Night Falls On The City - Little Brown

Vienna trilogy #1

by Sarah Gainham

Night Falls on the City Vienna, 1938. Beautiful actress Julia Homburg and her politician husband Franz Wedeker embody all the enlightened brilliance of their native city. But Wedeker is Jewish, and just across the border the tanks of the Nazi Reich are primed for the Anschluss. When the SS invades and disappearances become routine, Franz must be concealed. With daring ingenuity, Julia conjures a hiding place. In the shad...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, World War II, Espionage, 20th Century, War

622 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Rachel Stainer was a much-admired foreign correspondent for the "Spectator" magazine reporting from Vienna, Berlin, Bonn and Trieste. She wrote novels under the pseudonym Sarah Gainham most notably her 1967 novel "Night Falls on the City," the first of a trilogy about life in Vienna under Nazi rule.

Reviews

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book of the Vienna Trilogy, a work of historical fiction which chronicles the lives and struggles of a group of characters connected with the Austrian National Theater (the Burgtheater) immediately before, during and after WWII. Given the spate of overly sentimentalized new historical fiction set in WWII, I found Night Falls on the City to be refreshingly clear any romanticization or magical realism. This is realistic fiction at its best. There is a large cast of characters, some Jewish some not, some attempting to remain free of any taint of Nazism, others more willing to compromise themselves. Yet through it all there is a rising and diminishing of tension which seems to me to be very much in line with what it must have felt like then. Though generally forgotten; Night Falls on the City is well worth tracking down if well done WWII historical fiction is your things.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only for this novel, which was in its time celebrated but has inexplicably fallen into oblivion, Gainham absolutely needs to be rediscovered. Night Falls on the City is the story of Vienna as it fell under Nazi rule and what it endured during WWII, till the end of the regime. It follows a bunch of various characters, especially one woman, Julia, a famous theater actress who is married to a Jew. Epic and intimate at the same time, suspenseful and powerful, written with great sensibility, this is a novel that floats way above most novels that evoke the tragedies of this era. The harrowing times Gainham describes come to life with a rare and vibrantly believable intensity: this book is probably one of the best ever written about the famed city of Vienna. But more than that, Gainham explores with wonderful intelligence the complex psychological impact that fascism and war have on ordinary (and extraordinary) citizens, and she does so without playing the sentimental card, yet with an emotion that feels very true. As Julia’s destiny unfolds, and as Vienna encounters horror and doom, it is impossible not to be swept away by Gainham’s narration.

[Tema Merback · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished a mesmerizing novel written in 1967. I love old books, and in my research for my next novel I stumbled upon this forgotten gem. "Night Falls on the City" is a novel of intrigue and relationships between a troupe of actors and the Nazi elite that lay claim to their city and working lives. The struggle to survive the war and occupation after the Auschluss/annexation of Austria is a tale of human weakness and self-preservation. With the downfall of the beautiful city of Vienna come the reprisals against and incarceration of the Jewish inhabitants. Fear unleashes the endemic hatreds and jealousies of the non-Jewish population as they struggle to adapt to the their new masters and turn on their fellow countrymen. The author weaves her tale of actors/actresses, Nazi elite, the wealthy aristocracy and those that serve them in a tightly wound story of loyalty and human frailty. The psychological messages of the book are as powerful as the characterizations. The language is rich, the research exacting, and the descriptions of war devastating. In all of my readings on the period I had never really known the fate of Vienna or what it was like to live there during the years 1938-1945, now I know!

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just finished this book, but part of me feels as if I'm still there in a Viennese cellar, in May 1945, as the Russians take the city from the Germans. A lot has been written about Berlin in May 1945, but I have certainly not read anything before about Vienna, which underwent a similar experience. The story is told mainly through the eyes of Austrian actress, Julie Homburg, and her friends in the theatre, beginning in the days just before the Anschluss and ending in May 1945. The journey they make from indifference, through disbelief and eventually horror and suffering is grippingly told, and even if you have read similar stories before I think this one will stand out.
The Austrian experience is subtly different from the German one, encompassing as it does the Anschluss, but it is the suffocating sense of the growing menace and the fear that engenders that stays with you. The book was written in the 1960s, and there are long pages of description of characters' thoughts, and musings, but I felt these mainly added to the atmosphere, and could easily be skipped if you just want to know what happens next. This is the first of a trilogy of novels, and I will be reading them in due course.

