A book that really resonated with me over the holidays.

Part of the joy of “holidays” is the fact that I give myself permission to read whatever I choose, guilt-free. Because of the amount of research reading necessary while writing my historic novels, I can usually only carve out the last hour of each day for the joyous act of reading for pleasure. So over the holiday season I was able to devour a few new books – in daylight! One I was particularly taken with was City of Women, by David R. Gillham. I’ve always been drawn to novels with a World War II European backdrop, so this one, set in 1943 Berlin, appealed to me.

Sigrid, a young German woman, is pulled into a dangerous role by her own conscience: she has to do what she instinctively, intellectually and emotionally knows is right. Working against the immoralities of the regime, she struggles to conceal her secrets from her cold and unemotional soldier husband, her icy “party” mother-in-law, her prying neighbours, and her suspicious work colleagues. Furthering the danger to her own life, she begins a secret, passionate affair with a Jewish man, believing it is his wife and daughters she is hiding while they await their transport to Sweden and safety.

The novel is filled with gripping tension and page-turning conflict, and Sigrid, flawed, uncertain, and yet possessing her own brand of courage, is the kind of protagonist I love to find in a novel.