deaths of over thirty-five thousand prisoners at the end of the war, the meticulous research and descriptions of life in wartime Germany enough? Do I like the woman while agreeing with Peggy that I hate the monster she loved?
No. I believe that with the length of time Eva spent as Hitler’s mistress, she did nothing to influence events or show any signs that she didn’t agree with him. The fact that there was probably very little she could do doesn’t help here. But I do believe that within the bounds of historical fiction, The Munich Girl presents a fascinating, well-researched, and thought-provoking look at women, their choices, and their compromises. For that it deserves every one of five stars.
*I received this book for free from the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
October 13, 2016
3.5 stars. In "The Munich Girl," Anna loses her mother in the mid-nineties and becomes keenly interested in learning more about her mother's life in Germany in World War II. Although Anna was incredibly close to her mother, she knows very little about her life in her younger years. As Anna begins to put the pieces together, she realizes that her mother knew Eva Braun (yes, that one), whose portrait hung above their table at home throughout Anna's life. Anna thought the portrait was simply war booty her father brought home and didn't know that perhaps her mother was hiding a personal connection to Hitler's infamous mistress.
Eva Braun is infamous. Even as a history lover, I did not know much about her at all besides the fact that she was Hitler's mistress. This book sheds light on the fact that at one point, she was just another German schoolgirl as Peggy, Anna's mother is in this book. The juxtaposition between who she was and who she became was absolutely fascinating. It is easy to see how the author was drawn to telling this story.
There is also the juxtaposition of Peggy and Eva's lives. They both start out as schoolgirls when they first meet. The narrative moves forward a few years per chapter so we don't get a good sense of how entangled they are or how much they really see of each other. I wish we would have gotten more of a sense of it throughout the book. Peggy goes on to have her life totally upended by the war. Because of who her lover is, Eva still lives a fairly luxurious life. She can still have strong coffee overlooking the mountains. It was so interesting to see this comparison and this really pulled me into the book.
It is clear that the author did a lot of research in order to write this book. A lot of the detail is fascinating and adds to the story. In some cases though, the narrative veers into too much telling and not enough showing, which took me out of the book both with facts as well as what characters are thinking or doing. The book definitely could have been streamlined in order to further pound the salient points of the book home.
Overall, this was an insightful historical fiction read!
Eva Braun is infamous. Even as a history lover, I did not know much about her at all besides the fact that she was Hitler's mistress. This book sheds light on the fact that at one point, she was just another German schoolgirl as Peggy, Anna's mother is in this book. The juxtaposition between who she was and who she became was absolutely fascinating. It is easy to see how the author was drawn to telling this story.
There is also the juxtaposition of Peggy and Eva's lives. They both start out as schoolgirls when they first meet. The narrative moves forward a few years per chapter so we don't get a good sense of how entangled they are or how much they really see of each other. I wish we would have gotten more of a sense of it throughout the book. Peggy goes on to have her life totally upended by the war. Because of who her lover is, Eva still lives a fairly luxurious life. She can still have strong coffee overlooking the mountains. It was so interesting to see this comparison and this really pulled me into the book.
It is clear that the author did a lot of research in order to write this book. A lot of the detail is fascinating and adds to the story. In some cases though, the narrative veers into too much telling and not enough showing, which took me out of the book both with facts as well as what characters are thinking or doing. The book definitely could have been streamlined in order to further pound the salient points of the book home.
Overall, this was an insightful historical fiction read!
June 23, 2016
Finished reading: June 16th 2016
"Exiting onto the street, I heard a chorus of bells from three churches, then saw the blood-red banners with their dark Swastikas everywhere I turned. I'm accustomed to this in Berlin, but seeing them on these lovely old façades is like finding graffiti scrawled on my grandmother's house. The Nazis are relentless with this display, like dogs marking territory."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
P.S. Find more of my reviews here.
April 29, 2018
When you take a look at the cover, you'll see a Nazi banner with swastika on it, half-hidden behind the eaves of the houses. The girl in the foreground is Eva Braun nee Hitler, but really, it could be any young blonde girl who lived somewhere around the middle of the last century.
This book is, in a way, exactly what its cover promises it to be: a presentation of a horrifying and abominable historical moment and people as normal, self-contained, inconsequential, sympathetic and romantic. It has two alternate storylines, one about Eva Braun and one about a woman named Anna, who has some family connections with Eva. The latter is the star of the book and is more or less as an infinitely charming and kind young woman who – eh, might as well use a citation:
“A woman who had loved a man the whole word despised, and chosen to die with him.”
Oh, fiction could and should go there, by all means. Fiction should go there and everywhere, and the love story of Hitler and Braun is firmly on the safe side, as far as controversial topics go. But please, if you are writing about Hitler and Braun and their time, don’t just use their names and dates, don’t put up cardboard figures against a blank piece of paper and pretend they are the real thing. Hitler is not a despised, tragic figure. He had and STILL HAS legions of followers and fans who worship him and the intellectual fireworks he produced. Eva has her own league of admirers, just take a look at the YouTube comments under the charming movies and photos featuring her and dedicated to her. This is an ongoing battle.
Yes, Braun wasn’t involved in politics, she passively benefitted from whatever was going on. (There’s almost no mention of politics in the book, basically nothing too vivid or realistic, some good guys are conveniently rescuing some Jewish people, bad people get quickly uninvited from the plot, perhaps there’s an unfortunate shortage of victuals somewhere, the works. Can’t remember really.) And it seems that Hitler did want to retire and take her with him to live in a chalet deep in the Alps or wherever it was. Braun objected. Get thee back to work, Adolf, I haven’t had my fill of brand Italian clothes and dances with Fegelein yet. A girl’s got to have some fun, no?
