Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger asked Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger:

The Reschen Valley Series – Talk about how shame impacts Jutta, Angelo and Katharina in this novel?

Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger Shame is crippling and that is what keeps my characters in this first part of the story from really making a lot of headway.

Jutta is crippled by her shame about her deserter husband, her son, whom she loves but hinders her with his disability. She is ashamed of the fact that she is still beholden to a man who has left her high and dry. In the next book, her insecurities really come to the top and it’s going to cause new conflicts for her.

Katharina’s shame solely comes from what she did with Angelo and how she lost her chances at a new kind of life, in a time when women were—though not so much in her valley—looking to emancipate themselves. She could have had a small part in that. Instead, she is punishing herself by going back to the traditional ways and expectations. She has yet a lot to learn from Florian, though, and she will do so quickly. He’s really good for her.

Angelo feels inadequate, thanks to his father’s strong hand in belittling all that he does. Angelo has also set out to live a life more modern and with gender equality when he married the strong-willed, activist Chiara. We get the feeling that they are equals, but slowly, as Angelo wrestles with his feelings of guilt and shame for having lied to Chiara, he also realizes that he not all that unlike his father. Both will do anything to win what they believe in, and both—as has been alluded to the Colonel—have shown tendencies toward infidelity. So, now he’s wrestling with the whole idea that he’s not at all unlike his father as he would like to believe.

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