Angel's Freedom : German Historical Fiction Based on a True Story

by Katharina Gerlach, Anke Waldmann

Her family thrown into turmoil. Her best friend ripped away. Will freedom cost this young farming serf her dreams? Northern Germany, 1799. Fifteen-year-old serf Angel Waldmann’s hardworking existence on her family's farm varies little from day-to-day. Born into a harsh reality, her simple aspirations are complicated only by her best friend being the daughter of a lower-status tenant. But fate delivers a cruel blow when the count who owns the Waldmann family reneges on an assurance of freedom, and sells them off to a local farmer.

With her father accusing the noble of breaking his word, Angel’s world falls into turmoil as her family becomes embroiled in an unpleasant court case. And worse still, her parents' disastrous decisions rip her apart from her lifelong friend, and throw the poor girl (and her alcoholic father) to the mercy of a callous new landlord.

Will her family’s fight for justice tear Angel away from everything she knows and loves?

Angel’s Freedom is the first book in the Waldmann Family Saga historical fiction trilogy. If you like meticulously researched settings, factually-based dramas, and young hearts battling emotional upheavals, then you’ll love Katharina Gerlach’s tale of struggle and friendship.

Buy Angel’s Freedom to bring this pivotal time in German history to life today!

374 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 10, 2020

About the author

Katharina Gerlach was born in Germany in 1968. She and her three younger brothers grew up in the middle of a forest in the heart of the Luneburgian Heather. After romping through the forest with imagination as her guide, the tomboy learned to read and disappeared into magical adventures, past times or eerie fairytale woods.

She didn’t stop at reading. During her training as a landscape gardener, she wrote her first novel, a manuscript full of a beginner’s mistakes. Fortunately, she found books on Creative Writing and soon her stories improved. For a while, reality interfered with her writing but after finishing a degree in forestry and a PhD in Science she returned to her vocation. She likes to write Fantasy, Science Fiction and Historical Novels for all age groups.

At present, she is writing at her next project in a small house near Hildesheim, Germany, where she lives with her husband, three children and a dog.

Reviews

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It takes place in the last half of the 18th century in northern Germany. I decided to read it because I wanted to learn more about how my ancestors lived before emigrating to New York in 1850. It is very difficult to find historical fiction about that time and place.

The story is about the Waldmann family. They were serfs, running a farm and hoping to buy their freedom. The characters are believable, there is a touch of mystery and a lot of scenes of everyday farm life.