One star for Anna’s storyline.
This book is, in a way, exactly what its cover promises it to be: a presentation of a horrifying and abominable historical moment and people as normal, self-contained, inconsequential, sympathetic and romantic. It has two alternate storylines, one about Eva Braun and one about a woman named Anna, who has some family connections with Eva. The latter is the star of the book and is more or less as an infinitely charming and kind young woman who – eh, might as well use a citation:
“A woman who had loved a man the whole word despised, and chosen to die with him.”
Oh, fiction could and should go there, by all means. Fiction should go there and everywhere, and the love story of Hitler and Braun is firmly on the safe side, as far as controversial topics go. But please, if you are writing about Hitler and Braun and their time, don’t just use their names and dates, don’t put up cardboard figures against a blank piece of paper and pretend they are the real thing. Hitler is not a despised, tragic figure. He had and STILL HAS legions of followers and fans who worship him and the intellectual fireworks he produced. Eva has her own league of admirers, just take a look at the YouTube comments under the charming movies and photos featuring her and dedicated to her. This is an ongoing battle.
Yes, Braun wasn’t involved in politics, she passively benefitted from whatever was going on. (There’s almost no mention of politics in the book, basically nothing too vivid or realistic, some good guys are conveniently rescuing some Jewish people, bad people get quickly uninvited from the plot, perhaps there’s an unfortunate shortage of victuals somewhere, the works. Can’t remember really.) And it seems that Hitler did want to retire and take her with him to live in a chalet deep in the Alps or wherever it was. Braun objected. Get thee back to work, Adolf, I haven’t had my fill of brand Italian clothes and dances with Fegelein yet. A girl’s got to have some fun, no?
One star for Anna’s storyline.
February 23, 2016
I tend to judge a book’s ‘likability’ by the depth of the inner struggle I find myself to be in during the final chapters, or the lack of a struggle, as the case may be. It is the tug-of-war to rush to my little reading nook and devour the pages, and the slowing of my pace to postphone the inevitable ending, having to say goodbye to the characters I have come to know and to love. The latter is how I found myself during the final chapters of “The Munich Girl.” I was so drawn into the characters, the story, and the history of the novel that I was not ready to say goodbye. I was walking the streets; sitting in the rooms; listening in on personal conversations; smiling; and sometimes teary eyed due to the struggles endured by the lives brought to life on the pages of “The Munich Girl.”
Phyllis has found a wonderful blend of fact and story. It is difficult to know where the ‘real’ ends and the ‘possible’ begins. Reading “The Munich Girl” was like taking a journey to another place and another time. Imagining myself in the world and circumstances of people and a life a world and time away from me. The story weaves itself across continents and decades, and is a beautiful image of the way our lives are not only connected to those we know and share life with, but with those in our past, whom we may or may not even be aware of. Also, we can never look at a person and know everything about them; inner struggles which color choices; past occurances which shape their view of life; the ability to make decisions; and personality traits which make them sometimes ill-equiped to deal with life. As the author states “One could look at another’s life and judge or envy what it seemed to show. But things were almost always more complex than they apperared.” This was and is still true, of everyone we meet. Thank you, Phyllis, for your tireless research and for giving these characters life. And most of all, thank you for sharing them with us.
Phyllis has found a wonderful blend of fact and story. It is difficult to know where the ‘real’ ends and the ‘possible’ begins. Reading “The Munich Girl” was like taking a journey to another place and another time. Imagining myself in the world and circumstances of people and a life a world and time away from me. The story weaves itself across continents and decades, and is a beautiful image of the way our lives are not only connected to those we know and share life with, but with those in our past, whom we may or may not even be aware of. Also, we can never look at a person and know everything about them; inner struggles which color choices; past occurances which shape their view of life; the ability to make decisions; and personality traits which make them sometimes ill-equiped to deal with life. As the author states “One could look at another’s life and judge or envy what it seemed to show. But things were almost always more complex than they apperared.” This was and is still true, of everyone we meet. Thank you, Phyllis, for your tireless research and for giving these characters life. And most of all, thank you for sharing them with us.
February 11, 2016
The Munich Girl
Phyllis Edgerly Ring is a profound story teller, choosing to use flash
backs to time in Germany before, during and after World War II. The
Munich Girl is a tale of two young girls who meet one another at
serendipitous times in their lives and sustain one another. The
surrounding society is encased in secrets and mysteries and horrors
from the ensuing war.
The story reverts back to Anna and her relationships, and The Munich
Girl leads the reader into layers of events, and reveals a story startling
and close to the bone. The reader will marvel at fiction that is so
authentic. It is a well researched novel, and the author presents
stories to the reader seamlessly.
By the end of the book, which obviously can't be revealed, I was
astounded by the larger meaning that this book brings to our eyes.
Archetypally, good and evil are examined. A once reviled figure and
obscure figure now in this contemporary society is brought into the
story as a major character with redeeming qualities. Everyone,
everyone I know, and those I don't know speak of evil and the first
name on a person's lips is that of "Hitler," who is the
personification of evil. But what of Eva Braun? And there is the
rub. The novel serves a higher purpose, and presenting this novel
took courage on the part of Phyllis Edgerly Ring. It is a profoundly
rendered novel. I believe this story will spread by word of mouth,
and will pull from all regions much dialogue on the aspects of good
and evil, and love, and mankind's duties to one another. The pages
are more than the parts of the whole, and I highly recommend it.