[Renate Flynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very glad I read this WWII saga and have learned much about Vienna during that era: the Anschluss, the SS and Gestapo, the enduring importance of culture and theater as the war evolved, the Russians. Vienna itself is a major character in the novel and its war-time alteration mirrors that of protagonist Julia Homberg's: from opulent, gilt-edged complacency to battle-worn and teetering existence.

There is courage and pragmatism, loyalty and tenderness, infidelity and deceit, threat and violence, suspicion and FEAR.

And, as the war winds down, there is starvation and stench.

Sarah Gainham masterfully engaged all my senses with this, at first, jewel-bedecked, then filthy beaver-coated war story. When I visit Vienna, I will remember the tears and dust and the blasts that once tore this city apart and then I will celebrate her determined revival. But, I shall also mourn what once was - the Vienna I will never see - which no one can ever know again except through photos of that era and in beautifully descriptive stories such as this.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since going to Vienna in December 2022, I have been trying to find books set in the city and this one was highly recommended on a blog. NIGHT FALLS ON THE CITY is set right before and during WWII in Vienna and had many familiar sites, from the Hofburg and the Spanish Riding School, to the Prater and Opera. Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I didn't care about any of the characters and it was way too long and boring. I wanted more plot and the ending was anticlimactic.

[Eva Robey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Night Falls on the City (of Vienna) is an excellent example of historical fiction, with the characters who could have been real people in Vienna as it was in World War II. I was so impressed by the time I was about 1/3 through, that I went in search and found an original hard back copy which will I will be glad to have on my bookshelf.

[Ros Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gripping- and in parts horribly resonant with what is happening today in Ukraine. Good characters and an evocation of a place ( Vienna) in the country that initially welcomed Hitler and then slowly experienced the reversal of war.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first saw this book in Waterstones I naively thought that it was a new release and eagerly rushed over to have a look at it. The blurb on the back of the book immediately grabbed me and it was then that I realised that it was in fact written in 1967 so new release it was not! It has been republished to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938.

As a reader, given the joys of History GCSE and hindsight, you know what is going to happen next from the beginning of the novel but this does not lessen the tension in the book and it is still a completely engrossing portrayal of Austria during this period. The book is vividly set in Vienna, and the city itself, with its ‘steely sky, sentimental chestnuts and lilacs’ is almost character in itself, rather than a mere backdrop. I was fortunate to visit Vienna whilst I was reading the book and it really brought the whole thing to life.

The story is told through the main character Julia Homburg, a successful actress, and her group of friends and associates, as they struggle with the engulfing grip of a highly-organised dictatorship. Julia is married to Franz Wedeker, a politician who happens to be Jewish, and under changing laws and tightening restrictions, it’s obvious that Franz must be hidden, and plans are made to do so. Julia is plunged into a living nightmare as her life becomes shrouded in deceptions, with betrayal an always unspoken threat. A real sense of anxiety and fear mounts as the book, and indeed the war progresses, intensely layered by Gainham’s characters dialogue and thought processes.

This struggle to survive the war and occupation after the Anschluss is a tale of human weakness and self-preservation. Everyone in this strange new world/city is trying to abide by new laws and societal confines, while finding subtle ways to break them for personal benefit, and always keeping a step or two ahead of ‘them’ – whoever opposes you on the other side. Faced with potentially harrowing and heart-breaking decisions, characters don’t always react with admirable grace or moral uprightness. They lie, blackmail and deceive in response to fear and oppression meted out by the regime.

In this sense, Sarah Gainham powerfully, and at times beautifully, captures the disintegration of society as the war wages, and perceptively shows how ordinary people, engrossed in their own lives or struggling to survive get sucked into accepting, even colluding with, the brutal regime. One of the most powerful scenes in the book (and one relevant to today’s society one feels) is when the author describes how a seemingly hostile, reticent and horrified crowd turn into a passionate mob, charged with excitement, hero-worshipping, aggressive, even sexual, as Hitler arouses their ‘bellies full of undigested resentment’.

The book is not an easy read; it is at times harrowing, frightening and questioning. It gives you such a powerful feeling for, and understanding of, the terror the people of Austria must have felt and their sense of hopelessness and helplessness against such an unrelenting enemy. The closing phases of the book are particularly relentless in their harrowing depiction of the advance of the Russian forces, which the people of Vienna wait for as ‘an end, any end, better a frightful end than a fear that never ends’.

