The Woman Outside the Walls by Suzanne Goldring- historical fiction (WW2)
Set in two timelines this tells the story of Anna in the second world war and in 2016. Post war she is trying to survive in Hamburg desperate to find her family. She comes across a group who take her in, she is only seventeen and has been through so much. We then get Anna's wartime story.
In 2016 (and onwards) Anna is ninety and her neighbour wonders where she is- Anna has fled yet again but got to the bus stop and doesn't know where to go. Her past is coming to the forefront of her mind now she has lost Reg her husband several years ago and feels she should tell someone before it's too late. Her neighbour's son is learning German- the language Anna spoke when she was at the bus stop. Could this and his new interest in history bring Anna’s memories out at last?
I really enjoyed this, it's a wartime story in a very different way which to me made it more personal as we get to know Anna in more than one scenario. There’s a warmth of storytelling and wonderful characterization. Enough description to envisage the scenes without being overly wordy makes this a page turner of a read. We can probably guess in part as to Anna’s backstory but none of us can really know what the Anna’s of this world went through, all we know is that so very many did,so few surviving. An emotive story very well told and one to perhaps make the younger generation think for a while.
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Book Description:
I always knew it would come out one day. They are finding everyone who has stayed hidden. They would have come to me in the end.
Hamburg, 1942 Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.
Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.
London, 2016 Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?
A gripping read that will break your heart and have you hooked, perfect for fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and My Name is Eva. The Woman Outside the Walls will take you on an emotional journey and show you that in war, even when you are on the wrong side, you can still do the right thing…
Following an eventful career as a public relations consultant, specialising in business and travel, Suzanne Goldring turned to writing the kind of novels she likes to read, about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Whether she is working in her thatched cottage in Hampshire or her seaside home in North Cornwall, Suzanne finds inspiration in the secrets hidden by everyday life.
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