Kudos to its author.
Phyllis Edgerly Ring is a profound story teller, choosing to use flash
backs to time in Germany before, during and after World War II. The
Munich Girl is a tale of two young girls who meet one another at
serendipitous times in their lives and sustain one another. The
surrounding society is encased in secrets and mysteries and horrors
from the ensuing war.
The story reverts back to Anna and her relationships, and The Munich
Girl leads the reader into layers of events, and reveals a story startling
and close to the bone. The reader will marvel at fiction that is so
authentic. It is a well researched novel, and the author presents
stories to the reader seamlessly.
By the end of the book, which obviously can't be revealed, I was
astounded by the larger meaning that this book brings to our eyes.
Archetypally, good and evil are examined. A once reviled figure and
obscure figure now in this contemporary society is brought into the
story as a major character with redeeming qualities. Everyone,
everyone I know, and those I don't know speak of evil and the first
name on a person's lips is that of "Hitler," who is the
personification of evil. But what of Eva Braun? And there is the
rub. The novel serves a higher purpose, and presenting this novel
took courage on the part of Phyllis Edgerly Ring. It is a profoundly
rendered novel. I believe this story will spread by word of mouth,
and will pull from all regions much dialogue on the aspects of good
and evil, and love, and mankind's duties to one another. The pages
are more than the parts of the whole, and I highly recommend it.
Kudos to its author.
November 27, 2015
I am stingy with my stars because I believe people don't pay attention when they see five stars. They think, "Yeah, right," and they chalk up the exuberance of the rating to the relationship of the reviewer to the author.
In full disclosure, I was given an advance copy of the novel for an honest review. It's not something that I am accustomed to doing, nor do I like the privilege, as it were, as one is inclined to not want to write anything disappointing about the author's work.
I had already been interested in Phyllis Ring's writing after reading her book, "Snow Fence Road." Her writing conjures up a different era, of a 1940s sensibility, where the less said, the more is explained. She has a simplicity to her writing, which I have learned, as a burgeoning novelist, myself, is extremely hard to achieve without someone of Phyllis's abilities, which is why I hired her to be my editor.
Now that that's all out of the way, let me tell you the many reasons why I so love this novel and believe it should be considered an American classic.
Phyllis writes so beautifully, for one. Her love of language, whether English or German, jumps off of the page and into your mind with such ease, you don't even feel as though you're reading. She speaks to you. Her characters become your friend, even the subject of the novel, Eva Braun, which is absolutely frightening. That I should feel any sympathy with a woman who was romantically involved with one of the most heinous human beings ever to be brought into this world is disturbing to me. Which is one of the reasons why this book is so important.
As someone who had loved film most of her life, I had wondered about Eva Braun's importance to both German cinema and filmography, as I was aware that her films extolled Hitler's iconography, as it were. But I never took the time to research Braun, in particular. Conjuring up her name usually accompanied an imaginary bile, in me, a distaste in what she represented, so she was not someone whom I really ever wanted to know, per se. So, when I learned about Phyllis' work, I was truly fascinated with what she might glean about her for us.
Although the book is labeled fiction, truthfully, it's hard to believe it it, as the details jump off the page. Phyllis appears to have traced the comings and goings of this enigmatic woman, who, was encamped in her various places of refuge, waiting for her man, Die Fuhrer, to return to her. And it is in this capacity that we understand her: a woman of her time period, who turned the other way while her man went off to war, doing these "manly," but hopelessly imbecilic and crazy things. He would return to her periodically, every couple of weeks or months, while she waited for him, dutifully. Did she remain willfully blind, ignoring the atrocities that were being committed in the name of the Fatherland? Or was she too close to him to even know what he was doing, because when he returned to her, he was her lover, not her military commander?
Was the man who could butcher so many people the same man who could come home to her, and luxuriate in the arms of his beloved, exposing his vulnerabilities to her only? I'm not sure we'll ever know, but there's an inkling of what Eva probably felt during the years that she was with him (17 years, I seem to count). Was there any redeeming quality in her that makes her seem more human, and less a monster of historic proportions, in our hatred of all things "Third Reich?" You'll have to read to find that out for yourself.
Above all, this movie is about women. About friendship. About the way we protect each others' vulnerabilities. Of the secrets we keep. And about our loyalty to each other, though we carry out our daily lives supporting our men, as that's what women did, especially back in the day.
The novel is also about love. The kind we women always dream about and find in the character Hannes, a new hero for all women. I defy any woman not to believe him to be the man we've all been waiting for, or, if married, for whom we'd divorce our husbands if we had a chance to be with him.
The story is also a mystery, of the history behind a portrait that hangs in the home of an American woman of English and German descent. It is a story about longing to reconnect with our beloved deceased, of learning the things that our parents could not tell us for fear of destroying our own lives yet to be realized.
Phyllis has done a very brave thing, sharing a history with us that might be part of her own past, on some level. But the care that she took in making it plausible is also a gift to the reader. She dares look at the soul of the German during WWII, and the aftermath, in a reconciliation of sorts, that still hasn't been accomplished beyond the Nuremberg Trials, except through the bravery of women like Phyllis who are willing to open the door a crack to give us an opportunity to ask questions, ponder, and reconcile our humanity with our inhumanity.