There are however moments of real beauty within the novel; not only in descriptions of the beauty and architecture of Vienna itself, but also in the development of relationships, the love, care, tenderness and affection people showed to each other as all ‘we [could] do, [was] survive’. The sense of care and support is palpable throughout the book in different relationships, be that of Julia and Nando, Fina and Franz or Ruth and Kerenyi. These stories of human courage, hope and love are a light amongst the darkness of Vienna and the Nazi regime and I only hope that if I were ever in a similar situation, I would react with a similar kindness, grace and humanity.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

On its publication in 1967, Night Falls on the City became a New York Times bestseller. Despite it being heralded ‘a sensation’, Gainham’s books – and there are rather a lot of them – have sadly fallen somewhat out of popularity. It has recently been reprinted by Abacus, and is championed by such popular contemporary authors as Helen Dunmore and Kate Mosse.

Night Falls on the City is epic in its scale, and spans the entirety of the Second World War. In her introduction, Mosse describes the novel as ‘one of those rare novels of beauty and scope and ambition that both brings to life a particular moment in history, a particular society, while at the same time rejoicing in the minute details of everyday life, everyday emotions’. She believes that with its reprinting, the novel ‘is now being restored to its rightful place on the bookshelf beside other classics of Second World War literature’.

The novel tells the story of an actress named Julia Homburg, a member of the left-wing elite in Vienna, Austria, and begins in 1938. At this point, Vienna is ‘an ancient city on the brink of Occupation’, and clouds of darkness are beginning to settle themselves over the city’s rather liberal façade. With the looming threat of the enforcement of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws, Julia’s husband, Franz Wedeker, is in danger.

We are introduced to Julia at once, and are launched immediately into her story. In the first scene in which she is present, she and a fellow actor, Hans, are discussing what lies ahead for their beloved city, and what this will hold for Franz. Julia – ‘the rangy girl with loose dark hair, aggressive and uncertain, had grown into beauty and power’ – is vivid at once, as is Franz when he finds his way into the story, but some of the secondary characters seem rather lifeless. Gainham’s descriptions of those who people her novel are wonderful despite this, due to the way in which she writes of them in sharply perceptive and original ways. A man standing on one of the city’s streets is ‘cramped with want’, a woman has a ‘fist like a lump of mutton fat’, and another is filled with ‘a lifetime of small envies [which] glinted in her sideways look’. It is clear throughout that Gainham’s entire focus is placed upon Julia and Franz. Even when they are not present in a scene, her care and consideration for them still places them at the forefront of the novel.

Deceptions run through the novel from the start, and range from Julia and her housekeeper’s hiding of Franz in a small village outside the city, to the words of blackmail which she is forced to utter when others threaten to expose his new residence.

Throughout, Vienna has been presented as a character of the utmost importance. Gainham wonderfully captures her ‘tempered grey stone, the steely sky and shadowed, blue-white snow… the sentimental chestnuts and lilacs, the comically maddening people of the streets… Every evening to be seduced afresh’. From the outset, every slice of scenery, every object, is treated with such care. Night Falls on the City is filled with a multitude of tiny details which join and converge to create a realistic picture of life in Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The historical background to the novel is its overriding strength, and has been presented in rather a masterful way. A few of these can be a little confusing at times, and sentences often have to be read more than once for all of the details to be absorbed.

Night Falls on the City is a novel about human bravery, the kindnesses of others, the unrelenting belief in good above all else, and the way in which certain situations make characters change incredibly drastically. It is sad in places and powerful in others, and the pace throughout matches the story wonderfully. Night Falls on the City is certainly a volume which deserves to be reprinted, and one which should gain Sarah Gainham much deserved recognition in the modern world.

[S.P. Moss · Rating 4 out of 5]

“There is nothing we can do, except survive”.

“Night falls on the City” is a sweeping, insightful story of Vienna under the Nazis, from the 1938 Anschluss to the end of the Second World War. The story is told through the main character Julia Homburg, a successful actress, and her group of friends and associates. The city of Vienna itself, with its “steely sky, sentimental chestnuts and lilacs” is almost like a central character, rather than a mere backdrop.

I particularly enjoyed the “grown up” feel to this story. There is no manipulation of the reader or false heroics. The ends of the story are not neatly tied up, as in a lot of fiction, and the reader is left wondering what will happen – or has happened – to the characters. What is not said or stated is as important as what is. The writing is honest and authentic, and does not shy away from documenting the almost sexual thrill of power that Nazism presented to the Austrian people in 1938.

