The Girl from Krakow

by Alex Rosenberg

It’s 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store—marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war. Living by her wits among the Germans as their conquests turn to defeat, she seeks a way to prevent the inevitable doom of Nazism from making her one of its last victims. Can her passion and resolve outlast the most powerful evil that Europe has ever seen?

In an epic saga that spans from Paris in the ’30s and Spain’s Civil War to Moscow, Warsaw, and the heart of Nazi Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows one woman’s battle for survival as entire nations are torn apart, never to be the same.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, Historical, Holocaust, War, Poland

454 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Alex Rosenberg's first novel, "The Girl From Krakow," is a thriller that explores how a young woman and her lover navigate the dangerous thirties, the firestorm of war in Europe, and how they make sense of their survival. Alex's second novel, "Autumn in Oxford" is a murder mystery set in Britain in the late 1950s. It takes the reader back to the second world war in the American south and England before D-day, France during the Liberation and New York in the late '40s. It will be published by Lake Union in August.

Before he became a novelist Alex wrote a large number of books about the philosophy of science, especially about economics and biology. These books were mainly addressed to other academics. But in 2011 Alex published a book that explores the answers that science gives to the big questions of philosophy that thinking people ask themselves--questions about the nature of reality, the meaning of life, moral values, free will, the relationship of the mind to the brain, and our human future. That book, "The Atheist's Guide to Reality," was widely reviewed and was quite controversial.

When he's not writing historical novels, Alex Rosenberg is a professor of philosophy at Duke University.

Reviews

[Kelsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of this as part of the Kindle First program by Amazon.
DNF at 9%

You have to understand, I look forward to the first of every month, because it means that I get to shop for a new book from the list of Kindle First picks. This makes me feel special and loved and book-worthy.

This book did not do that. There's a quote from someone that says "History tells you what happened. Historical fiction tells how that might feel." (I know I could google it but I'm not going to.) The biggest issue I had with this book is that it made me feel nothing. I strongly believe that can be blamed on the writing style and POV changes. Third-person distances the reader from the characters, and the cool, calculated motives of the characters just distanced me even more. Even in the sex scenes (which there were two of in the short beginning section I read), emotions seemed forced, uninteresting. These characters didn't matter to me. I also don't think it helped that the POV switched and the timeline jumped so early on. And the big "secret" is revealed in the first three pages, so I had no mystery to keep me interested. Finally, the political and philosophical stuff was thrown around so quickly and with so little real explanation, I had no idea what any of it meant, and none of it seemed to matter for the characters that the reader followed..

Overall, I would not recommend this book, and I wish I'd picked a different one from the Kindle First list.

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel compelled to find something positive about this book by virtue of the unconscionable period of history it portrays; however this book is very rough around the edges and needed more time with the editor before going to press. There are numerous misspellings and entire passages of the book that are duplicated between chapters. The dialog is incredibly wooden and academic; if running around 1940's Warsaw exclaiming you are a true German isn't the fastest way to the oust yourself as a Jew then I don't know what is. Also, be prepared to trudge through conversation after conversation of arcane left-wing mid-Twentieth Century politics and philosophy without any context or supporting passages. The author's need to have the heroine engage in coitus at every turn to emphasize her atheism is frankly a slap in the face to both women and those that choose not to base their morality on religion. There is a good story in here struggling to get out, it is just hindered by an author too absorbed with their own erudition to tell it.

[Cold War Conversations Podcast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpectedly good read.

The story centres on Rita Feuerstahl and her experiences as a polish Jew prior to and during World War 2.

This isn’t your average holocaust novel, and the author has definitely researched well. You need to know your history to get the most out this and whilst some reviewers have focused on the sex scenes, the bulk of the book tells a believable story or war, loss of love, family, and survival against the odds.

Hard to put down, harrowing in places, I thought it a great read with a powerful ending.

[Kristin Silcox · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a struggle to get through. There were a lot of references to political ideologies that I didn't know and was too lazy to look up myself. The character wasn't likable and unrealistic. But I guess there had to be some people who got through WWII easily. I'm glad it was a free Amazon book, otherwise I would not have read it. If you like historical fiction, I'd skip this one.