I'm sure I'll read this book a second time. There are so many layers to it. I found it an irresistible and important read.
In full disclosure, I was given an advance copy of the novel for an honest review. It's not something that I am accustomed to doing, nor do I like the privilege, as it were, as one is inclined to not want to write anything disappointing about the author's work.
I had already been interested in Phyllis Ring's writing after reading her book, "Snow Fence Road." Her writing conjures up a different era, of a 1940s sensibility, where the less said, the more is explained. She has a simplicity to her writing, which I have learned, as a burgeoning novelist, myself, is extremely hard to achieve without someone of Phyllis's abilities, which is why I hired her to be my editor.
Now that that's all out of the way, let me tell you the many reasons why I so love this novel and believe it should be considered an American classic.
Phyllis writes so beautifully, for one. Her love of language, whether English or German, jumps off of the page and into your mind with such ease, you don't even feel as though you're reading. She speaks to you. Her characters become your friend, even the subject of the novel, Eva Braun, which is absolutely frightening. That I should feel any sympathy with a woman who was romantically involved with one of the most heinous human beings ever to be brought into this world is disturbing to me. Which is one of the reasons why this book is so important.
As someone who had loved film most of her life, I had wondered about Eva Braun's importance to both German cinema and filmography, as I was aware that her films extolled Hitler's iconography, as it were. But I never took the time to research Braun, in particular. Conjuring up her name usually accompanied an imaginary bile, in me, a distaste in what she represented, so she was not someone whom I really ever wanted to know, per se. So, when I learned about Phyllis' work, I was truly fascinated with what she might glean about her for us.
Although the book is labeled fiction, truthfully, it's hard to believe it it, as the details jump off the page. Phyllis appears to have traced the comings and goings of this enigmatic woman, who, was encamped in her various places of refuge, waiting for her man, Die Fuhrer, to return to her. And it is in this capacity that we understand her: a woman of her time period, who turned the other way while her man went off to war, doing these "manly," but hopelessly imbecilic and crazy things. He would return to her periodically, every couple of weeks or months, while she waited for him, dutifully. Did she remain willfully blind, ignoring the atrocities that were being committed in the name of the Fatherland? Or was she too close to him to even know what he was doing, because when he returned to her, he was her lover, not her military commander?
Was the man who could butcher so many people the same man who could come home to her, and luxuriate in the arms of his beloved, exposing his vulnerabilities to her only? I'm not sure we'll ever know, but there's an inkling of what Eva probably felt during the years that she was with him (17 years, I seem to count). Was there any redeeming quality in her that makes her seem more human, and less a monster of historic proportions, in our hatred of all things "Third Reich?" You'll have to read to find that out for yourself.
Above all, this movie is about women. About friendship. About the way we protect each others' vulnerabilities. Of the secrets we keep. And about our loyalty to each other, though we carry out our daily lives supporting our men, as that's what women did, especially back in the day.
The novel is also about love. The kind we women always dream about and find in the character Hannes, a new hero for all women. I defy any woman not to believe him to be the man we've all been waiting for, or, if married, for whom we'd divorce our husbands if we had a chance to be with him.
The story is also a mystery, of the history behind a portrait that hangs in the home of an American woman of English and German descent. It is a story about longing to reconnect with our beloved deceased, of learning the things that our parents could not tell us for fear of destroying our own lives yet to be realized.
Phyllis has done a very brave thing, sharing a history with us that might be part of her own past, on some level. But the care that she took in making it plausible is also a gift to the reader. She dares look at the soul of the German during WWII, and the aftermath, in a reconciliation of sorts, that still hasn't been accomplished beyond the Nuremberg Trials, except through the bravery of women like Phyllis who are willing to open the door a crack to give us an opportunity to ask questions, ponder, and reconcile our humanity with our inhumanity.
I'm sure I'll read this book a second time. There are so many layers to it. I found it an irresistible and important read.
December 18, 2019
The Munich Girl
First, I'd like to thank the Goodreads gods for their generous giveaways. A fun perk of being a Goodreads member, the giveaways offer a reader the opportunity to read/review a book well before a book's release date. Authors rely heavily on a reviewer's unique perspective to spread a book's popularity (or unpopularity. It happens.). I'm a firm believer in returning the favor. If you receive a book as a gift or giveaway, a few thoughtful words is a nice way to show your appreciation for an author and the many "Goodreads" we've been provided. Thank you, authors and publishers!
The Munich Girl had been staring back from my Kindle screen for months. I did not realize that the woman on the cover was Eva Braun. I can honestly say that I've never been a fan of hers. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find Braun to be an interesting subject. What a curious woman! What possessed this woman to love the embodiment of evil? Hitler's chauffeur, Eric Kempa, labeled Eva "the unhappiest woman in Germany". We will never know her true feelings about the path she chose and the reasons she sacrificed her life for the most selfish, vicious man in history, but Phyllis Edgerly Ring offers the reader small glimpses into a secretive, doomed relationship.
"And finally, there was Eva the paradox. Slavishly devoted to Hitler, she never joined the Nazi party, had Jewish friends, and a churchgoing Catholic’s conscience. A well-brought-up girl from a respectable, even conservative, Munich family, she had chosen the utterly disreputable life of a mistress. This, in her time, had sentenced her to a furtive, secretive existence. She’d had access to more wealth and comfort than most people could imagine during the war years, yet she’d confided to trusted friends that she was little more than a bird kept in a gilded cage."