The story catalogues the disintegration of society through an order imposed from outside, which destroys the natural, organic order of the city. This imposed order is described almost in terms of a disease – Gainham writes of a “pathological society”. Gradually, the characters become trapped in a web of hopelessness and helplessness, held together with lies and deceit. The weariness of continually living a lie, and losing the discriminatory power to ascertain what is lie and what is truth, is almost palpable.

Julie’s husband, Franz, who is a Jewish liberal politician and must therefore be concealed, becomes a symbol of the old city with its natural order: “without being aware of it, Julie was changing the living man into a symbol of what must be rescued and what had value in the senseless tangle of intrigue and struggle that enmeshed her.”

The closing phases of the book are relentless in their harrowing depiction of the advance of the Russian forces, while the people of Vienna wait for “an end, any end, better a frightful end than a fear that never ends.”

“Night falls on the City” is not an easy read – it is a long book with a multitude of characters, and not something you can pick up and put down lightly. But it is highly recommended as an involving, authentic and thought-provoking study of a dark period in Austria’s history.

[J.C. Greenway · Rating 3 out of 5]

I ultimately found Night Falls on the City to be quite an infuriating read, although it is certainly a gripping story and informative about WWII from the Austrian perspective.

Julie is the most celebrated actress in Vienna and at the height of her beauty and power at the time of the Anschluss with Germany. Her husband, Franz, is not so lucky, being Jewish and a Socialist politician.

Rich and somewhat isolated from what is going on in the rest of society, they make a half-hearted attempt to get him out of danger, before it becomes clear that Julie and her loyal servant Fina are going to have to harbour the fugitive much closer to home.

Meanwhile, the Reich authorities are taking an interest in running the theatre and cultural activities of the city, as propaganda and to give the appearance of a smooth transition, even as their persecution of Jews and other 'undesirables' steps up.

It is definitely an interesting perspective to see the familiar events of the War as they were viewed by Germany's closest neighbour but perhaps that is why I didn't enjoy the book as much. Julie and her friends are all of a very nice liberal and progressive persuasion - not a true-believing Nazi among them - which seems slightly unlikely. The one actress who is very enthusiastic about the Reich is revealed to be doing it all for her career.

Julie herself is an odd character, placed in an incredibly difficult and dangerous position, but also very naive. As she mopes about, her huge secret seems to be known by half the city and, perhaps as the book was first published in the Cold War, the real danger comes not from the Nazis but from the East...

As always in a book like this with a wide cast of characters spanning a few years, there are people you want to hear more about as they seem to be doing interesting things in the background but who seem to slip through the cracks, others who are given a lot to do but remain caricatures.

That said, I whipped through the book over a long weekend and couldn't put it down at points, but this first installment didn't make me keen to tackle the other two parts of the trilogy.

[Richard Newbold · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I would call a difficult read, mainly because of the straightforward narrative style, which makes for a "flat landscape" kind of a story, episodic in structure and rather meandering, and interspersed with abrupt scenes of action, violence and horror.

It has taken me about six years and a few false starts to finally get to grips with the story of Julia Homburg, a prominent actress in the pre-war theatre of Vienna, and those loved ones, colleagues and neighbours, with whom she lives and endures the period from the Anschluss of 1938, through to the Soviet conquest of the bombed City in 1945.

Julia I find a somewhat elusive and annoying character, self-absorbed (naturally), but resourceful, brave and steadfast in her efforts to protect those (often Jewish, including her doomed husband Franz) who are victims of the Nazis and the War. This requires her to be devious and flirtatious with the enemy, taking advantage of what is clearly a privileged position, from start to finish of the book.

It is however, in the reportage style of the story, where the novel's great strengths lie - patiently illustrating the atmosphere of the times through often seemingly inconsequential events rather than the big picture - how Austria became a truncated state after WW1 with loss of wealth and privilege which fed the anti-semitism and adulation of the Nazis, the reluctance to be fully drawn in to the Reich, trying to maintain the separateness from the appalling events, not least in Poland, which draws Julia and her fellow Thespians in, and the final feeling of being trapped amongst the destruction of the aerial bombardment and the dread of the approaching Russian hordes.

All in all a magnificent and haunting book ... with the promise of two post-war sequels to tackle at a later date

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glorious...the sort of book writers don't write anymore and editors don't buy...pure and perfect writing that will have you rooting for a flawed and real but, for once, rather glamorous character.

