The Blindness of the Heart

from chrissybob

Not really sure where to start with this one - there were parts of this book I really enjoyed and others I hated. The book portrays the story of Helene - opening with her deserting her young son at a railway station. The remainder of the book is her story and what leads to her this unforgivable a...

from Kristelh

The story of a young woman in Germany from WWI to after WWII. Helena is the youngest daughter of a Jewish mother and German father and tells the story of how Helena survived Fascist Germany and multigenerational trauma. This is not another Holocaust survival story. Helena is raised protestant. Sh...

from Dreesie

This novel starts near the end, then goes back to explain how the opening section came to be, and then ends 10 years after the opening. I love storylines like this, but it makes it VERY hard to write a review without spoilers. Helene and her sister grew up in a small town near Dresden. After thei...

from sometimeunderwater

Some wonderfully realised characters, and a heartbreaking opening section. The author has successfully written an eyes-down and incurious protagonist, suffering a series of domestic and personal turmoils in WW2 Germany. Given the period it was set in, one occasionally craves a more eyes-up charac...