Edgerly Ring's story is brimming with secrets, hidden pasts, and stunning revelations. One ordinary woman will discover that her life is extraordinarily intertwined with Eva Braun's. The life she's known will change forever.
Whilst reading, I did become annoyed on more than one occasion. I feel like the author was trying to convince me to accept Hitler's human side through Eva's love. Well, I lost my patience with that. What I did find interesting (and confusing) was Eva's unconditional acceptance and adoration for the most pathetic excuse of a man. Eva seemed blinded, like a teenager in love. Perhaps if she'd been allowed to spend more time with the spawn of Satan, Eva would've been able to rid herself of this monster. Then again, she seemed to go down this path willingly. She had to have known what she signed up for. Eva was like a mother who still loves her serial killing child. Edgerly Ring tried hard to change my mind about Braun, asking me to view her as a good Catholic girl that sacrificed everything for her man. I cannot accept Braun as a heroine who was caring, kind, and thoughtful. I will NOT! Heroines that are truly good do not bed the twisted Führer. Or, maybe they do. But, eventually a REAL heroine kicks that creep to the curb. Ok. So, all that behind me...being indifferent to Braun's good nature does not keep me from calling this storyline fascinating. Knowing very little about the elusive mistress of Hitler, and despite hating both, I can definitely say that the storyline was intriguing. Edgerly Ring uses historical archives and extensive research to create a story that, while not totally believable, did manage to consume my thoughts. Once again, I'll confess to copious Googling — one subject sent me off to another. Plus, I chose this book to accompany another title I'm reading, BLITZED: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler. While Edgerly Ring's is historical fiction, Ohler's is nonfiction. I can't help but wonder, what did Eva Braun think of Hitler's drug habit? Like everything else, I assume she looked the other way. According to Ohler, every German was experimenting with some form of dope during WWII — it was even distributed in candies! They say we make poor decisions as dope fiends. Maybe that was Eva's excuse.
*I won an ARC courtesy of a Goodreads giveaway. Opinions are my own.
First, I'd like to thank the Goodreads gods for their generous giveaways. A fun perk of being a Goodreads member, the giveaways offer a reader the opportunity to read/review a book well before a book's release date. Authors rely heavily on a reviewer's unique perspective to spread a book's popularity (or unpopularity. It happens.). I'm a firm believer in returning the favor. If you receive a book as a gift or giveaway, a few thoughtful words is a nice way to show your appreciation for an author and the many "Goodreads" we've been provided. Thank you, authors and publishers!
The Munich Girl had been staring back from my Kindle screen for months. I did not realize that the woman on the cover was Eva Braun. I can honestly say that I've never been a fan of hers. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find Braun to be an interesting subject. What a curious woman! What possessed this woman to love the embodiment of evil? Hitler's chauffeur, Eric Kempa, labeled Eva "the unhappiest woman in Germany". We will never know her true feelings about the path she chose and the reasons she sacrificed her life for the most selfish, vicious man in history, but Phyllis Edgerly Ring offers the reader small glimpses into a secretive, doomed relationship.
"And finally, there was Eva the paradox. Slavishly devoted to Hitler, she never joined the Nazi party, had Jewish friends, and a churchgoing Catholic’s conscience. A well-brought-up girl from a respectable, even conservative, Munich family, she had chosen the utterly disreputable life of a mistress. This, in her time, had sentenced her to a furtive, secretive existence. She’d had access to more wealth and comfort than most people could imagine during the war years, yet she’d confided to trusted friends that she was little more than a bird kept in a gilded cage."
Edgerly Ring's story is brimming with secrets, hidden pasts, and stunning revelations. One ordinary woman will discover that her life is extraordinarily intertwined with Eva Braun's. The life she's known will change forever.
Whilst reading, I did become annoyed on more than one occasion. I feel like the author was trying to convince me to accept Hitler's human side through Eva's love. Well, I lost my patience with that. What I did find interesting (and confusing) was Eva's unconditional acceptance and adoration for the most pathetic excuse of a man. Eva seemed blinded, like a teenager in love. Perhaps if she'd been allowed to spend more time with the spawn of Satan, Eva would've been able to rid herself of this monster. Then again, she seemed to go down this path willingly. She had to have known what she signed up for. Eva was like a mother who still loves her serial killing child. Edgerly Ring tried hard to change my mind about Braun, asking me to view her as a good Catholic girl that sacrificed everything for her man. I cannot accept Braun as a heroine who was caring, kind, and thoughtful. I will NOT! Heroines that are truly good do not bed the twisted Führer. Or, maybe they do. But, eventually a REAL heroine kicks that creep to the curb. Ok. So, all that behind me...being indifferent to Braun's good nature does not keep me from calling this storyline fascinating. Knowing very little about the elusive mistress of Hitler, and despite hating both, I can definitely say that the storyline was intriguing. Edgerly Ring uses historical archives and extensive research to create a story that, while not totally believable, did manage to consume my thoughts. Once again, I'll confess to copious Googling — one subject sent me off to another. Plus, I chose this book to accompany another title I'm reading, BLITZED: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler. While Edgerly Ring's is historical fiction, Ohler's is nonfiction. I can't help but wonder, what did Eva Braun think of Hitler's drug habit? Like everything else, I assume she looked the other way. According to Ohler, every German was experimenting with some form of dope during WWII — it was even distributed in candies! They say we make poor decisions as dope fiends. Maybe that was Eva's excuse.