The novel takes you through Nazi occupation in Vienna and the world of a famous actress who finds she has to compromise to save her husband - and it is about moral compromise but in a way that makes you care about the character - despite her flaws.

And for once, a woman who has self-control - and in period - such a rarity. We see her world fall apart and the slow acceptance of life with the Nazis - and the end really had me in tears.

This has pathos, drama, settings are a joy - and yet it fills you with horror and disgust at human behaviour.

Oh and joy of joys - lots of tell and not show so we know where we are.

Book of the year for me. I. JUST. LOVED. IT.

[Andrew Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very disappointing read. The story was sort of OK, but the characters didn't really live in my mind; and the writing varied from dull to atrocious. Gainham doesn't credit her readers with any intelligence, driving home her points repeatedly. She handles exposition clumsily, describes characters' physical appearance after you have met them many times and created a different image in your head, and gives them dialogue that no real person would ever say. My daughter is writing her first novel and asked me what I meant when I said to avoid writing that goes clunk. I gave her a page of this to read and she saw my point at once. Gainham needed a good editor, or possibly a good book on self-editing: this is a case study in what doesn't work in fiction writing.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty amazing book. The seamless blending of history and fiction was very well done. I would have given more stars except that it dragged at some points and seemed to go on forever. I was glad to finish but found the ending to be anticlimactic. It was definitely not an easy read.

[Fiona Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The city is Vienna, and the "night" is World War 2. Both place and time are well-captured.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-written, but an absolutely brutal book. I was thoroughly engrossed, but certainly can't say that I enjoyed it.

[ItchyFeetReader · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times difficult to read, a fascinating novel exploring life in Vienna from the Anschluss to the end of the second world war. At times a story of compromise and collaboration and at times a story of quiet and dangerous resistance it felt much more ‘real’ than many second world war novels I have read.

Plot in a Nutshell
Night Falls in the City opens in Vienna in 1938 on the Eve of the Anschluss. Julia Homburg is an actress and her husband Franz, a left wing politician who is also Jewish. Both are initially reluctant to recognise the changes coming and then drawn into intrigue needed to protect Franz and his family . The novel spans the course of the war and follows Julia and her friends as they adjust to life under the Nazis as their enlightened world changes beyond recognition.

Thoughts
Night Falls in the City is not a novel to rush with. I initially struggled to embrace the story through the first 5-100 pages. It was written in the late 60’s and at times this shows in the language. Sentences are very long and often complex and I found myself having to re-read paragraphs from time to time. There is also a large cast of characters introduced early on in the novel. They predominantly represent the liberal intelligentsia and interconnect. There is also an assumption that the reader understands some of the more recent history of Austria which characters refer to regularly without a great deal of explanation. It is however very much worth sticking with.
The novel worked on two levels for me. I was fascinated by the characters who felt incredibly real. The Austrian cast were privileged and painted with all their flaws – be it Julia’s arrogance and coldness or Hella’s parsimony and need to be seen to be successful. Gainham also avoids caricature when describing the small number of German soldiers, policeman and bureaucrats who become part of Julia’s world. I was quickly invested in seeing how they coped with and survived the increasingly difficult environment.

Beyond the characters and their experiences Gainham also tells a mirroring story of Vienna (and to a lesser extent Austria). The story opens on a beautiful, enlightened City but the Anschluss quickly highlights the darker parts of life that were not far from the surface. As we follow Julia we also follow Vienna as compromises are made until by the end of the novel the city is dirty and heavily damaged.

Gainham writes with a huge amount of detail. We see the inner thought processes of a number of the characters and the City is also presented in tiny details. There is moral ambiguity throughout; we see the unconscious and accepted bias that many had for not just the Jewish people, but also gypsies and the Slavic nations. Early in the novel there is a scene of horrific violence against an elderly Jewish man; most turn away and do nothing.

In a Europe where the far right is again on the rise the novel offers a timely and sometimes difficult insight into where appeasement and compromise can lead.

