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The Woman Outside The Walls
I always knew it would come out one day. They are finding everyone who has stayed hidden. They would have come to me in the end.
Hamburg, 1942. Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.
Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016. Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbors know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
Hamburg, 1942. Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.
Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016. Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbors know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
311 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 18, 2022
1294 people are currently reading
687 people want to read
About the author
Suzanne Goldring
13 books174 followersFollowing an eventful career as a public relations consultant, specializing in business and travel, Suzanne Goldring turned to writing the kind of novels she likes to read, about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. She writes in a thatched cottage in Hampshire and a cottage by the sea in North Cornwall.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 30, 2024
It's easy for us 21st century first world humans to judge those who have had to contend with things we can't possibly comprehend. This book doesn't try to absolve Anna of guilt for her actions, but rather forces us to ask ourselves "What would I have done?" What would you be willing to do to survive? Anna did what she had to do, and I doubt many of us would be noble enough to do otherwise.
I don't mind a dual timeline, but this one jumps around between time periods so much - and introduces other perspectives - resulting in jarring transitions and disrupting the flow. Though Anna's full backstory isn't fully revealed until the end, the story was predictable and I guessed the part she played very early on, and consequently the ending felt anti-climactic. There's nothing special about the writing or character development.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.
I don't mind a dual timeline, but this one jumps around between time periods so much - and introduces other perspectives - resulting in jarring transitions and disrupting the flow. Though Anna's full backstory isn't fully revealed until the end, the story was predictable and I guessed the part she played very early on, and consequently the ending felt anti-climactic. There's nothing special about the writing or character development.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.
October 20, 2022
“She thought she’d escaped. But they were still searching…”
Either before or after reading this story, you should definitely check out the reference at the end of the book entitled: –
“BACKGROUND TO THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS”
Author, Suzanne Goldring, explains beautifully which sections of the storyline are partially factual, based on some interesting and intriguing research, which clearly had a tremendous impact on her. Even down to the relevance, darkness and cruel undercurrents of the chapter headings, which are taken from the collection of stories by The Brothers Grimm.
...
Anna’s childhood living in 1929 Hamburg, Germany, is rudely interrupted in a way she is as yet unable to full comprehend, when her best friend Etta is suddenly and without explanation, taken away from the school both girls attend. Anna is forbidden to play with her, or visit her home anymore, and eventually the family pack up and leave the country, never to be seen or heard from again. It is only as she grows up, that Anna discovers that Etta came from a Jewish family and was thus no longer deemed to be of good enough standing to be allowed to mix or live alongside any good German citizen.
Moving into her late teenage years, Anna takes a secretarial course to enhance her chances of finding employment and also begins to discover her own sexuality and that of the opposite sex. Her eye falls on Gunther, who is slightly older than she and is already a member of the Hitler Youth Movement. Naive as Anna is, she simply refuses to see what is staring her firmly in the face, believes Gunther’s line that she is the only one for him and allows him to have his way with her on the eve of his going off to the front line. Gunther is subsequently killed, and Anna lies to her parents about finding a position which necessitates her living away from home, in order to hide the truth about the predicament she is now in. Baby Peter is removed from his mother at birth and Anna never sees him again, not ever knowing whether he lived or died.
Anna secures a secretarial position in a ‘prison camp’, again so naive as to not know exactly what situation she was allowing herself to become involved in. By the time she comes to her senses and even with her brave offers of help to some of the prisoners, it is too late, and her fate is sealed until some two years later, when word gets out that ‘liberating’ Russian troops are on their way and the camp needs to be cleared and any evidence of wrongdoing destroyed. Escaping the camp herself and returning home to Hamburg, Anna realises the almost total devastation which has been wreaked upon the city and the futility of searching for her parents in the mayhem left behind. A new identity as Etta and a hand to mouth life, lived underground as part of a small group, means that everyone must play their part in providing food and clothing for the community, which for the young women means making the most of their assets, to attract the eye of the British liberating forces, even for Gertrude who has only just given birth to a new son, also called Peter. Gertrude has past demons of her own though, which she is never able to reconcile, thus making her final decision fatal and irrevocable, leaving Peter an orphan.
Reg is not your usual serviceman, being slightly older than many of his comrades. He makes no demands on Anna, other than that of friendship and an enduring love which he realises is quite one-sided, eventually asking her to marry him and return to England as his wife. Anna explains Gertrude’s situation to Reg and begs that she might bring baby Peter with her to England, rather than have him starve in the cold basement. After decades of marriage to Reg, with Peter never knowing the circumstances of his birth and he and his sister long since having moved to the other side of the world to escape their strange family home life, Anna, now with another change of identity to Margie, has never told Reg the true circumstances in which he found her all those years ago. Whilst Reg has long suspected that Anna’s story was tailored to meet the situation in which she found herself, his reaction if he had ever known the full extent of his wife’s past deeds and the true extent to which she had deceived him, can only be guessed at. Now alone and in her nineties, Anna sits with her growing collection of war-crimes cuttings, just waiting for the doorbell to ring…
Neighbours to Margie, are Lauren and her two children Amy and Freddie, although Amy is now away at university and Freddie is fast approaching his teenage years. Lauren’s husband Colin, was a serving police officer when he died in his early fifties, leaving her to raise the children alone. Freddie is definitely a credit to his mother and they both take seriously the need to keep a close eye on their nonagenarian neighbour, although this they have always done without intrusion into her private life, so are completely unaware of her past and the circumstances surrounding her long marriage to her husband, or her country of origin. It isn’t until Freddie, realising that German is Anna’s (Margie) native tongue, decides that he would like to interview her about the war years, as this is his current term project at school. Anna completely loses the plot when Lauren and Freddie approach her with their request and at first refuses point blank to discuss it with them. She then spends some contemplative time alone with her thoughts and memories, guilt and shame, before deciding that the couple need to know the truth about her past, trusting Freddie to do what he will with the information, as she can carry the burden no longer and is prepared to meet her maker under whatever circumstances dictate.
...
Alongside the rather gruesome Grimms Brothers dividers I mentioned earlier, each chapter is also clearly date stamped, making the back and forth between the German and English locations and their many time frames which cover the period 1929 – 2017, digestible and easy to follow. Compelling, wonderfully descriptive and profoundly touching words conjured up a truly visual and evocative, if not always comfortable, sense of time and place throughout. If you are only able to experience this immersive storyline as an ‘armchair traveller’, you most definitely won’t be disappointed.
The writing is evocative, poignant, highly textured, fluent and well-paced, with several unexpectedly intense and emotional moments, which are perceptive, intuitive, often raw and passionate, yet profoundly touching, highlighting both the fragility and resilience of the human mind and physical body, whilst uncovering the long-term and unseen effects the trauma of grief and loss can have, which can last a lifetime. Lauren’s story also explores the lengths a parent will go to and the sacrifices they will make, to keep their children safe from harm and the gut-wrenching feelings of failure when they are unable to protect them as they feel they should.
The characters are well developed, complex and authentic to their place in time, although that did not always make them easy to relate to, or invest in. Circumstances meant that some were still searching for a sense of belonging and closure, on what had been tumultuous periods in their lives, which made them compelling and emotionally vulnerable, frail yet with an amazing inner strength and the tenacity to want to rebuild their shattered hopes and dreams and, in some cases, to make amends for the past.
For the younger characters, particularly Freddie, the future is all important, with the past being an era he had never sought to waste his time and energy challenging. When personal circumstances mean that he is forced to confront a truth well beyond that documented in his history study books, his open-minded, mature attitude surprises both Lauren, his mother, and Anna herself. Maybe his rather too compassionate and ‘liberal’ perspectives upon hearing the truth about Anna’s past will not make him popular, however his decisions are well thought through, much as his own father’s would have been and both he and Anna know the full depths of the risk they are taking.
Trying to look back dispassionately when I had finished my journey with this book, I could only come to the conclusion that there really were no winners in this generational saga. Even though the story had traversed many decades and Anna had even crossed the ocean in a bid for freedom, a new beginning and peace of mind, she never seemed able to escape the thoughts that dominated her waking hours, nor the visions of the terrible things she had witnessed, which were locked in her head waiting for when she closed her eyes at night. So many damaged lives and too many wasted opportunities to ever afford peace of mind. There was to be no forgiveness or lifting of the burden of guilt with Anna locking the experiences away in a place where only she could find them, no one had seen past the facade she had created, to offer the help and solace she needed to set herself free. However, after finally listening to Anna recount her experiences and stories out loud, there seemed to be a palpable sense of relief, the gentle sigh and release of a long-held breath and the sudden lifting of a burden of guilt, with the knowledge that her life would and indeed, should, be judged by others. For Lauren, the realisation that her elderly neighbour has a past she is finding it difficult to even contemplate accepting and knowing what her own conscience is telling her she should do, has placed her in an almost impossible situation, given the completely opposite reaction of her son Freddie, who is open-minded enough to play devil’s advocate and get both sides of the story out into the public domain.