*I won an ARC courtesy of a Goodreads giveaway. Opinions are my own.
December 10, 2015
The Munich Girl is a work of historical fiction that reads and feels like a memoir. So many of the story’s details are historically accurate that it is hard to determine where the facts leave off and the fiction begins.
Beautifully told, and exquisitely written, each page unfolds like the wrapping over a gem. The settings are vivid, the characters come to life. It is a rather involved story between Anna’s existence with a narcissistic husband, the budding relationship between her and Hannes, her mother’s story that neatly intertwines with Eva’s. There are also the premonition-like dreams and the chapters written in her mother’s hand.
Told in a focused and experienced style, every page draws you in further into the story. Hard to put down, even harder to forget.
Beautifully told, and exquisitely written, each page unfolds like the wrapping over a gem. The settings are vivid, the characters come to life. It is a rather involved story between Anna’s existence with a narcissistic husband, the budding relationship between her and Hannes, her mother’s story that neatly intertwines with Eva’s. There are also the premonition-like dreams and the chapters written in her mother’s hand.
Told in a focused and experienced style, every page draws you in further into the story. Hard to put down, even harder to forget.
February 11, 2016
I loved this book! I am reading it a second time, feel like these characters are my friends or people I know.
It is Historical fiction about Eva Braun (Hitler's mistress) but the author writes so beautifully and weaves the history and fiction together so well, it is sometimes hard to tell where one leaves off and the other starts. Very well written!
A must read for all! p.s. I did not get this as a gift from the author! I read it because I read an earlier book she wrote, "Snow Fence Road" and loved that book.
It is Historical fiction about Eva Braun (Hitler's mistress) but the author writes so beautifully and weaves the history and fiction together so well, it is sometimes hard to tell where one leaves off and the other starts. Very well written!
A must read for all! p.s. I did not get this as a gift from the author! I read it because I read an earlier book she wrote, "Snow Fence Road" and loved that book.
June 24, 2017
An amazing book based on true facts apparently about Eva Braun's life waiting for Hitler for years. Even though this was a novel it presented so many things I did not know about her life as well as what could have happened with true life-long friends she had during the years she waited for Hitler to declare his love for only her.
Recommend this to any history buff who wants to learn as much about WW2 and the characters involved.
Recommend this to any history buff who wants to learn as much about WW2 and the characters involved.
August 26, 2016
Actual 3.5 Review part of HF Virtual Book Tours with digital ARC provided by the author to participate in the tour with for my unbiased review.
The Munich Girl is primarily a story of self discovery and the importance of being true to ourselves told through the narratives of three women from present day and 1940's timelines.
In part, it tells the story of Anna Dahlberg, and her journey of uncovering the story behind her mother's portrait of an enigmatic pretty young woman.
It is through her diaries that Peggy, (Anna's mother) tells of how she comes into possession of the painting and becomes the unlikely friend of Ava, (Eva Braun). It gives us a fascinating imagined glimpse of the world of Hitler's secret mistress.
I loved the writing style, the pace was perfectly timed with scenes flowing effortlessly through each timeframe. Yes, it's beautifully written with meticulously drawn characters, I truly believed in them, and that's where my problem with it lies. It bothered me that the lines between fact and fiction were so exquisitely blurred that I believed in the premise that Eva was an innocent in her naivety and worship of her abuser. I was confused and didn't feel comfortable with it.
Eva Braun was the 'highly kept secret' mistress of Adolf Hitler and yes she was a woman in her own right who under different circumstances may have been all the book portrays of her. She is not to be blamed for the evil acts this man was responsible for, however she did love him and chose to stay with him with the full knowledge of his monstrous beliefs and actions. No, we shouldn't demonise her, but nor too can I accept a romanticised fairytale version of her. I tried but I failed. Had this been a work of pure fiction I would not fault it.
This isn't a negative review but I do have an opinion that could be perceived as such so I hope it won't dissuade anyone from reading it as Phyllis Edgerly Ring has written an exemplary piece of historical fiction which I truly enjoyed reading. It was just the portrayal of the little known about, factual character I found hard to come to terms with.
Perfect for fans of historical fiction that address history in some form and book groups as I think it could generate some lively debate.
The Munich Girl is primarily a story of self discovery and the importance of being true to ourselves told through the narratives of three women from present day and 1940's timelines.
In part, it tells the story of Anna Dahlberg, and her journey of uncovering the story behind her mother's portrait of an enigmatic pretty young woman.
It is through her diaries that Peggy, (Anna's mother) tells of how she comes into possession of the painting and becomes the unlikely friend of Ava, (Eva Braun). It gives us a fascinating imagined glimpse of the world of Hitler's secret mistress.
I loved the writing style, the pace was perfectly timed with scenes flowing effortlessly through each timeframe. Yes, it's beautifully written with meticulously drawn characters, I truly believed in them, and that's where my problem with it lies. It bothered me that the lines between fact and fiction were so exquisitely blurred that I believed in the premise that Eva was an innocent in her naivety and worship of her abuser. I was confused and didn't feel comfortable with it.
Eva Braun was the 'highly kept secret' mistress of Adolf Hitler and yes she was a woman in her own right who under different circumstances may have been all the book portrays of her. She is not to be blamed for the evil acts this man was responsible for, however she did love him and chose to stay with him with the full knowledge of his monstrous beliefs and actions. No, we shouldn't demonise her, but nor too can I accept a romanticised fairytale version of her. I tried but I failed. Had this been a work of pure fiction I would not fault it.