A final note whilst this works as a stand alone novel it is in fact the first in a trilogy. I will be seeking the final two books out

[Tina Tamman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was the subject matter that attracted me to the book, and yet I could not finish it. Not an easy book to read, it confused me straight away by giving me a list of characters - a long list. Once I had read a few pages, I felt a decent map of Vienna would have been more helpful - I would have been able to follow where people in the book were walking or living. It is not that there are many characters that is the problem, not for me anyway; it is the strange way of writing that does not allow me to engage. I have had to reread several passages to understand who the author is writing about or what she has meant. There is also an odd juxtaposition of Austrian politics of 1938 and theatre plays (the main character is an actress) that does not endear the book to me. There is lightness in some scenes that is apparently meant to contrast with the gravity of the situation and the physical violence of some other scenes, but to me it seems clunky.
Having said that, I may return to the book one day and may see it in a different light. Vienna in 1938-45 is of interest to me but the first quarter of the book failed to add much to what I know already.

[Kim P · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 400 pages of this 600 page book were a slog - but it did eventually grip me. The main problem for me was that the main characters were so unlikeable. The text has them admit or be accused of being egoists. But it may also be true that the elite of Viennese society did turn a blind eye to what was going on in Germany and then under German occupation before and during WWII, when the book is set. And some of the revulsion at their values (eg about Slavic peoples) undoubtedly comes from how much society has changed in the post WWII era.

Key characters such as the maid, Fina, are one dimensional - which may be good writing, given the focus is really on the actress Julia, and her Jewish political academic husband Frank, and a real “Julia” may indeed have viewed Fina in this way.

I did learn things about the Nazi occupation of Austria and also about the Soviet Union’s treatment of Vienna when they took it in spring 1945.

[Sarah Bath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of a trilogy championed by the writer Kate Mosse as a lost masterpiece. It really is worthy of her advocacy and it’s difficult not to conclude that if it had been written by a man it might have become an important part of post war literature, rather than slipping from view! Set in prewar Vienna it places Julia, actress at the Austrian State Theatre, at the centre of the action. So we have the story of the war in Europe with a powerful independent woman at its heart. Sarah Gainham worked as a journalist in Central Europe at a time when she was a rarity, but her love of Europe - with all its flawed glory - shines through. Part one stands up on its own, but you will want to rush to the next part.

[CQM · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inability to trust anyone in the city under the Nazi's is captured nicely in the first half of the book and the second half shows the gradual falling apart of the regime as the tide of the war turns against them. It was refreshing also to follow some characters who aren't political animals and who want the war over, preferably in their favour rather than fightingovertly against the Nazis. Of course there are characters who are vigorously anti-Nazi but they are still only human and fight their own battles rather than the bigger battles. It was a change to see people just trying to live rather than the usual heroic defiance.

[Johanna Markson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night Falls on the City, Sarah Gainham
A big novel about wartime Vienna focused mostly on a famous stage actress and her life during WWII. This book is considered a classic about wartime. The writer takes a very detailed look at a city and its citizens as it and they fall under the control of the Nazis. What do people do to protect themselves and the ones they love. Epic in scale but also focused on everyday details, this is an intense portrait of Vienna that captures the on-going tension, and constant fear for some and the undying loyalty of many to doing the right thing.

[Alison June · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not heard of this book but found it in a book exchange and having been to Vienna the year before it piqued my interest. I loved it. Set during WW2 and following the life of a famous actress and her academic Jewish husband, the book unravells the lives of the wealthy and poor. Those that side with Hitler and the socialists underworld. The characters are believable, the storyline based on historical events, told by someone who has lived there. I look forward to reading the next in the trilogy.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic WWII novel! Untypical from numerous other Second War novels , this one is really an exception as to a brilliant characterisation, deep knowledge of psychology and realism. Romance takes here another meaning, one in which the reader believes in. I found the various personalities fascinating. Many were not bad, not good, just human. No judgement from the narrator. A convincing study of characters. The writing was also excellent, enthralling all through the novel. More than 600 pages, and each one of them is worth reading. Highly recommended!

[Lucy Marx]

You really get the feeling of what life was like under the Nazi occupation of Vienna after the Anschluss. People had to do distasteful things both to survive and to protect loved ones. Some characters were moral beacons. Others were moral contortionists. The last part of the novel when the Russians were approaching the city was particularly harrowing. You could almost hear the bombs and smell the filth

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this eons ago and absolutely loved it. I can't find my copy, but when I do, I'll definitely re-read it. I also just discovered that it's part of a trilogy - love that! More great historical fiction ahead.

[Lauraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning! This book will linger in the back of my mind for years to come.

[Virginia Rounding · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very evocative of Vienna at the time of the Anschluss & then during the War. An extremely absorbing read - it is as though one is actually there.