[Pam Jenoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was of course drawn to this book by the title (my beloved Krakow!) and by the promise of a well-executed WWII story by Duke professor Alex Rosenberg. I found much more than your average war story -- the high stakes of a political secret, complex and unusual love affairs and a child in peril had me holding my breath with every page. What really sets this one apart, though, is the end. Read now!

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars because I cared enough to know what ultimately happened to the main character, and so I read the whole book. It's hard to put into words exactly what irritated me about this... so indulge my ramblings.
* too much philosophy talk that felt more like the author trying to convince me of the merits of atheism - annoying
* ongoing theme that no action, no event, no person really actually matters in the course of history - what a negative view of life. ugh.
* I couldn't relate to the main character at all. One of the reasons I love fiction is that it allows you to dive into the inner thoughts and feelings that drive characters' actions. For me, it has opened my eyes to the fact that although I may not understand why people act they way they do, there is almost always a motive or experience that drives it. Even eavesdropping into Rita's thoughts, she is totally un-relateable.

I could go on, but won't. Suffice it to say that after reading the beautifully written The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, my standard for WWII literature is pretty darn high. :)

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, awful book. No wonder it was free. I made it through the first few chapters despite the sophomoric writing style. When the book began the descent into moral abandon, it was just too much to take. DONE. Maybe if the plot had been more developed before the muck (to understand why it was necessary to go there), perhaps this story could have been saved? This book just wasn't for me.

[Petesea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn’t put it down. A story about Jewish lives tossed about by World War 2 in Poland that is so compelling and well told. The horrors that these characters experienced are ghastly yet they are able to survive. I would have rated this higher, but one of the outcomes at the end is predictable and some of the dialog and references were certainly not of the time period.

[Jean Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose this book because it was free, and because it took place during WWII, which is a topic I find very interesting, and because it mentioned Krakow, which is a city I love, and have been to several times.

It certainly wasn't terrible; I've read worse. I did finish it rather quickly, and I never considered putting it down, but it also wasn't all that good. The main problem I had with it was it seemed that the author's main agenda was to advocate for his theory of how evolution explained the world and his philosophical beliefs, and not to tell a story. It was a bit heavy-handed, and seemed to instruct the reader not to care too much what happened to any individual person in the story because it really did not matter that much in the end.

Late in the book, the main character reflects upon how much easier her war was than so many others, and that was most definitely true. She always seemed to have it pretty good, and you never got the sense that she was suffering that much. Even when she heard that her parents or her in-laws had been killed, or almost certainly killed, she seemed very detached. Even when she was supposedly in peril, it never felt very perilous. Whatever she needed to happen always seemed to happen. The story seems to be building to the moment when the information her friend Erich gives her will put her in peril, and then when it finally does, and you think she will be tortured or imprisoned, she is simply released. It might actually have been realistic that so close to the end of the war, smart Germans were trying to set themselves up well for the occupation to come, but it does not make for very compelling reading.

I also found the character of Guillermo puzzling. Were we supposed to like him, or find his self-serving nature to be distasteful? Were we supposed to root for him to end up with Rita, or hope that he got his just deserts? The way they ended up together was so trite, it was silly. Rita professes her love for Dani, and is devastated when Dani dumps her to go back to a more conventional life (not necessarily unrealistic at all). Yet immediately thereafter she is reunited with Tadeusz/Guillermo, and all is forgotten. Then, in an incredibly contrived scene, she oh-so-conveniently finds out that her son is indeed alive, and is overjoyed at the prospect of being reunited with him, but then immediately decides she is better off leaving him as he is. Again, not necessarily the wrong decision, but not likely a decision one would make in a fleeting moment. And did she never consider that she could allow her son to continue to live with the woman who protected him and took her as her own during the war, while still revealing her identity? Maybe some day her son would want to know what happened to his parents. He also had a father. Wouldn't his father perhaps want to know where he was?

The author had some good ideas, but they could have been better executed. This sounds more like a two star review, doesn't it?

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding! If you watch The History Channel, you've probably had your fill of WWII documentaries and may think you've glanced on just about every aspect of the war. Well, this book went into areas I never even thought of. How overnight Poles suddenly became Ukranians. What life was like in Moscow if you were a foreigner. How veterans from both sides of the Spanish revolution fared during the war.