Given the vast plethora of WWII books I have read over a relatively short period of time, I am always amazed at the many diverse storyline’s authors are able to come up with. The Woman Outside The Walls definitely has that defining difference which made it unique, interesting and intriguing.
What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by authors who can fire my imagination, stimulate my senses and stir my emotions. Whilst for me personally, this book had the power to evoke so many feelings, I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about the potential outcome of this storyline as the last reader, nor probably the next, so this really is an experience you need to have for yourself and see where your thoughts lead you!
Either before or after reading this story, you should definitely check out the reference at the end of the book entitled: –
“BACKGROUND TO THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS”
Author, Suzanne Goldring, explains beautifully which sections of the storyline are partially factual, based on some interesting and intriguing research, which clearly had a tremendous impact on her. Even down to the relevance, darkness and cruel undercurrents of the chapter headings, which are taken from the collection of stories by The Brothers Grimm.
...
Anna’s childhood living in 1929 Hamburg, Germany, is rudely interrupted in a way she is as yet unable to full comprehend, when her best friend Etta is suddenly and without explanation, taken away from the school both girls attend. Anna is forbidden to play with her, or visit her home anymore, and eventually the family pack up and leave the country, never to be seen or heard from again. It is only as she grows up, that Anna discovers that Etta came from a Jewish family and was thus no longer deemed to be of good enough standing to be allowed to mix or live alongside any good German citizen.
Moving into her late teenage years, Anna takes a secretarial course to enhance her chances of finding employment and also begins to discover her own sexuality and that of the opposite sex. Her eye falls on Gunther, who is slightly older than she and is already a member of the Hitler Youth Movement. Naive as Anna is, she simply refuses to see what is staring her firmly in the face, believes Gunther’s line that she is the only one for him and allows him to have his way with her on the eve of his going off to the front line. Gunther is subsequently killed, and Anna lies to her parents about finding a position which necessitates her living away from home, in order to hide the truth about the predicament she is now in. Baby Peter is removed from his mother at birth and Anna never sees him again, not ever knowing whether he lived or died.
Anna secures a secretarial position in a ‘prison camp’, again so naive as to not know exactly what situation she was allowing herself to become involved in. By the time she comes to her senses and even with her brave offers of help to some of the prisoners, it is too late, and her fate is sealed until some two years later, when word gets out that ‘liberating’ Russian troops are on their way and the camp needs to be cleared and any evidence of wrongdoing destroyed. Escaping the camp herself and returning home to Hamburg, Anna realises the almost total devastation which has been wreaked upon the city and the futility of searching for her parents in the mayhem left behind. A new identity as Etta and a hand to mouth life, lived underground as part of a small group, means that everyone must play their part in providing food and clothing for the community, which for the young women means making the most of their assets, to attract the eye of the British liberating forces, even for Gertrude who has only just given birth to a new son, also called Peter. Gertrude has past demons of her own though, which she is never able to reconcile, thus making her final decision fatal and irrevocable, leaving Peter an orphan.
Reg is not your usual serviceman, being slightly older than many of his comrades. He makes no demands on Anna, other than that of friendship and an enduring love which he realises is quite one-sided, eventually asking her to marry him and return to England as his wife. Anna explains Gertrude’s situation to Reg and begs that she might bring baby Peter with her to England, rather than have him starve in the cold basement. After decades of marriage to Reg, with Peter never knowing the circumstances of his birth and he and his sister long since having moved to the other side of the world to escape their strange family home life, Anna, now with another change of identity to Margie, has never told Reg the true circumstances in which he found her all those years ago. Whilst Reg has long suspected that Anna’s story was tailored to meet the situation in which she found herself, his reaction if he had ever known the full extent of his wife’s past deeds and the true extent to which she had deceived him, can only be guessed at. Now alone and in her nineties, Anna sits with her growing collection of war-crimes cuttings, just waiting for the doorbell to ring…
Neighbours to Margie, are Lauren and her two children Amy and Freddie, although Amy is now away at university and Freddie is fast approaching his teenage years. Lauren’s husband Colin, was a serving police officer when he died in his early fifties, leaving her to raise the children alone. Freddie is definitely a credit to his mother and they both take seriously the need to keep a close eye on their nonagenarian neighbour, although this they have always done without intrusion into her private life, so are completely unaware of her past and the circumstances surrounding her long marriage to her husband, or her country of origin. It isn’t until Freddie, realising that German is Anna’s (Margie) native tongue, decides that he would like to interview her about the war years, as this is his current term project at school. Anna completely loses the plot when Lauren and Freddie approach her with their request and at first refuses point blank to discuss it with them. She then spends some contemplative time alone with her thoughts and memories, guilt and shame, before deciding that the couple need to know the truth about her past, trusting Freddie to do what he will with the information, as she can carry the burden no longer and is prepared to meet her maker under whatever circumstances dictate.
...
Alongside the rather gruesome Grimms Brothers dividers I mentioned earlier, each chapter is also clearly date stamped, making the back and forth between the German and English locations and their many time frames which cover the period 1929 – 2017, digestible and easy to follow. Compelling, wonderfully descriptive and profoundly touching words conjured up a truly visual and evocative, if not always comfortable, sense of time and place throughout. If you are only able to experience this immersive storyline as an ‘armchair traveller’, you most definitely won’t be disappointed.
The writing is evocative, poignant, highly textured, fluent and well-paced, with several unexpectedly intense and emotional moments, which are perceptive, intuitive, often raw and passionate, yet profoundly touching, highlighting both the fragility and resilience of the human mind and physical body, whilst uncovering the long-term and unseen effects the trauma of grief and loss can have, which can last a lifetime. Lauren’s story also explores the lengths a parent will go to and the sacrifices they will make, to keep their children safe from harm and the gut-wrenching feelings of failure when they are unable to protect them as they feel they should.
The characters are well developed, complex and authentic to their place in time, although that did not always make them easy to relate to, or invest in. Circumstances meant that some were still searching for a sense of belonging and closure, on what had been tumultuous periods in their lives, which made them compelling and emotionally vulnerable, frail yet with an amazing inner strength and the tenacity to want to rebuild their shattered hopes and dreams and, in some cases, to make amends for the past.
For the younger characters, particularly Freddie, the future is all important, with the past being an era he had never sought to waste his time and energy challenging. When personal circumstances mean that he is forced to confront a truth well beyond that documented in his history study books, his open-minded, mature attitude surprises both Lauren, his mother, and Anna herself. Maybe his rather too compassionate and ‘liberal’ perspectives upon hearing the truth about Anna’s past will not make him popular, however his decisions are well thought through, much as his own father’s would have been and both he and Anna know the full depths of the risk they are taking.
Trying to look back dispassionately when I had finished my journey with this book, I could only come to the conclusion that there really were no winners in this generational saga. Even though the story had traversed many decades and Anna had even crossed the ocean in a bid for freedom, a new beginning and peace of mind, she never seemed able to escape the thoughts that dominated her waking hours, nor the visions of the terrible things she had witnessed, which were locked in her head waiting for when she closed her eyes at night. So many damaged lives and too many wasted opportunities to ever afford peace of mind. There was to be no forgiveness or lifting of the burden of guilt with Anna locking the experiences away in a place where only she could find them, no one had seen past the facade she had created, to offer the help and solace she needed to set herself free. However, after finally listening to Anna recount her experiences and stories out loud, there seemed to be a palpable sense of relief, the gentle sigh and release of a long-held breath and the sudden lifting of a burden of guilt, with the knowledge that her life would and indeed, should, be judged by others. For Lauren, the realisation that her elderly neighbour has a past she is finding it difficult to even contemplate accepting and knowing what her own conscience is telling her she should do, has placed her in an almost impossible situation, given the completely opposite reaction of her son Freddie, who is open-minded enough to play devil’s advocate and get both sides of the story out into the public domain.
Given the vast plethora of WWII books I have read over a relatively short period of time, I am always amazed at the many diverse storyline’s authors are able to come up with. The Woman Outside The Walls definitely has that defining difference which made it unique, interesting and intriguing.
What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by authors who can fire my imagination, stimulate my senses and stir my emotions. Whilst for me personally, this book had the power to evoke so many feelings, I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about the potential outcome of this storyline as the last reader, nor probably the next, so this really is an experience you need to have for yourself and see where your thoughts lead you!
October 20, 2022
At the age of 17, Anna discovered she was pregnant and did what she could to hide it from her parents. She found herself at a maternity home they promised to give her baby to a good family. She agreed. Anna never saw her child again after it was born. When she finds out about a secretarial job at a prison, she feels that she can get past the sadness that came with giving up her child.
