Together, they make their way across the smoldering wreckage of their homeland to Berlin, where Martin’s mother, the beautiful and naive Benita, has fallen into the hands of occupying Red Army soldiers. The widow of a resister murdered in the failed July 20, 1944, plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Marianne plans to uphold the promise she made to her husband’s brave conspirators: to find and protect their wives, her fellow resistance widows.įirst Marianne rescues six-year-old Martin, the son of her dearest childhood friend, from a Nazi reeducation home. Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined-an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Hazards of Good Breeding.Īmid the ashes of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Marianne von Lingenfels returns to the once-grand castle of her husband’s ancestors, an imposing stone fortress now fallen into ruin following years of war. Three women, haunted by the past and the secrets they hold

The Women in the Castle stands tall among the literature that reveals new truths about one of history’s most tragic eras.'- USA Today a plot that surprises and devastates.'- New York Times Book Review This is a novel of guilt and shame and the ability to overcome and to work on their personal and collective grief.'Moving. The women take on different roles and have different stories to tell of their own experiences. The most dangerous and demanding of plots is hatched – to assassinate Hitler. Some would even be deemed a little risque for the time. They host a yearly gathering of German intellectuals and their guests include many important figures from all fields to discuss liberal and bohemian topics. Marianne von Lingenfels is part of the family who live in the castle and who host the most marvelous and feted parties. In the novel:Ī party is held at Burg Lingenfels.

The US military built a displaced persons camp to house displaced Jews but this was dissolved in 1948. What a magnificent castle! Lindenfels town is known as the “Pearl of the Odenwald”Īfter the Second World War ended in May 1945, Lindenfels found itself in the American Zone of Occupation.

The women in the castle book