I am really loving that I have had so much time off from school to read. This is the 6th book I’ve finished this month, and tbh I don’t remember the last time I had this much time to read for fun; maybe middle school? Anyways, I am back with another review and it’s a good one.
If you love historical fiction, this is the book for you.
The Women In The Castle details the life of three women after WWII, whose husbands were involved in the Resistance movement against Hitler. The women live in a castle left to Marianne by her family, and it becomes a headquarters of sorts for Marianne and her mission. Marianne, the “commander of wives and children” as she is named by her childhood best friend and husband is tasked with finding the wives and children of those left behind by the dead of the Resistance. Marianne finds Benita, the wife of her childhood best friend, and Ania, whose past is very muddled to the point where even Marianne, the woman on top of everything, knows who she really is. There is drama and suspense and morally ambiguous characters and it’s amazing.
The text is split into four books: Marianne’s story, Benita’s past and present with Marianne, Ania’s story, and then 40 years into the future. All the characters are present within all the stories one way or another. Shattuck writes in such a beautiful way that I could not put the book down. I could easily read 50 pages in a sitting.
I appreciated the way Shattuck wrote the characters of Marianne, Benita, and Ania as well. Marianne wants to do the right thing all of the time, and is very headstrong. What Marianne can fail to realize is how her actions affect others in negative ways, especially when she thinks she is doing the right thing. Benita’s character is assumed to be aloof and naive, for she is extremely young when her son is born and her husband Connie is killed. She is sent to a brothel where Marianne finds her. She wrestles with her own demons about her husband’s role in the Resistance, and blames Marianne for a lot for why her life turns out the way it did. As we gain more of her perspective, we see her motivations and her past, and learn why she has become the person she is. Ania is a whole different story. Without giving spoilers, we see Ania as very closed off and mysterious, and something does not sit quite right. It is not until her story, that we can actually receive some answers about who she is and what the war was like for her and her sons.
For a tale that is set in post-war Germany, the characters are all at very different points in their lives. They all experienced the war in very different ways, and all were deeply affected. There is no way to know right or wrong in any case, and that comes through loud and clear within Shattuck’s writing. In my experience, while there may have been some moral ambiguity with characters in WWII novels, there is not this level of ambiguity, and I think that makes this novel truly unique.
This is truly one of the best WWII historical fiction novels I have ever read, and I would read it again.
Content warnings: war, death, abuse, suicide
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹/5