Anna innocently took a job that would impact her for the rest of her life. It was not the best decision by far. That is the story about Anna during 1940s Hamburg, Germany. However, this utterly heartbreaking story does not end there. In fact, during modern time in London, Anna is now 90 years of age and is considered to be a kind, friendly, helpful woman. However, she has kept a secret for decades, and that secret is about to be revealed.
As the story goes back and forth between the past and the present, it is easy to see that Anna was truly an innocent woman who made a bad decision, one that still deserved to have consequences. While working at the prison, which Anna soon learned that it was far more, so she did what she could to help some of those who were suffering. This made it clear that she had not chosen the wrong side, but definitely got caught at the wrong end of things. As Anna is now in her nineties, how did she get past working at such a terrible job where countless innocents lost their lives? In fact, now that the light is shining regarding the actual happenings during the war, Will Anna suffer any consequences now as an old, frail woman?
As this story goes deeper into the present, readers see how Anna's past just might determine her future. What a compelling read! Heartbreaking at every turn, a moral dilemma to be sure, Suzanne Goldring definitely pulls you into this story. A story where pain and loss were clearly tangible. In fact, having tissues nearby would be suggested here. With the addition of two characters who play pivotal roles in this thought-provoking story, Lauren and her son Freddie, both sides of the story will definitely leave a lasting impact on me.
Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/ll2ovoddweA
Anna innocently took a job that would impact her for the rest of her life. It was not the best decision by far. That is the story about Anna during 1940s Hamburg, Germany. However, this utterly heartbreaking story does not end there. In fact, during modern time in London, Anna is now 90 years of age and is considered to be a kind, friendly, helpful woman. However, she has kept a secret for decades, and that secret is about to be revealed.
As the story goes back and forth between the past and the present, it is easy to see that Anna was truly an innocent woman who made a bad decision, one that still deserved to have consequences. While working at the prison, which Anna soon learned that it was far more, so she did what she could to help some of those who were suffering. This made it clear that she had not chosen the wrong side, but definitely got caught at the wrong end of things. As Anna is now in her nineties, how did she get past working at such a terrible job where countless innocents lost their lives? In fact, now that the light is shining regarding the actual happenings during the war, Will Anna suffer any consequences now as an old, frail woman?
As this story goes deeper into the present, readers see how Anna's past just might determine her future. What a compelling read! Heartbreaking at every turn, a moral dilemma to be sure, Suzanne Goldring definitely pulls you into this story. A story where pain and loss were clearly tangible. In fact, having tissues nearby would be suggested here. With the addition of two characters who play pivotal roles in this thought-provoking story, Lauren and her son Freddie, both sides of the story will definitely leave a lasting impact on me.
Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/ll2ovoddweA
October 11, 2022
From someone who doesn't usually read too many war related books...this one just caught my attention. And it kept my attention all the way through. Read in war times and present makes you realize what happens and how war affects others in the present. Greatly told story
Thanks to the author and the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.
Thanks to the author and the publisher and NetGalley for an early release of this book.
October 9, 2022
The Woman Outside the Walls is another powerful heart felt book by Suzanne Goldring that spans over 77 years.
There is a dual time line from before and after the war to present day.
Anna is now in her 90's and lives every day with the horror of World War 2 and her part in it at a prison camp.
She is resilient, a survivor and not without guilt.
In present day she has a new name and lives a quiet life .
The Woman Outside the Walls teaches us that the story of the War must never be forgotten and we must listen.
Suzanne Goldring is a born story teller and her books never disappoint.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a spellbinding compelling read.
There is a dual time line from before and after the war to present day.
Anna is now in her 90's and lives every day with the horror of World War 2 and her part in it at a prison camp.
She is resilient, a survivor and not without guilt.
In present day she has a new name and lives a quiet life .
The Woman Outside the Walls teaches us that the story of the War must never be forgotten and we must listen.
Suzanne Goldring is a born story teller and her books never disappoint.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for a spellbinding compelling read.
February 17, 2023
Wow. I enjoy historical fiction about WWII, but usually the books are from the point of view of one of the prisoners. This book was refreshing in that it was the view of someone who worked in one of the concentration camps/prisons. While the characters were fictional, I could see the story being real. The deception, the crimes, the gruesomeness, the aftermath, being scared – just all of it. Goldring did a great job of writing a very realistic novel; how Anna and her friends had to survive toward the end of the war was astonishing. The novel really makes one think – should someone who didn’t personally hurt anyone, who didn’t agree with what was happening, be prosecuted for being a secretary or in another like position? What if it’s your sweet next-door neighbor, who has been like family to you? This book is a great read, and an even better one for a book club. It would foster great discussion!
October 30, 2024
There is a dual time line in this book, and it does jump around quite a bit. So in the beginning you really had to pay attention to the events. It is a historical fiction about the concentration camps of World War II. It is about a survivor of a war crime and how she survived that devastating period in history. She kept the guilt of her past to herself, until the end of the book . I like this genre because I learn so much about that time in history.
September 17, 2022
Set in two timelines this tells the story of Anna in the second world war and in 2016. Post war she is trying to survive in Hamburg desperate to find her family. She comes across a group who take her in, she is only seventeen and has been through so much. We then get Anna's wartime story.
In 2016 (and onwards) Anna is ninety and her neighbour wonders where she is- Anna has fled yet again but got to the bus stop and doesn't know where to go. Her past is coming to the forefront of her mind now she has lost Reg her husband several years ago and feels she should tell someone before it's too late. Her neighbour's son is learning German- the language Anna spoke when she was at the bus stop. Could this and his new interest in history bring Anna’s memories out at last?
I really enjoyed this, it's a wartime story in a very different way which to me made it more personal as we get to know Anna in more than one scenario. There’s a warmth of storytelling and wonderful characterization. Enough description to envisage the scenes without being overly wordy makes this a page turner of a read. We can probably guess in part as to Anna’s backstory but none of us can really know what the Anna’s of this world went through, all we know is that so very many did so, few surviving. An emotive story very well told and one to perhaps make the younger generation think for a while.
For more reviews please follow me on Twitter@nickisbookblog
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October 17, 2022
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Suzanne Goldring's heartbreaking dual timeline tale THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS.
I have read all of Suzanne Goldring's books (my favourite still being "My Name is Eva" ) and this is one that is slightly different though it tells something of the same story. But through the main character's eyes we see something of a different picture. Again it is told through the past and the present as the secrets of the past come to light in the present day. Which leaves us with something of a moral dilemma. What is right? What is wrong? And just what will you do to survive?
Hamburg 1943: Seventeen year old Anna Kolhmann falls in love with a young German soldier who thus leaves her with a parting gift before he is killed in action. Faced with a dilemma of whether to confide in her parents or not, Anna realises she can never tell them the truth - that she is pregnant and the father is dead. So she takes herself off to a maternity home where her baby will be given to the perfect family. She knows that this is best, that she could never give it all that it needs. But she doesn't expect to feel such overwhelming love for her beautiful baby boy or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again. In her mind, she has named him Peter and it is there he will remain alive to her as he was in those first moments she glimpsed him.
In her grief, she returns to Hamburg with a plan. She has accepted a position as a secretary in a prison far away in the east. As she sets off, Anna feels as if a chapter has been closed and a new one is about to begin. What she didn't know was what she was stepping into...what kind of prison it was...and the part she would play.
London 2016: Ninety year old Anna stuffs another newspaper clipping into her case, her eyes brimming with tears and her hands trembling. She feels the time has come. They are coming for her, as they have all the others who remain. She puts on her coat, grabs her case and shuts the door to her terraced house and walks away.
Lauren has lived next door to Anna, whom she knows as Margie, for twenty years and knows the elderly woman doesn't go out anywhere except to the corner store or the church. But when she sees Margie's milk still sitting on the doorstep at the end of the day, she begins to worry something has happened to her neighbour. It's not until her son Freddie returns home does she discover he has found her slumped at a bus stop with no idea what she is doing or where she is going. They can make no sense of what she is saying as she babbles away in a foreign language, possibly German. Together, Lauren and Freddie help Margie home and call the doctor for fear she may have developed some kind of dementia.
Freddie is just 13 years old and has been studying German at school so he has picked up a word or two Margie has uttered but it's not until their neighbour offers to enhance Freddie's grasp of the German language by holding conversation classes that they begin to wonder about Margie's background. Then one day Freddie comes home with the prospect of reading "some girl's diary of the war" (insert eye rolling from Freddie) which he couldn't be more bored with which Lauren makes more real for him by taking him to Amsterdam to see the house in which Anne Frank and her family had hidden. He returns with a postcard of Anne Frank which he gives to Margie as a thank you for helping him with his German that Lauren later finds torn in half in the bin. What is it that haunts Margie that distresses her so?