It's a story of survival, and sacrifice, as in the parts of ourselves we need to sacrifice to maintain our sense of self in the face of unimaginable hardship and privation. In this story, we meet two Jewish Poles and follow them through their very different wartime experiences. Many reviewers have disliked Rita, and while I understand why, I also understand why she was the way she was. Up until very recently, there was no realistic way for an intelligent self-aware woman to live life on her terms. After being her parents' daughter for 18 years, Rita grasped at straws to become her own woman by going to law school, but could not fool herself into believing she would be allowed to be independent. So she did what just about all women did - sacrificed her "self" and went from being someone's daughter to being someone's wife. By today's standards, I am somewhat of a shrinking violet, but even I cannot fathom the despair so many women must have felt at knowing they'll never be anything more than someone's wife and someone's mother.

Then comes war, and she must forsake all she thought she would ever have just to survive. No one goes through war unchanged, certainly not Rita. She finds herself in a situation that many might find easy to condemn, and I'm not entirely certain the lesbian relationship really added anything to the story, but again, you do what you need to to keep your sanity.

And this book managed to do something no book that I can recall reading recently has done: it got me thinking philosophically. This book discussed themes of not just right and wrong/good and evil, but why is something right or good, and why is something wrong or evil - just the sort of thing that creates immense discomfort in the small-minded who believe what they believe and never bother wondering why.

[Erica Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The historical, geographical, and emotional scope of The Girl from Krakow is so tremendous, stupendous, and moving. Some readers might find the subject matter demoralizing and depressing. But the written descriptions, even of the ugly and vile, the sights, sounds, and smells of the overcrowded and ghastly ghetto are written with so much power and authenticity, I found myself in awe of Alex Rosenberg’s writing. Each new scene is so detailed and utterly realistic. Each new venue—from the university town of Krakow, to other parts of Poland, and later, to Berlin and other big cities and towns in Germany, to Stalinist Russia and the warring factions among the military ranks, from the different medical hospitals where the two male protagonists work, to the explorative student hangouts before the war, to the smell of Arpege that lingers on a certain female student's body, to the foreign train stations, to the bombed out cities, to the cigar smoke in the air of the V.I.P. lounges, to the hotel rooms, to the maids’ quarters in the Nazi owners’ homes, to the innermost circle of hell in the ghetto, each scene is so dramatically described. From the frank descriptions of sexual encounters, to the two volumes of Darwin’s writing (Origin of Species and Natural Selection), which the girl from Krakow, known as Rita, always keeps in her suitcase throughout her travels, as a comforting reminder of any sane meaning to her experience of total political and social insanity. The delicate details of beauty and daring glimpses of true sexual pleasure, and love (romantic, parental, and fraternal) and human connectedness in the midst of hell make for an awe-inspiring journey. The irony and self-contradictions that belie human nature, the will to live despite every imaginable nightmare, the tender feelings for children, elderly, disabled, even among the enemy, challenge every platitude and common-sense notion that reasonable and civilized people propose in defense of their faith and refusal to surrender to subversive thinking. I hope to read more books by this extremely talented and radical author.

Erica Miles, author of
Dazzled by Darkness:
A Story of Art & Desire

[Becca]

I couldn't finish this book, but not for the reasons listed in other reviews.

I had no problem with her being sexually adventurous or using her body as a way to bring herself comfort. It's not unrealistic- it's not a side of life or war that some people understand or can relate to, but it's not unrealistic. I also had no problem with the philosophical viewpoint of the male character, even if he was a bit unsympathetic as a whole. I liked that Rosenberg explained historical information without info dumps.

No, my issues with the book came from the following:

1) The organization was haphazard. There was not any consistency and it was jarring to me. This was the biggest reason for my abandoning this story.

2) Sometimes there is an absence of emotion. For example, when her father writes her to tell her they have been ordered to pack bags and head east, obviously to be exterminated. At first it seems odd that Rita does not show emotion, however, upon further thought I wonder if it is one of two things: a) it is simply being left out because the nature of the story is already drawing emotion plenty from the reader, or b) Rita is numb. I cannot imagine that losing people while worrying for your own safety lends much time or ability to continuously grieve appropriately. Since I have never been in the midst of war or a genocide, I cannot speak for how one would react. However, this is part of the reason, I feel, she is unsympathetic as a character. I'll explain further below.

