#BlogTour The German Girl by Lily Graham

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The German Girl by Lily Graham.

About the Author

Lily has been telling stories since she was a child, starting with her imaginary rabbit, Stephanus, and their adventures in the enchanted peach tree in her garden, which she envisioned as a magical portal to Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree. She’s never really got out of the habit of making things up, and still thinks of Stephanus rather fondly.

She lives with her husband and her English bulldog, Fudge, and brings her love for the sea and country-living to her fiction.

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About the book

'Our parents were taken. And if we go home, the Nazis will take us too…’

Hamburg 1938. Fifteen-year-old Asta is hurrying home from school with her twin brother Jürgen. The mood in the city is tense – synagogues have been smashed with sledgehammers, and Asta is too frightened to laugh as she used to.

But when she and Jürgen are stopped in the street by a friend, her world implodes further. Her Jewish parents have been dragged into the streets by German soldiers and if she and Jürgen return to their house, they will be taken too.

Heartbroken at the loss of her parents, Asta knows they must flee. With her beloved brother, she must make the perilous journey across Germany and into Denmark to reach their only surviving relative, her aunt Trine, a woman they barely know.

Jammed into a truck with other refugees, Asta prays for a miracle to save herself and Jürgen. Crossing the border is a crime punishable by death, and what she and Jürgen must embark on a dangerous crossing on foot, through the snowy forest dividing Germany and Denmark. And when barking dogs and armed soldiers find Jürgen and Asta escapes, she must hold on to hope no matter what. One day she will find her twin, the other half of herself. Whatever the price she has to pay…

Review

Ingrid has taken on the difficult care of her dementia ridden grandfather. He lives in isolation and dislikes the interference of others, which makes it hard for his loved ones to take care of him. He slips into the past more often now and whilst doing so he reveals memories his granddaughter is unaware of. A life he has kept hidden, heartbreak and pain that have made him seem irrational at times.

Jürgen and Asta live in Hamburg and are beginning to see the rumbles of hatred, racism and the forebodings of the worst time in history to come. Their parents however are like many others in a sense that they think everything will blow over and there will always be time to up and leave at a later date. Unfortunately waiting becomes a death sentence for many. 

Although the outcome may seem clear from the beginning of the story, Graham does a good job of giving readers something more than the presumption of what is to come. I think it's fair to say that the true reach of the Nazi regime before and during World War 2 is often forgotten and underestimated. Just how many countries they managed to invade and control, and how invasive their tentacles of evil were.

The story of Jürgen and Asta gives a voice to those forgotten invasions and the horror that people lived through, but many millions more died because of. It speaks to the trauma, the sacrifices and the incredulity of those involved at the destruction and malice behind the power of the Nazi regime.

It's a powerful piece of historical fiction. It represents the unspoken stories of many.

Buy The German Girl at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Bookouture pub date 12 Jan. 2021. Buy at Amazon com. Hive.