Then when Freddie comes home with an assignment on the war and its origins, he decides to question Margie on her own experiences, little realising the can of worms he is about to open and heartache that will be unleashed. But can the sins of the past ever be forgiven?
THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS reminds us that stories such as this must never be forgotten. The Holocaust and its atrocities must never be forgotten. We must never forget those crimes against humanity...we must remember them so that they will never happen again.
Anna is a strong and resilient young woman who had seen too much in her young life, having changed her name three times in three years before escaping with the British officer who saved her from poverty and took her home to England to live. But Anna never forgot...she was ashamed and consumed with a guilt that never ever left her. But her story is one that is shrouded in secrets and though I had guessed the part she played, it isn't completely revealed until near the end.
This dual timeline tale is a little different in that it seemingly jumps around a little, but that is only because some aspects remain hidden until the relative part of the story unfolds. Anna is the predominant voice in this story, both in past and the present. We do hear from Lauren as well which lends something of a different perspective as an outsider looking in. Someone who has known their neighbour for twenty years and thus their shock at the truth when it is revealed.
However, I see Anna as a victim also. The people of Germany didn't want the war that was inflicted on them and yet they had to abide by certain laws anyway. Their lives were turned upside down and destroyed by their own people, let alone the Allies who were fighting them. THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLSS is a thought-provoking tale as it is heartbreaking. There are questions that you would ask yourself should you find yourself in similar circumstances. At the end of the day, it is about survival. You do what you do to survive. And only then can you begin to reconcile the decisions you have made.
Overall, THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS is an emotive tale about one woman's strength and resilience and ultimately her survival. Perfect for fans of wartime historical fiction.
I would like to thank #SuzanneGoldring, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheWomanOutsideTheWalls in exchange for an honest review.
This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.
I have read all of Suzanne Goldring's books (my favourite still being "My Name is Eva" ) and this is one that is slightly different though it tells something of the same story. But through the main character's eyes we see something of a different picture. Again it is told through the past and the present as the secrets of the past come to light in the present day. Which leaves us with something of a moral dilemma. What is right? What is wrong? And just what will you do to survive?
Hamburg 1943: Seventeen year old Anna Kolhmann falls in love with a young German soldier who thus leaves her with a parting gift before he is killed in action. Faced with a dilemma of whether to confide in her parents or not, Anna realises she can never tell them the truth - that she is pregnant and the father is dead. So she takes herself off to a maternity home where her baby will be given to the perfect family. She knows that this is best, that she could never give it all that it needs. But she doesn't expect to feel such overwhelming love for her beautiful baby boy or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again. In her mind, she has named him Peter and it is there he will remain alive to her as he was in those first moments she glimpsed him.
In her grief, she returns to Hamburg with a plan. She has accepted a position as a secretary in a prison far away in the east. As she sets off, Anna feels as if a chapter has been closed and a new one is about to begin. What she didn't know was what she was stepping into...what kind of prison it was...and the part she would play.
London 2016: Ninety year old Anna stuffs another newspaper clipping into her case, her eyes brimming with tears and her hands trembling. She feels the time has come. They are coming for her, as they have all the others who remain. She puts on her coat, grabs her case and shuts the door to her terraced house and walks away.
Lauren has lived next door to Anna, whom she knows as Margie, for twenty years and knows the elderly woman doesn't go out anywhere except to the corner store or the church. But when she sees Margie's milk still sitting on the doorstep at the end of the day, she begins to worry something has happened to her neighbour. It's not until her son Freddie returns home does she discover he has found her slumped at a bus stop with no idea what she is doing or where she is going. They can make no sense of what she is saying as she babbles away in a foreign language, possibly German. Together, Lauren and Freddie help Margie home and call the doctor for fear she may have developed some kind of dementia.
Freddie is just 13 years old and has been studying German at school so he has picked up a word or two Margie has uttered but it's not until their neighbour offers to enhance Freddie's grasp of the German language by holding conversation classes that they begin to wonder about Margie's background. Then one day Freddie comes home with the prospect of reading "some girl's diary of the war" (insert eye rolling from Freddie) which he couldn't be more bored with which Lauren makes more real for him by taking him to Amsterdam to see the house in which Anne Frank and her family had hidden. He returns with a postcard of Anne Frank which he gives to Margie as a thank you for helping him with his German that Lauren later finds torn in half in the bin. What is it that haunts Margie that distresses her so?
Then when Freddie comes home with an assignment on the war and its origins, he decides to question Margie on her own experiences, little realising the can of worms he is about to open and heartache that will be unleashed. But can the sins of the past ever be forgiven?
THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS reminds us that stories such as this must never be forgotten. The Holocaust and its atrocities must never be forgotten. We must never forget those crimes against humanity...we must remember them so that they will never happen again.
Anna is a strong and resilient young woman who had seen too much in her young life, having changed her name three times in three years before escaping with the British officer who saved her from poverty and took her home to England to live. But Anna never forgot...she was ashamed and consumed with a guilt that never ever left her. But her story is one that is shrouded in secrets and though I had guessed the part she played, it isn't completely revealed until near the end.
This dual timeline tale is a little different in that it seemingly jumps around a little, but that is only because some aspects remain hidden until the relative part of the story unfolds. Anna is the predominant voice in this story, both in past and the present. We do hear from Lauren as well which lends something of a different perspective as an outsider looking in. Someone who has known their neighbour for twenty years and thus their shock at the truth when it is revealed.
However, I see Anna as a victim also. The people of Germany didn't want the war that was inflicted on them and yet they had to abide by certain laws anyway. Their lives were turned upside down and destroyed by their own people, let alone the Allies who were fighting them. THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLSS is a thought-provoking tale as it is heartbreaking. There are questions that you would ask yourself should you find yourself in similar circumstances. At the end of the day, it is about survival. You do what you do to survive. And only then can you begin to reconcile the decisions you have made.
Overall, THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS is an emotive tale about one woman's strength and resilience and ultimately her survival. Perfect for fans of wartime historical fiction.
I would like to thank #SuzanneGoldring, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheWomanOutsideTheWalls in exchange for an honest review.
This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.
October 18, 2022
The Woman Outside the Walls by Suzanne Goldring is a book that will stay with you. The story toggles between 2016 and Germany during WWII. We meet Anna towards the end of the war, as a young woman living with other orphans struggling to survive daily. They are eating rats to survive. She meets her future husband, a British soldier, and he whisks her to London where she has a good life. As her life unfolds we learn that Anna has a very complicated past.
This book will leave you with many questions.
Is a person all bad?
Can a person do bad things but still be a “good” person?
Is your life defined by one thing that happens to you?
Should one person be held responsible for the crimes of many?
I don’t know these answers, but it definitely gave me something to think about. I devoured this book in two days. I thought the ending was superb. It really left it up to you. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
Many thanks to the author, Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
#TheWomanOutsidetheWalls #NetGalley
This book will leave you with many questions.
Is a person all bad?
Can a person do bad things but still be a “good” person?
Is your life defined by one thing that happens to you?
Should one person be held responsible for the crimes of many?
I don’t know these answers, but it definitely gave me something to think about. I devoured this book in two days. I thought the ending was superb. It really left it up to you. I look forward to reading more books by this author.
Many thanks to the author, Bookouture Audio and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
#TheWomanOutsidetheWalls #NetGalley
October 7, 2022
Thank you NetGalley and Bookoture!
What do you consider right? What do you consider wrong? What would you be willing to do to survive?
This book makes you face those questions. I have not read such a thought provoking book in quite some time! This book takes you on a journey of survival and makes you evaluate your life along the way. What an amazing journey this read turned out to be. I would highly recommend reading this in a group setting so you can really answer those hard questions as you read.
Triggers:
-Placement of child/Adoption
-Suicide
-Death of children
-War Crimes
What do you consider right? What do you consider wrong? What would you be willing to do to survive?
This book makes you face those questions. I have not read such a thought provoking book in quite some time! This book takes you on a journey of survival and makes you evaluate your life along the way. What an amazing journey this read turned out to be. I would highly recommend reading this in a group setting so you can really answer those hard questions as you read.
Triggers:
-Placement of child/Adoption
-Suicide
-Death of children
-War Crimes
October 13, 2022
This is the story of Anna, who is now in her 90’ s and lives her life peacefully and quietly but with the horrors of WWII and her part in it at a prison camp as well as her time trying to survive post war as she meets up with a group who take her in and they live together in a cellar and work together to stay alive. She is a survivor but she is surviving filled with guilt.
The story is told in dual time lines, in her past and her present, where she lives next to her neighbors, who adore her, and Freddie is doing a project on WWII and is learning German at school and asks Anna for her help, which leads her to start thinking back to all she is hiding.