3) The pace was so slow. Snails move faster. This is not to say there wasn't any action - there was - it just felt like I'd been reading far longer than I actually had been. I think the fact the main character is standoffish from the reader is part of the problem. There is emotion felt from the events as a whole, but Rita is closed off not only from the war, but from the reader. She is standoffish and keeps the reader at a distance, which made me feel like I wasn't in the story. It takes a skilled writer to create a character who has so many complex characteristics and I think Rosenberg was more ambitious perhaps than he could pull off. Not to mention the male character (at least from what I read) was unsympathetic and I lost interest during his chapters (which, again, were thrown in every once in a while for one or two or three chapters at a time).

Now, this is not to say you would not enjoy this book. These are just my personal issues with it. I love WWII stories, but, unfortunately, this book was more miss than hit.

[Kim Mathews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I looked forward to reading about a young Polish Jewish woman's survival during WWII. It was not very believable and became too involved in her sex life from country to country. She wasn't choosy.

[Krystal Debow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horrifyingly real.

The last few pages upset me. The only unreal part of the book. The character built through so many pages would not have done that.....

[David Peirce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fiction effort from the author, a philosophy professor at Duke. It's a good but flawed story of a young Polish, Jewish woman who marries as the specter of war looms over Europe.

I appreciated the portrayal of the historical context for Poland and for its Jews. The Jewish ghettos, the black economy, the various resistance and gang factions, etc., are all woven into the story

The book opens with an exciting setup: Rita (our heroine) is boarding a train carrying her fake papers disguising her Jewish identity and a secret that the Nazi officer on the train wants to know. Then we get into the backstory of how she got there.

It's a good read, and I give the reasons why I only can give 3 stars below.

***Spoiler alert***
I won't expose too much of the plot. But there is something of a spoiler alert below, so stop here if you're going to read the book. The reasons I give the book 3 stars are:
* I didn't buy the plot line of Rita's Polish-Jew lover moving to Spain to become a doctor and assuming a Catalan identity as Gilberto Romero.
* There just wasn't enough emotion for me in the main character. Yes, she does everything to find her son. But we get mostly factual accounts of her exploits to avoid the Nazis, avoid detection from other Germans, etc., and not how traumatizing these things were.
* The main character doesn't seem to have lost a lot of weight or color or health after a year in the ghetto, and is easily able to escape when the Germans seek to close the ghetto for good.
* The kicker of all kickers is that the exciting opening with Rita carrying a secret that could change the direction of the war with a Nazi officer in hot pursuit later turns out to be very anti-climactic. She is never really pursued or put into the danger of having to give the secret up.

[Carlton Phelps · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very exciting read along with heartbreak. Love also makes an appearance.
The main character, Rita, was a Jewess during Hitler's invasion of Poland. She and her family had a great life up to this point. There was an affair between Rita with her doctor. Her husband was a doctor as well.
The Doctor is a Jew hiding in plain sight who dropped out of med school. He was a quick learner and would ask his nurse what they thought to help him learn. He also changed his identity.
Rita was forced into a ghetto for Jews. This was a dark time and she found a woman with the Home Guard, that would take her child to his Grandparents, he never shows up, and the Grandparents are sent to a concentration camp and murdered. The woman helping her was captured and she lived the rest of the war looking for him.
She has affairs with a woman she feels in love with, but in the end, she turns her back on Rita.
There are several close calls for Rita but she survives with luck and intelligence.

[Gabrielle Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I also received this through the Kindle First program.

As Holocaust historical fiction goes, this one has the following going for it:
- The book is fairly readable throughout. That is, most books, even those I like quite a lot, will have occasional passages where i find myself having to sort of trudge through a passage that's moving too slowly or requires me to read over and over to absorb. In this book, that experience was minimal.
- Assuming that it's historically accurate, it provided some moving depictions of wartime and the Holocaust, as it impacted all sorts of folks and experiences.
- The characters were complex. That is, though main characters were victims of terrible atrocities to be sure, they were human and not idealized versions as such. I found myself not really liking any of the main characters much, but I think that underscores what I think the author wants to impart, which is a sort of philosophy around survival and selection not necessarily being about who deserves it most.