This isn't a negative review but I do have an opinion that could be perceived as such so I hope it won't dissuade anyone from reading it as Phyllis Edgerly Ring has written an exemplary piece of historical fiction which I truly enjoyed reading. It was just the portrayal of the little known about, factual character I found hard to come to terms with.
Perfect for fans of historical fiction that address history in some form and book groups as I think it could generate some lively debate.
September 6, 2017
I really disliked this book. I found it disjointed and jumping from place to place where I thought my copy was missing pages. I detested Lowell.I found Anna annoying.I thought this book was about Eva Braun, but she didn't enter the book until 35% in. I got to the point I skipped over anything that wasn't set in the past. I'm so glad I finished it so I could mark it off on my book reading challenge, or I would have quit 20% in.
June 16, 2017
This was an amazing book. This story was wonderfully written. I loved the history of the book. I loved all the characters.
August 31, 2016
It is the mid 1990s. Anna is stuck in a loveless and childless marriage with Lowell. In the New Hampshire house left to her by her mother she feels like a mere adjunct to his academic life, his forthcoming study on the Second World War and his publishing business which issues The Fighting Chance, a military history magazine. An adjunct, that is, until he invites her to contribute an article about Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress; it is to furnish the female angle for the forthcoming special issue of the magazine designed to coincide with the publication of Lowell’s book. And it is at this point that everything changes for her: she gets a chance to become a butterfly on the wing instead of a lowly caterpillar crawling beneath.
She meets the newly hired editor, Johannes — Hannes, as he calls himself — who provides the sympathy and enthusiasm that she needs for her task, in contrast to Lowell and his curmudgeonly attitude. As she delves deeper it emerges that her mother Peggy — half-English, half-German — actually knew Eva Braun, the Munich girl of the title. As her relationship with Lowell worsens she heads off to the National Archives in Washington to immerse herself in Braun’s photographic legacy which had survived the war. She is also subject to vivid dreams — are they somehow prognostications, in some sense intuitive, or some atavistic memory? And then comes the fateful flight to Germany, leading to revelations that go to the roots of her existence.
The Munich Girl is a skilful blend of fiction and history, adroitly blurring the boundaries between the two. A burgeoning but chaste romance furnishes the frame for a story that sensitively explores the nature of Braun’s relationship with Hitler without condoning the evil that he unleashed on the world. The three women’s lives — one with the Führer, another with the German Resistance and the third fifty years after the war — form parallels as Anna rediscovers a past that she had all but forgotten when living across the Atlantic.
As well as examining close relationships the novel revolves around symbols which underscore the significances that humans attach to life events. There is Eva’s monogram of an intertwined E and B resembling both a butterfly and a vierblättriges Kleeblatt or four leaf clover; the latter’s often regarded as emblematic of faith, hope, love and luck, the former a symbol of metamorphosis. Then there is the poorly executed portrait of Eva by an admirer, a painting that has been in Anna’s mother’s possession since the war. Photographs recur over and over as vital links with past lives (they also punctuate the text); fire appears as if a kind of baptism to a new life; and dreams form another leitmotif, seeming to blend the past and future as dreams so often do.
I found this a hugely satisfying novel. Beautifully written, but with its art skilfully concealed, it draws the reader in with a series of well-defined episodes. At the heart of it are the notes — narratives, really — that Peggy Adler kept of her intermittent meetings with the Munich girl. Occasionally Peggy even imagines events from Eva’s point of view, as a good author can, and while at first I found this slightly jarring it soon felt entirely natural. Phyllis Ring handles her characters sensitively, particularly those Germans who, especially during the latter stages of the war, suffered awful deprivations; and she even makes of Braun a sympathetic character. Altogether it’s an impressive piece of writing.
Essentially though this novel is about love; and it’s also about coming home. And of course sometimes the two can be the same thing.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-munich
She meets the newly hired editor, Johannes — Hannes, as he calls himself — who provides the sympathy and enthusiasm that she needs for her task, in contrast to Lowell and his curmudgeonly attitude. As she delves deeper it emerges that her mother Peggy — half-English, half-German — actually knew Eva Braun, the Munich girl of the title. As her relationship with Lowell worsens she heads off to the National Archives in Washington to immerse herself in Braun’s photographic legacy which had survived the war. She is also subject to vivid dreams — are they somehow prognostications, in some sense intuitive, or some atavistic memory? And then comes the fateful flight to Germany, leading to revelations that go to the roots of her existence.
The Munich Girl is a skilful blend of fiction and history, adroitly blurring the boundaries between the two. A burgeoning but chaste romance furnishes the frame for a story that sensitively explores the nature of Braun’s relationship with Hitler without condoning the evil that he unleashed on the world. The three women’s lives — one with the Führer, another with the German Resistance and the third fifty years after the war — form parallels as Anna rediscovers a past that she had all but forgotten when living across the Atlantic.
As well as examining close relationships the novel revolves around symbols which underscore the significances that humans attach to life events. There is Eva’s monogram of an intertwined E and B resembling both a butterfly and a vierblättriges Kleeblatt or four leaf clover; the latter’s often regarded as emblematic of faith, hope, love and luck, the former a symbol of metamorphosis. Then there is the poorly executed portrait of Eva by an admirer, a painting that has been in Anna’s mother’s possession since the war. Photographs recur over and over as vital links with past lives (they also punctuate the text); fire appears as if a kind of baptism to a new life; and dreams form another leitmotif, seeming to blend the past and future as dreams so often do.