In the past chapters we see how horrific life was then and what they went through just to survive. There are a lot of triggers but it is a story that is very well told and gets to your heart.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.
The story is told in dual time lines, in her past and her present, where she lives next to her neighbors, who adore her, and Freddie is doing a project on WWII and is learning German at school and asks Anna for her help, which leads her to start thinking back to all she is hiding.
In the past chapters we see how horrific life was then and what they went through just to survive. There are a lot of triggers but it is a story that is very well told and gets to your heart.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.
November 8, 2022
What clever writing! Switched viewpoints built the tension and drama of the novel. I enjoyed the story of Lauren and Freddie as a counterpoint to the challenging circumstances Anna finds herself in prior to arriving in the UK. Anna's marriage is sensitively handled and the life she leads as an isolated widow. A story about how a character's personal history catches up.
September 3, 2023
I would have preferred reading this one in book form, rather than Audible, but the story is important to tell.
September 18, 2022
Spread over a time-span of 77 years with each chapter varying from different characters perspectives and in the past and present, The Woman Outside the Walls is a well-crafted novel that tells the story of a woman with multiple identities and one major story to tell. Annaleise/Margarete/Etta/Margie has lived through her own personal hells and a lifetime of grief and regret thanks her country and the war and mayhem it created.
You will read about Anna’s life during the war, post-war in the ruins of Hamburg and her adult life in England. The author does a great job at making the story personal no matter what part of her story you are reading. This was a very humbling book and showed that there were ordinary citizens whose lives were never the same again thanks to the Nazi Regime. They, too, experienced their own trials and tribulations. But what is it, that haunts Anna’s dreams and thoughts? Albeit predictable early on, finding out Anna’s story is told in such a clever way that you will find the book hard to put down. And you will ask yourself: What would you do to survive a war? And a post-war where death is knocking at your door every day? How would you, if ever, silence the ghosts of your pasts?
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy! And thank you to Bookatoure!
You will read about Anna’s life during the war, post-war in the ruins of Hamburg and her adult life in England. The author does a great job at making the story personal no matter what part of her story you are reading. This was a very humbling book and showed that there were ordinary citizens whose lives were never the same again thanks to the Nazi Regime. They, too, experienced their own trials and tribulations. But what is it, that haunts Anna’s dreams and thoughts? Albeit predictable early on, finding out Anna’s story is told in such a clever way that you will find the book hard to put down. And you will ask yourself: What would you do to survive a war? And a post-war where death is knocking at your door every day? How would you, if ever, silence the ghosts of your pasts?
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC copy! And thank you to Bookatoure!
October 1, 2022
This book will appeal to readers who like historical fiction, especially World War II. Written in dual timelines, Germany during the 1940's and London 2017. It is the story of Anna a German woman working as an office administrator in a concentration camp and the guilt she lives with for the rest of her life.
It is an emotional story about survival, guilt and love with a cast of well drawn characters and an interesting plot.
4****
It is an emotional story about survival, guilt and love with a cast of well drawn characters and an interesting plot.
4****
November 2, 2022
I must say this book was a bit different than most of the WWII historical fiction novels I have read, and I have read a lot. This book centers around Anna, who falls in love with a German soldier and becomes pregnant. Afraid to tell her parents, Anna goes off to one of the Reich's special homes for unwed mothers where her child will be adopted by a respectable German family who are upstanding members of the party. After this Anna takes a secretarial job for what she thinks is just a normal prison that provides room and board for it's employees. She discovers the truth to be anything but normal. Upon the war nearing the end, Anna returns to her hometown to find it nearly completely destroyed by bombs. It's citizens are now living in squalor, those who have survived the fire from the bombs that tore through the town consuming everything in its wake. They have to scavenge for what food they can find and live in the basements of burned out homes. The women survive the only way they can, by selling themselves on the streets and at the army bases.
I never expected this story to go there but it did, and the tragic truth about the circumstances the citizens of Hamburg had to survive were truly appalling, they too, like many others were mostly innocent victims of WWII and Hitler's evil design.
This book breaks your heart and as you read Anna's story, both past and present I am sure you will feel and sympathize for and with her. I give it 5stars and recommend.
Thank you to Bookouture and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.
I never expected this story to go there but it did, and the tragic truth about the circumstances the citizens of Hamburg had to survive were truly appalling, they too, like many others were mostly innocent victims of WWII and Hitler's evil design.
This book breaks your heart and as you read Anna's story, both past and present I am sure you will feel and sympathize for and with her. I give it 5stars and recommend.
Thank you to Bookouture and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.
October 16, 2022
Reading Stuff 'n' Things
Anna is in her 90's and living a quiet and peaceful life but she has lived with the horrors and struggles of her past and of the fear that it's going to catch up with her.
Told from different time lines - pre-war, post war and the present - and mainly from Anna's perspective, this is the story of her life; the good, the bad and the ugly. I admit it did, at times, feel like it was jumping from one time to another and not always, I felt, in a logical way which made it a bit hard to keep up but you soon get caught up in the story.
This is a real thought-provoker and makes you ask yourself some difficult questions about what you would do to survive and if you do, how do you reconcile the decisions you have made.
Although this is a work of fiction, there are historical facts that are interwoven in the story which makes it feel quite authentic and I must thank Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Woman Outside the Walls.
Anna is in her 90's and living a quiet and peaceful life but she has lived with the horrors and struggles of her past and of the fear that it's going to catch up with her.
Told from different time lines - pre-war, post war and the present - and mainly from Anna's perspective, this is the story of her life; the good, the bad and the ugly. I admit it did, at times, feel like it was jumping from one time to another and not always, I felt, in a logical way which made it a bit hard to keep up but you soon get caught up in the story.
This is a real thought-provoker and makes you ask yourself some difficult questions about what you would do to survive and if you do, how do you reconcile the decisions you have made.
Although this is a work of fiction, there are historical facts that are interwoven in the story which makes it feel quite authentic and I must thank Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Woman Outside the Walls.
November 21, 2022
Overall a really interesting book and fairly well written. I wish that the backstory with Gunther was explored more.. he just shows up and leaves in one chapter, no real backstory connecting them as children. Anne clings to him as her one true love based on this shaky premise and two encounters. Also, everyone is named Peter. Her child, her adopted child, and her husband's deceased brother. I wish there could've been an epilogue but I'm assuming the author wants us to come to our own conclusions as to how the story resolves. The important part is the development and how it got to the point where she finally was ready to come out of hiding and speak.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2022
The Woman Outside the Walls by Suzanne Goldring opens in London in 2016. Anna is in her 90’s and has lived alone for many years following the death of her husband Reg. Every morning she checks the suitcase under her bed which she has hidden for safety. This reassures her but now she thinks things are catching up with her and she must leave her home. For where she does not know but she has this sense of urgency that she must go. She heads for the local bus stop but many buses come and go and by the end of the day her neighbour Lauren is worried that Anna’s milk remains on her doorstep which is very unlike her. Lauren and her son Freddie find Anna in a state of confusion and distress. What she is saying does not make sense especially as she is speaking in her native German.
Lauren thinks there is a story to be told about Anna but as she has been such a good neighbour for so many years, and once babysat her children, she is loath to dig deeper in fear of causing upset and distress. But Anna known to Lauren as Margie has had a difficult and challenging life and the burden of the past is weighing heavily on her. The memories locked away inside her head haunt her. Can Lauren break through the stiff shell that Anna has created around herself and if she does is she only opening up a can of worms best left firmly closed?
The story moves back and forth between the present day and Germany during the war years. Lauren and her son Freddie are the link or catalyst that allow Anna who has gone through several aliases and is now known as Margie to try and break free from the shackles of perhaps guilt and the horrific memories and images she witnessed during the war. Freddie through studying German and learning about Anne Frank and the war itself bridges the connection between the past and present and both himself and Lauren were well used throughout the story. But for me it’s Anna’s story in the past as she assumes the alias Margarete/Etta that really had me enthralled.
Anna grew up in Hamburg with her parents and now in 1945 she has returned to the place of her birth but the city she once called home has been ravaged and destroyed by British planes. The author spares no detail in describing the sights that meet Anna’s eyes as she has travelled on foot a very long distance to reach the city where she hopes she will be reunited with her parents. That is not to be the case as her home is destroyed and the stench of rot, decay, filth and disease fill the air and the landscape is blackened and desolate. Those that did not die during the horrific bombings were left to more or less fend for themselves and Anna finds herself seeking shelter in a cellar with a group of young kids who have named themselves the Ausgebombten gang.