Which leads me to the critiques:
- There is a passage in which the protagonist expounds on the role of Darwin's philosophy in the context of the terrible things happening around them - a sort of attempt to reconcile the two. I would have liked to see that idea woven a bit more elegantly into the story - it was sort of bluntly and briefly introduced and not really revisited elsewhere.
- Someone else said this already, but the ending sucked. It should have ended few pages earlier (i.e., pre-Austria).

Overall, a fairly quick read and enriching enough to be worth the effort. As an aside, it's a shame that the last user rated this so poorly; I think it's perfectly within one's rights to discontinue reading a book she's not enjoying but unfair to rate it without reading it the whole way through. It's like going to a restaurant, leaving without ordering because nothing on the menu sounds good to you, and then leaving a bad yelp review. Just sayin.'

[Maria Beltrami · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rita is a Jewish girl in Poland who faces the Nazi and the Soviet invasion, the ghetto and the many dangers that her Jewish state puts in front of her. Her Aryan appearance, her courage, and a good dose of pragmatism that helps her see clearly in situations where others lose their heads, will help to overcome the war, the loss of hers loved ones, the destruction of the world that she knows and to build a new life, without ever losing her sensitivity even without being a victim.
Beautiful book, very interesting and that has a female protagonist who acts rather than cry on as often happens in literature.
Thank Lake Union and Netgalley Publishing for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rita è una ragazza ebrea nella Polonia che si trova ad affrontare l'invasione nazista e quella sovietica, il ghetto e gli infiniti pericoli che la sua condizione ebrea le mette davanti. Il suo aspetto ariano, il suo coraggio, e una buona dose di pragmatismo che l'aiuta a vedere chiaramente in situazioni in cui altri perdono la testa, l'aiuteranno a superare la guerra, la perdita degli affetti, la distruzione del mondo che conosce e a costruirsi una nuova vita, senza mai perdere la sua sensibilità pur senza esserne vittima.
Bel libro, molto interessante e che presenta una protagonista femminile che agisce invece che piangersi addosso come spesso accade in letteratura.
Ringrazio Lake Union Publishing e Netgalley per avermi fornito una copia gratuita in cambio di una recensione onesta.

[Grace DeBoer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book on the Kindle First choice. I do not usually read books on this subject due to the horrors caused by Nazis and Russians during WWII, but not liking the other choices offered I decided to go with this. I had already decided that I would not like the story but started to read it. I was already reading another book at the time.
To my surprise I found Rita's story interesting. I didn't care for the sudden change about another character's life, but I guess the author wanted to let you know this person's background. Life at that time must have been unbearable, preferring to die at times rather than go on living, surviving and wondering why you were allowed to live. All in all, I thought the book was very good despite some of the critical reviews posted here.

[Juliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Researched and Compelling

Although I could have lived without the philosophy lectures interspersed throughout the book, the story was so well written that I had to check to be certain this was a novel and not an autobiography. Truly a compelling story about how a handful of characters survived the Holocaust and how their lives crossed.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best book I've read in a while. I didn't think I was going to like it at first, a lot of pre-world war II politics in the very beginning. But I stuck it out and then couldn't put it down.

[Rebecka · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm amazed at how little I cared about pretty much anything in this book. And thinking back on it, it was just... too much. And altogether weirdly devoid of emotion, despite... 2-3 love stories. That's quite an accomplishment for a WW2 book.

[Jayde Schwerin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read indeed.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story of passion, maternal instincts and subterfuge during World War II in Poland. Rita, a young Jewish woman searching for a more exciting life is studying law in Krakow when she meets Urs in his last year of medical school. Despite her initial resistance, she marries him but finds his stiff and routine approach to sex unsatisfying to her. She meets and launches what later becomes a passionate affair with Dr. Tadeusz, the second main protagonist, who is deceptive with a tendency to delude and fabricate stories to meet his own needs. When Rita’s husband discovers their weekly trysts under the guise of infertility treatments, he attempts suicide. The affair is ended and Rita reconciles with Urs to maintain appearances. When she discovers she is indeed pregnant, he is relieved as he counts back and realizes the child is his.