I found this a hugely satisfying novel. Beautifully written, but with its art skilfully concealed, it draws the reader in with a series of well-defined episodes. At the heart of it are the notes — narratives, really — that Peggy Adler kept of her intermittent meetings with the Munich girl. Occasionally Peggy even imagines events from Eva’s point of view, as a good author can, and while at first I found this slightly jarring it soon felt entirely natural. Phyllis Ring handles her characters sensitively, particularly those Germans who, especially during the latter stages of the war, suffered awful deprivations; and she even makes of Braun a sympathetic character. Altogether it’s an impressive piece of writing.
Essentially though this novel is about love; and it’s also about coming home. And of course sometimes the two can be the same thing.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-munich
October 21, 2020
I am highly recommending this book to all you historical fiction lovers. I don't often come across a book that provides a thoughtful look at the lives of Germans during the war years. The talented author intertwines three stories from two generations so skillfully and intricately. I was totally caught up in every page. She added the element of what I call "somatic memory" - the knowledge of knowing home deep in one's core beyond memory. I felt that visiting Prague. This book will take you to an understanding of women and their choices, their men and their bond with true family.
June 15, 2017
This book is an absolute gem! I devoured it! I highly recommend it- esp for
A summer beach read!!
A summer beach read!!
February 6, 2016
Phyllis Edgerly Ring is a masterful writer. In THE MUNICH GIRL Anna Dahlberg, who is the main character, discovers the secret relationship her recently deceased mother had with Adolf Hitler's mistress and eventual tragic bride, Eva Braun. Many will tout Ms. Ring's wonderful peek behind the curtain that was the Third Reich and Hitler leading up to and including the war years. The author does an artful job of weaving Anna's contemporary life into the suppressed secrets that were Germany during those terrible years. But my favorite part of the book is the when she delves into unconditional love. We all know it as the love a parent holds for their child . . . and certainly we've seen it between a man and a woman in rare instances, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning come to mind. And, honestly, for Eva Braun to have loved Hitler to the extent of a common death, on their wedding day, in a cold-dark bunker, one must envision such a committed love. As hard as it is to imagine, Ms. Ring presents a compelling argument that Eva Braun was that passionate of a woman. Hmmmm, I wonder? Ms. Ring and I are fellow authors of Black Lyon Publishing.
May 17, 2018
I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.
I did not much like this book. I know very little about Eva Braun, as I believe not much is known about her. I thought this book would give me more insight into her life and character, but it fell flat for me in that area.
The part about Eva didn’t really start until 31% into the book. And even then chapters about her were mixed in with chapters about Anna’s mum and Anna. So really less than half the book deals with Eva, much less. And even the parts about Eva don’t give us much insight into her life or character.
I also found Anna a bit strange. She seemed to have this weird bonding or connection with Eva. At one point even more so than her own mother.
The story was a little predictable, but also so far fetched. It has the same formula used by all romantic comedies yet has some things happen that are totally unbelievable. Why would a man who hates the Germans keep a portrait of Eva Braun on his dining room wall? Eva and Anna’s mum saw each other once a year every four years during the war but were so close that Anna is named for Eva? Idk, it just didn’t ring true to me. Sorry, this one was a miss for me.
I did not much like this book. I know very little about Eva Braun, as I believe not much is known about her. I thought this book would give me more insight into her life and character, but it fell flat for me in that area.
The part about Eva didn’t really start until 31% into the book. And even then chapters about her were mixed in with chapters about Anna’s mum and Anna. So really less than half the book deals with Eva, much less. And even the parts about Eva don’t give us much insight into her life or character.
I also found Anna a bit strange. She seemed to have this weird bonding or connection with Eva. At one point even more so than her own mother.
The story was a little predictable, but also so far fetched. It has the same formula used by all romantic comedies yet has some things happen that are totally unbelievable. Why would a man who hates the Germans keep a portrait of Eva Braun on his dining room wall? Eva and Anna’s mum saw each other once a year every four years during the war but were so close that Anna is named for Eva? Idk, it just didn’t ring true to me. Sorry, this one was a miss for me.
March 1, 2017
This is an interesting premise for a story, which is mostly told through dialogue and the characters’ internal thoughts and emotions. I liked it, thus, the 3-star rating. There is an underlying theme of women who divert their own dreams for the men they attach themselves to. One deliverer of this message is a man. “‘I watch too many women postpone their lives.’ He climbed out and turned to lock the car with an edge of impatience in his voice, ‘Accommodate what’s unworthy of their time, let themselves be convinced it is or that they’re somehow obliged to.’” The book can be a bit slow at times but to see it through to the end, is to finally have a resolution and explanation for relationships that seem a bit intrusive.
July 15, 2017
I originally read The Munich Girl in 2015 and upon finishing this historical fiction a second time, I feel I have "gotten better acquainted" with the three main characters: Anna, Peggy (her mother) & Eva Braun (Hitler's mistress). Author Phyllis Edgerly Ring masterly weaves this mystery-filled tale, set in & around World War II, that sometimes feels like a romantic memoir. My next read shall be Snow Fence Road by the same author as my preferred genre continues to be books from this time period (1939-1945).
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