Said gang boasts a cast of quirky yet resilient characters and again no detail as spared in helping the reader to understand the extend of deprivation, disease and starvation that faced those left behind. That’s what’s really good about this story is that we often forget that the German population suffered deeply during the war too and Suzanne Goldring has provided a solid and balanced viewpoint making the reader stop and think that innocent Germans suffered too. The descriptions of the conditions the gang live in and what they were forced to do just to get by day by day, well really they were horrific and Anna feels she is a burden to them. She turns to something that would have her parents horrified but she needs to survive.
There is a secrecy and wariness about Anna that has her constantly on high alert and looking over her shoulders. I could sense that she was hiding something significant and the fact that she always mentioned ‘The Other’s’ made me think there was a lot more to her than she was revealing to any of the gang that she befriends. I desperately wanted to know who ‘The Others’ were and I had a small inkling but never grasped the full extent as to who they were and their significance until the big reveal came towards the end of the book. We are taken back to the early 1940’s where we learn Anna’s history and what caused her to leave Hamburg. She has many wounds in her soul that lie gaping and the war and her experiences only widened them further. I found Anna to be resilient as I read through the story and as she reveals more about herself I did feel sympathy for her but when the climax is reached it made me sit up in shock and revaluate things. Her beloved Reg saved her from torment and persecution but did her actions leave her with no sense of moral code or decency or was she just doing what she had to do to make it through the war years? Anna is a divisive character that is for sure and although as an old woman she came across as caring and free from fault when I read of her in the past I don’t think I was always endeared to her.
The Woman Outside the Walls is a good read that really gets the reader thinking. It would be an ideal book club read as it would inspire great debate, the themes of the book are well developed and explored and they raise many moral issues. It ends on what I would call a cliff-hanger of sorts as the reader is left to decide how the individual characters deal with what they have learnt. It’s up to the reader to form their own opinion on all the revelations and that’s why I think this would make a good book club selection. If you have a firm opinion of someone and then you subsequently learn details that alter that in some way be it big or small do you then change your opinion or does it remain the same? How can it stay the same given what you discover is shocking? Having finished the book I still can’t decide how I would have dealt with what I read but one thing I know for sure it’s not a cut and dry situation by any means. Suzanne Goldring has done a very good job of shining a light on Germany during the war years and how one woman’s experiences shaped her for the rest of her life. It’s an enjoyable read despite the subject matter and provides the reader with plenty of food for thought.
Lauren thinks there is a story to be told about Anna but as she has been such a good neighbour for so many years, and once babysat her children, she is loath to dig deeper in fear of causing upset and distress. But Anna known to Lauren as Margie has had a difficult and challenging life and the burden of the past is weighing heavily on her. The memories locked away inside her head haunt her. Can Lauren break through the stiff shell that Anna has created around herself and if she does is she only opening up a can of worms best left firmly closed?
The story moves back and forth between the present day and Germany during the war years. Lauren and her son Freddie are the link or catalyst that allow Anna who has gone through several aliases and is now known as Margie to try and break free from the shackles of perhaps guilt and the horrific memories and images she witnessed during the war. Freddie through studying German and learning about Anne Frank and the war itself bridges the connection between the past and present and both himself and Lauren were well used throughout the story. But for me it’s Anna’s story in the past as she assumes the alias Margarete/Etta that really had me enthralled.
Anna grew up in Hamburg with her parents and now in 1945 she has returned to the place of her birth but the city she once called home has been ravaged and destroyed by British planes. The author spares no detail in describing the sights that meet Anna’s eyes as she has travelled on foot a very long distance to reach the city where she hopes she will be reunited with her parents. That is not to be the case as her home is destroyed and the stench of rot, decay, filth and disease fill the air and the landscape is blackened and desolate. Those that did not die during the horrific bombings were left to more or less fend for themselves and Anna finds herself seeking shelter in a cellar with a group of young kids who have named themselves the Ausgebombten gang.
Said gang boasts a cast of quirky yet resilient characters and again no detail as spared in helping the reader to understand the extend of deprivation, disease and starvation that faced those left behind. That’s what’s really good about this story is that we often forget that the German population suffered deeply during the war too and Suzanne Goldring has provided a solid and balanced viewpoint making the reader stop and think that innocent Germans suffered too. The descriptions of the conditions the gang live in and what they were forced to do just to get by day by day, well really they were horrific and Anna feels she is a burden to them. She turns to something that would have her parents horrified but she needs to survive.
There is a secrecy and wariness about Anna that has her constantly on high alert and looking over her shoulders. I could sense that she was hiding something significant and the fact that she always mentioned ‘The Other’s’ made me think there was a lot more to her than she was revealing to any of the gang that she befriends. I desperately wanted to know who ‘The Others’ were and I had a small inkling but never grasped the full extent as to who they were and their significance until the big reveal came towards the end of the book. We are taken back to the early 1940’s where we learn Anna’s history and what caused her to leave Hamburg. She has many wounds in her soul that lie gaping and the war and her experiences only widened them further. I found Anna to be resilient as I read through the story and as she reveals more about herself I did feel sympathy for her but when the climax is reached it made me sit up in shock and revaluate things. Her beloved Reg saved her from torment and persecution but did her actions leave her with no sense of moral code or decency or was she just doing what she had to do to make it through the war years? Anna is a divisive character that is for sure and although as an old woman she came across as caring and free from fault when I read of her in the past I don’t think I was always endeared to her.
The Woman Outside the Walls is a good read that really gets the reader thinking. It would be an ideal book club read as it would inspire great debate, the themes of the book are well developed and explored and they raise many moral issues. It ends on what I would call a cliff-hanger of sorts as the reader is left to decide how the individual characters deal with what they have learnt. It’s up to the reader to form their own opinion on all the revelations and that’s why I think this would make a good book club selection. If you have a firm opinion of someone and then you subsequently learn details that alter that in some way be it big or small do you then change your opinion or does it remain the same? How can it stay the same given what you discover is shocking? Having finished the book I still can’t decide how I would have dealt with what I read but one thing I know for sure it’s not a cut and dry situation by any means. Suzanne Goldring has done a very good job of shining a light on Germany during the war years and how one woman’s experiences shaped her for the rest of her life. It’s an enjoyable read despite the subject matter and provides the reader with plenty of food for thought.
March 30, 2023
The Woman Outside The Walls by Suzanne Goldring is a powerful dual timeline novel that I just could not put down. It is a story that needs to be told in memory of the six million innocents, a quarter of which were children.
The novel is set in Germany mainly during World War II and in London in 2016. The young girl in the war has become the ninety year old in 2016. She has a life full of guilt and regrets, hiding a dreadful secret over the years. Her life has been a series of identities and fearful of a knock on the door. We could blame her youth for her silence, but we all have choices to make and innately know what is wrong and what is right. Innocent questions from a young teen, studying World War II send her back down the years.
The chapters alternate the time periods and voices to tell the tale. The narrative is powerful. We see that not all Germans were Nazis, but to remain silent was to condone events.
Suzanne Goldring shows the innocence and loyalty of childhood as two four year olds in 1929 Germany played quite happily together, even after the Nuremburg Laws were passed. Friendship not religion mattered until innocence is eroded by a disappearance.
Young lives had choices taken away as they were expected to behave in certain ways for ‘the Fatherland’. Deep down they would know certain actions were wrong but they kept silent.
Germany in 1945 was a country destroyed. People survived doing whatever was necessary for food. The moral code drastically slipped as food was more important than morals. A group of children banded together in Hamburg after their homes and parents were taken from them by the bombing raids. They are a small loyal band, functioning as a family.
With the arrival of the British and Americans comes hope for many. Some servicemen had a dreadfully low moral code too. Others had kind hearts.
The Woman Outside The Walls is a tale of survival. It is a tale of hard choices and of guilt. To echo Edmund Burke, “for evil to prevail it just needs good men to do nothing.” Silence is no excuse for the dreadful suffering and evil. After the silence comes the guilt that will last a lifetime.
Suzanne Goldring has produced a marvellous tale from a differing point of view. We do not often see events of World War II through the eyes of a German girl. I can highly recommend it.
The novel is set in Germany mainly during World War II and in London in 2016. The young girl in the war has become the ninety year old in 2016. She has a life full of guilt and regrets, hiding a dreadful secret over the years. Her life has been a series of identities and fearful of a knock on the door. We could blame her youth for her silence, but we all have choices to make and innately know what is wrong and what is right. Innocent questions from a young teen, studying World War II send her back down the years.
The chapters alternate the time periods and voices to tell the tale. The narrative is powerful. We see that not all Germans were Nazis, but to remain silent was to condone events.
Suzanne Goldring shows the innocence and loyalty of childhood as two four year olds in 1929 Germany played quite happily together, even after the Nuremburg Laws were passed. Friendship not religion mattered until innocence is eroded by a disappearance.
Young lives had choices taken away as they were expected to behave in certain ways for ‘the Fatherland’. Deep down they would know certain actions were wrong but they kept silent.