Germany has put an end to Poland, controlling the east while the Soviets have marched into the west. Urs now working for a Soviet government clinic is soon ordered to leave for conscription in the Soviet army. Rita and her young son are left behind. She rents out a room to Eric, a young man she finds interesting and attractive . A work permit at a factory allows him connections to help get Rita’s son sent with a Polish resistance courier to deliver her son to her parents. Unfortunately, when she learns that the courier is arrested by the Nazis, it is doubtful her son was delivered to her parents. But she never gives up believing that he somehow survives. Eric’s connection allows her to obtain false identity papers and escape to Warsaw to begin looking for her son. With German looks, ability to speak flawless German as well as Polish and her daring courage, she takes many chances in her search for him. Meanwhile, we learn that the disingenuous Dr. Romero with his Spanish disguise is hiding out in Moscow, taking risks of his own.

The well-researched historical context of this book offers the opportunity for an engaging story about the personal pain and emotional challenges brought by the brutality of the Nazi invasion of Poland. However, some aspects of the book are confusing or distracting such as the story flipping between the setting for two main protagonists Rita and Dr. Romero. I was also troubled by a lack of character development for Dr. Romero and I questioned the believability of Rita’s character especially her risky sexual behavior. Despite these concerns, I enjoyed the book

[Annette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Source: Free paperback copy from Spark Point Studio in exchange for a review.
Rating: 2 stars for okay.
Summary:
The time period is 1935. The place is Krakow, Poland.
Rita Feuerstahl begins attending classes at the University to become a lawyer. Instead, she meets a medical student and after a quick relationship they marry. A baby is born during the early part of World War II. Rita and her husband are Jewish. Neither are practicing the Jewish faith. Rita is an atheist. The war and Holocaust changes the dynamics of their marriage and lives. Rita changes her identity in order to survive.

My Thoughts:
World War II and Holocaust books are at the top of my favored list in genres. My dad was a Veteran of World War II. I'm sure this is a large reason why I have a strong interest in this period in history. I love reading nonfiction, historical fiction, mystery, suspense, espionage, and a bit of romance from this time period.
The Girl From Krakow's theme is intriguing. A beautiful and intelligent young Jewish woman tries to survive the Holocaust. However, Rita is an icy person. She is not a character that I felt an attachment to, and as a result never felt an investment in the story. I feel her character needed to be vulnerable. Instead, she came across as cold. She is quick to fall in to sexual relationships with people. In the story she has relationships with two men and one woman. Her encounters came across as both a detachment from the war and as a replacement for real intimacy.
I wanted to like this story, but I was indifferent to the main character, Rita. I was also indifferent to the people she became involved with, and as a result I was indifferent to the story itself.

[M.G. Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

First the good thing about this book. I found the stories of the main characters interesting. How they survived WW II in Eastern Europe and Russia--this was the part of the book that kept me reading. The author is obviously knowledgeable about the history (I found myself looking some points up while reading) of the Axis and Allies powers during this period. Plus the extreme deprivation suffered by the general population during the war.

Now the distracting bad thing about this book. This is just my opinion but in a historical drama type of a book I was not expecting the varied and frequent sexual encounters by the characters and the causual approach to abortion one character--a male gynecologist--took towards his patients. These things jarred me from the story. Maybe I should have done some more investigation before reading the book but now I know to do so next time.

[Javier A Farfan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth my time

I should have listened to another review who said the main character has no redeeming qualities. With the exception of the last page, this is completely true. Other than that, the book is a huge list of WWII politics (ok, not always a bad thing, but it's excessive) and her sexual exploits. I found it in poor taste, worse than a trashy romance novel, to get past her ripping clothing off with the gynecologist in his office, "servicing" her gay roommate, hooking up with her female best friend, I mean really!?! Next time, I'll read more reviews.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a tough one. There were times I really enjoyed it and others I wanted to throw it against the wall. My rating is more like 2 1/2, but closer to 3 than 2. Although I don't agree with a lot of the philosophy presented, I can accept it as a different world view that likely existed during that time in history.

[Cassie Troja · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned due to a gratuitous, graphic sex scene within the first couple of chapters. I hate it when authors do this because it always feels like unimaginative or desperate filler to me. It's completely unnecessary and really just a disappointment in what could have otherwise been an interesting novel.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unrealistic but a good read.

Easy read, somewhat predictable with a rather unrealistic ending. A few of the coincidences seemed more like fairy tales instead of solid historical fiction. Enjoyable nevertheless.