Germany in 1945 was a country destroyed. People survived doing whatever was necessary for food. The moral code drastically slipped as food was more important than morals. A group of children banded together in Hamburg after their homes and parents were taken from them by the bombing raids. They are a small loyal band, functioning as a family.
With the arrival of the British and Americans comes hope for many. Some servicemen had a dreadfully low moral code too. Others had kind hearts.
The Woman Outside The Walls is a tale of survival. It is a tale of hard choices and of guilt. To echo Edmund Burke, “for evil to prevail it just needs good men to do nothing.” Silence is no excuse for the dreadful suffering and evil. After the silence comes the guilt that will last a lifetime.
Suzanne Goldring has produced a marvellous tale from a differing point of view. We do not often see events of World War II through the eyes of a German girl. I can highly recommend it.
November 6, 2022
The Woman Outside the Walls is by Stephanie Goldring. This is a story about secrets.
Anna had lived a long life in England with her husband after having lived through the war with Germany and the aftermath in Hamburg, Germany. She had lost her parents, her friends, her lover and her son during the war years. Finding her husband, a British soldier in Hamburg, most likely saved her life and the life of her son, Peter. Throughout her life in England, she carried secrets even from her dear husband. At ninety-one, she gathered her previously packed suitcase and left her home to run once more.
Lauren was her next-door neighbor. They had lived next to her for many years. Anna had helped Lauren by babysitting her children when they were young and then, when her husband died, helped Lauren through her grief. Now, Lauren looked after Anna and every week got her shopping list and brought her groceries to her. It was her son, Freddie, who found Anna sitting at the bus stop that freezing day. Together, they brought Anna home and got a doctor to visit. They were afraid the experience had caused major damage as Anna was speaking German and acting oddly. Luckily, she escaped her ordeal with little damage expect that she spoke more German.
However, Anna was keeping a dreadful secret or two. First, Peter was not her biological son; but the son of a young lady who helped Anna survive when she returned to Hamburg. When she died, she had left Peter with Anna. Having no one else to care for him, she took him to England when she got married and brought him up as her own. She still did not want Peter to know about his past.
This, however, was not her true secret. That one had bitter memories. These memories lurked behind her back; but maybe it was time to release it. She had hidden her identity beneath three different identities as she transformed herself from a young German girl who became a Nazi, had a baby in one of the Lebensborn homes, lost him and her youthful lover, and worked for the Reich in a concentration camp. These were just the tip of her secrets. How did she keep it for so long?
Anna had lived a long life in England with her husband after having lived through the war with Germany and the aftermath in Hamburg, Germany. She had lost her parents, her friends, her lover and her son during the war years. Finding her husband, a British soldier in Hamburg, most likely saved her life and the life of her son, Peter. Throughout her life in England, she carried secrets even from her dear husband. At ninety-one, she gathered her previously packed suitcase and left her home to run once more.
Lauren was her next-door neighbor. They had lived next to her for many years. Anna had helped Lauren by babysitting her children when they were young and then, when her husband died, helped Lauren through her grief. Now, Lauren looked after Anna and every week got her shopping list and brought her groceries to her. It was her son, Freddie, who found Anna sitting at the bus stop that freezing day. Together, they brought Anna home and got a doctor to visit. They were afraid the experience had caused major damage as Anna was speaking German and acting oddly. Luckily, she escaped her ordeal with little damage expect that she spoke more German.
However, Anna was keeping a dreadful secret or two. First, Peter was not her biological son; but the son of a young lady who helped Anna survive when she returned to Hamburg. When she died, she had left Peter with Anna. Having no one else to care for him, she took him to England when she got married and brought him up as her own. She still did not want Peter to know about his past.
This, however, was not her true secret. That one had bitter memories. These memories lurked behind her back; but maybe it was time to release it. She had hidden her identity beneath three different identities as she transformed herself from a young German girl who became a Nazi, had a baby in one of the Lebensborn homes, lost him and her youthful lover, and worked for the Reich in a concentration camp. These were just the tip of her secrets. How did she keep it for so long?
January 20, 2023
Hamburg, 1942 17yo Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about her personal life. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.
Desperate to forget her grief,she sees an advert for a prison secretary, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016 90yo Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help, and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
The Jungmadelbund("Young Girls League ") was the section of Hitler Youth for girls aged 10-13 years.
Wehrmachthelferin(Female Wehrmacht Helpers)were girls and young women who served as auxiliaries.They performed secretarial and other administrative tasks and were also volunteer nurses in military health service.Aufseherin were female guards in Nazi concentration camps.
On 3 May 1945, British forces entered Hamburg, and had a British Army unit called 521 Military Government Detachment to handle displaced persons by establishing a major reception camp-No.17 Displaced Persons Assembly Centre-in the grounds of the zoological gardens.This assembly centre quickly became known as "Zoo Camp".DPs' clothes were deloused with DDT powder,and they were given registration cards to note name,nationality,and place of residence.Zoo Camp was a temporary refuge.
Desperate to forget her grief,she sees an advert for a prison secretary, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016 90yo Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help, and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
The Jungmadelbund("Young Girls League ") was the section of Hitler Youth for girls aged 10-13 years.
Wehrmachthelferin(Female Wehrmacht Helpers)were girls and young women who served as auxiliaries.They performed secretarial and other administrative tasks and were also volunteer nurses in military health service.Aufseherin were female guards in Nazi concentration camps.
On 3 May 1945, British forces entered Hamburg, and had a British Army unit called 521 Military Government Detachment to handle displaced persons by establishing a major reception camp-No.17 Displaced Persons Assembly Centre-in the grounds of the zoological gardens.This assembly centre quickly became known as "Zoo Camp".DPs' clothes were deloused with DDT powder,and they were given registration cards to note name,nationality,and place of residence.Zoo Camp was a temporary refuge.
May 4, 2023
Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟 𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕤
𝗦𝘂𝘇𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴
Historical Fiction
336 pages
Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs
The Woman Outside the Walls is about a young woman who unknowingly works as a secretary at a concentration camp after giving up a child. The job was posted as a secretary for a prison. It didn’t take long to figure out where she really was, but she stayed. She then looks over her shoulder for the rest of her life, fearing prosecution, even though she tried to help others, even when she was at the concentration camp.
Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs
This book shows that not all those on the wrong side of WWII were evil people. It flips back and forth between the present, where Anna is a ninety-year-old, and the past, where she was a teenager and young adult. Although she worked at the concentration camp, she spent the rest of her life differently. She comes across as a kind person, and I couldn’t help but like her. She was so young and had already gone through great grief when she found herself in this terrible position she didn’t know how to escape.
The characters are so raw and authentic. Every time I read about the barbarousness and need for basic necessities that aren’t available, I am bewildered by the steadfastness of humans to survive such conditions. So many misguided ideas led to copious horrendous acts toward fellow humans.
Ann’s life story strives to tell us the emotional and physical toll that WWII took on so many on both sides of the war. There are plenty of stories beyond the Holocaust that I am learning about by reading historical fiction. Although it is fiction, extensive research is done to bring those stories to life.
The Woman Outside the Walls is one of my favorite books of 2023 so far. It is emotional and heartbreaking but gives us a look at the internal conflict and sacrifices that were common during this time period.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.
~Read more reviews at Latishaslowkeylife.com
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟 𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕤
𝗦𝘂𝘇𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴
Historical Fiction
336 pages
Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs
The Woman Outside the Walls is about a young woman who unknowingly works as a secretary at a concentration camp after giving up a child. The job was posted as a secretary for a prison. It didn’t take long to figure out where she really was, but she stayed. She then looks over her shoulder for the rest of her life, fearing prosecution, even though she tried to help others, even when she was at the concentration camp.
Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs
This book shows that not all those on the wrong side of WWII were evil people. It flips back and forth between the present, where Anna is a ninety-year-old, and the past, where she was a teenager and young adult. Although she worked at the concentration camp, she spent the rest of her life differently. She comes across as a kind person, and I couldn’t help but like her. She was so young and had already gone through great grief when she found herself in this terrible position she didn’t know how to escape.
The characters are so raw and authentic. Every time I read about the barbarousness and need for basic necessities that aren’t available, I am bewildered by the steadfastness of humans to survive such conditions. So many misguided ideas led to copious horrendous acts toward fellow humans.
Ann’s life story strives to tell us the emotional and physical toll that WWII took on so many on both sides of the war. There are plenty of stories beyond the Holocaust that I am learning about by reading historical fiction. Although it is fiction, extensive research is done to bring those stories to life.
The Woman Outside the Walls is one of my favorite books of 2023 so far. It is emotional and heartbreaking but gives us a look at the internal conflict and sacrifices that were common during this time period.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.
~Read more reviews at Latishaslowkeylife.com
October 18, 2022
Hamburg, 1942 Anna is seventeen years old and is hiding her pregnancy from her parents. The father of her unborn child is dead and Anna is putting her baby up for adoption. She has convinced herself that it’s the best thing to do for her baby, herself and her family. But when her son is taken from her immediately after he is born, she is devastated. Now Anna is living in London, she is ninety years old and she has held the secret of her past for her entire life. She is ready to free herself from the pain of her decisions, but will her truth set her free or continue to consume her until her last breath?
This heartbreaking story was so emotional. I was completely taken back by the unexpected storyline. World War II, like every other war, forced people into decisions that scared them for their entire life. So many brokenness and lost lives, not just the physical loss of life, but the emotional loss that people experienced. This gripping story of loss and redemption was one that will hold your attention to the very end. The descriptive storyline will make you feel as if you are right there among the characters. My heart goes out to Anna and the tough decisions she was forced to make, all alone and at such a young age. This well written story was a rapid read that I highly recommend.
Thank you Suzanne Goldring for such a wonderful and moving story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I definitely recommend it.
This heartbreaking story was so emotional. I was completely taken back by the unexpected storyline. World War II, like every other war, forced people into decisions that scared them for their entire life. So many brokenness and lost lives, not just the physical loss of life, but the emotional loss that people experienced. This gripping story of loss and redemption was one that will hold your attention to the very end. The descriptive storyline will make you feel as if you are right there among the characters. My heart goes out to Anna and the tough decisions she was forced to make, all alone and at such a young age. This well written story was a rapid read that I highly recommend.
Thank you Suzanne Goldring for such a wonderful and moving story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I definitely recommend it.
July 4, 2024
This book raises some issues about how resistance and compliance was possible in Nazi Germany. Soldiers were pretty much required to go to war and to do what they were told. At the very beginning of Hitler’s reign, 3500. Germans were just killed right away for opposing Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who originally fled to New York returned to Germany and opposed Nazism and was connected to a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler only to be imprisoned and hung naked.
The German woman in the story who served in a concentration camp was not forced to do that job, so that was a bad choice. What she did there was a bad choice also.
She turned her life around and became a good person in London. It seems that in Nazi Germany there were so many easy, bad choices to make. For some people, they made bad choices to survive.
This book asks the question about whether she should be punished now that she is 90 years old and has lived a decent life for many decades.
It seems like she should be punished for the unforced bad choices that she made and yet rehabilitating her in prison also doesn’t seem like a good solution.
Perhaps she could warn other people about the dangers of making bad choices in war or in life in general. That’s a lot of shame and guilt and might be a just punishment.
It probably would be a better book if we could delve more into her psychology when she was in the Nazi concentration camp. Why did she make those difficult choices?
The German woman in the story who served in a concentration camp was not forced to do that job, so that was a bad choice. What she did there was a bad choice also.
She turned her life around and became a good person in London. It seems that in Nazi Germany there were so many easy, bad choices to make. For some people, they made bad choices to survive.
This book asks the question about whether she should be punished now that she is 90 years old and has lived a decent life for many decades.
It seems like she should be punished for the unforced bad choices that she made and yet rehabilitating her in prison also doesn’t seem like a good solution.
Perhaps she could warn other people about the dangers of making bad choices in war or in life in general. That’s a lot of shame and guilt and might be a just punishment.
It probably would be a better book if we could delve more into her psychology when she was in the Nazi concentration camp. Why did she make those difficult choices?
June 12, 2023
The Woman Outside the Walls introduces you to Margie Wilson, a 90 year old woman who has spent most of her adult life hiding from her past and who she really is. Alternating between 2017 and the 1940’s, the truth about her past unveils itself because through the kindness of her neighbor Lauren and her teenage son, Freddie.
The war was hard for Anna, she experiences just about everything a young German woman could during that time. From being a member of the League for German Girls to falling in the love with the boy next door who left her alone and pregnant when he went off to war to a secretary at concentration camp to a prostitute in post war Hamburg to an English officers wife…Anna has lived more life than most and despite moving to England, changing her name to Margie and starting a new life…her past haunts her and she lives in fear of being prosecuted for her involvement.
This story raises a lot of questions about morals despite being a complete work of fiction and for that…I found to to be extremely interesting. It also bridges a gap between generations that so important these days, especially in the world we currently live in.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bookouture and Suzanne Goldring for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review. It definitely gives the reader something to think about.
The war was hard for Anna, she experiences just about everything a young German woman could during that time. From being a member of the League for German Girls to falling in the love with the boy next door who left her alone and pregnant when he went off to war to a secretary at concentration camp to a prostitute in post war Hamburg to an English officers wife…Anna has lived more life than most and despite moving to England, changing her name to Margie and starting a new life…her past haunts her and she lives in fear of being prosecuted for her involvement.
This story raises a lot of questions about morals despite being a complete work of fiction and for that…I found to to be extremely interesting. It also bridges a gap between generations that so important these days, especially in the world we currently live in.
Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bookouture and Suzanne Goldring for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review. It definitely gives the reader something to think about.
October 22, 2022
*Overall 3.5 stars* Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book took a completely different look at the Second World War and the Holocaust, addressing the little talked about parts of the history of these events. I truly admired the author for taking this view and challenging people to look deeper than the surface of so many events in history. I cannot applaud the author enough for that. The whole book centres on stories of love and loss combined together to form a life which could have been led differently. This is such an amazing premise which caused this book to become unforgettable for me.
However, the book switched timelines a lot which became confusing for the reader. The chapters didn’t follow each other a lot of the time, causing the reader to try to catch up with where the author was. This made the reading process very off-putting and several times I found myself not wanting to read it due to this.
But this book is one I highly recommend for those wanting a different look at the Second World War. This is certainly not the typical historical fiction for that era and with he overflow of World War Two era historical fiction books, this is a welcomed edition to any person’s bookshelf.
This book took a completely different look at the Second World War and the Holocaust, addressing the little talked about parts of the history of these events. I truly admired the author for taking this view and challenging people to look deeper than the surface of so many events in history. I cannot applaud the author enough for that. The whole book centres on stories of love and loss combined together to form a life which could have been led differently. This is such an amazing premise which caused this book to become unforgettable for me.
However, the book switched timelines a lot which became confusing for the reader. The chapters didn’t follow each other a lot of the time, causing the reader to try to catch up with where the author was. This made the reading process very off-putting and several times I found myself not wanting to read it due to this.
But this book is one I highly recommend for those wanting a different look at the Second World War. This is certainly not the typical historical fiction for that era and with he overflow of World War Two era historical fiction books, this is a welcomed edition to any person’s bookshelf.
October 19, 2022
Never before have I read anything that will stay with me as much as The Woman Outside the Walls. Never before have I read a book where the protagonist was on the ‘wrong side’ and spent the rest of her life essentially running.
This little old lady who cleans at the church, makes the most amazing cakes and is the ideal neighbour, has a history that she doesn’t want anyone to know about because she feels incredible fear and guilt.
Written across multiple timelines, Suzanne Goldring’s latest novel will send you on a hugely emotional journey. I was shocked, horrified and disgusted but also sympathetic, understanding, and pleased that Anna’s story was finally being told.
If you enjoy reading historical fiction and you have an open mind (and stomach) then check out The Woman Outside the Walls. Incredibly educational and a story that will stay with you for a long time.
I am lucky enough to be a part of Books on Tour for this book, so thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Woman Outside the Walls.
This little old lady who cleans at the church, makes the most amazing cakes and is the ideal neighbour, has a history that she doesn’t want anyone to know about because she feels incredible fear and guilt.
Written across multiple timelines, Suzanne Goldring’s latest novel will send you on a hugely emotional journey. I was shocked, horrified and disgusted but also sympathetic, understanding, and pleased that Anna’s story was finally being told.
If you enjoy reading historical fiction and you have an open mind (and stomach) then check out The Woman Outside the Walls. Incredibly educational and a story that will stay with you for a long time.
I am lucky enough to be a part of Books on Tour for this book, so thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of The Woman Outside the Walls.
March 5, 2024
Great plot, poorly executed. The transitions between the past and present were abrupt and jarring. This plot had great potential to be the tear jerker it was promised to be, but it felt as if the author was disorganized and had a hard time piecing together her thoughts. I think this book could have been 5 star if the plot had been executed with more finesse and focus. I wanted to feel emotionally attached to Anna, but it was difficult to connect with her when only 10% of the book discussed her role in the concentration camp. This made it challenging to want to get to know Margie when I didn’t even know who Anna was. This was essentially a story about “Etta” and the struggles some German citizens faced during WWII. The poorly written transition from past and present and trying to develop the three different identities Anna assumed left me wondering what the true focus of the book was: is this a book about a woman trying to escape her past or a book about a woman trying to survive the atrocities of war?
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