The Girl From Berlin by Ronald H. Balson – 384 pages
Book Blurb:
An old friend calls Catherine Lockhart and Liam Taggart to his famous Italian restaurant to enlist their help. His aunt is being evicted from her home in the Tuscan hills by a powerful corporation claiming they own the deeds, even though she can produce her own set of deeds to her land. Catherine and Liam’s only clue is a bound handwritten manuscript, entirely in German, and hidden in its pages is a story long-forgotten…
Ada Baumgarten was born in Berlin in 1918, at the end of the war. The daughter of an accomplished first-chair violinist in the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic, and herself a violin prodigy, Ada’s life was full of the rich culture of Berlin’s interwar society. She formed a deep attachment to her childhood friend Kurt, but they were torn apart by the growing unrest as her Jewish family came under suspicion. As the tides of history turned, it was her extraordinary talent that would carry her through an unraveling society turned to war, and make her a target even as it saved her, allowing her to move to Bologna―though Italy was not the haven her family had hoped, and further heartache awaited.
My Review: 4 stars
The Girl From Berlin kept me glued to the pages with a wonderful dual time period story. Balson again brings back his characters Liam and Catherine, a private investigator and attorney, respectively. Since the authors first book, Once We Brothers, we’ve watched this duo grow together both professionally and personally. I enjoy that common thread through all of the novels.
This book read most like his first, which was my favorite out of them all, with deep roots in Europe, a satisfying mystery and beautiful scenery. While in Florence a few years ago, I took a quick jaunt into Siena for a wine tasting tour. I can attest to the wine’s purity and excellence. That soil, those vineyards and luscious land described in the book are worth fighting for. The ownership of this land is the knot that holds the different threads of the story together. This particular conundrum also showed first hand how the preservation of handwritten records and their accuracy are of utmost importance.
Of course most of the action happens in Berlin, so it was Ada’s story that kept me flipping the pages furiously. Through her family dynamics, her life as a brilliant young violinist and her relationship with Kurt, we saw her continual persistence and perseverance. She lived through the worst of WW2 in Berlin, losing friends, family members, valuables, self worth and basic human rights at the hands of the Nazis. Her deep friendship with a Nazi officer and her extensive hate towards another Nazi officer adds a heap of good drama. Balson hits the target in creating strong, passionate female protagonists in all of his novels and Ada is no exception; her story of courage and steadfastness was incredible. I just adored the scenes that take place in the opera houses that Ada performed in. While in Vienna this spring, I got to see a small Baroque orchestra and was blown away by the splendor of it all. Balson portrayed these opera houses with the richness they deserve.
Although this is book five of a series, it can completely stand alone, so don’t let that deter you from reading this. Fans of historical fiction, WW2 and Judaic fiction fans, this is a must read!
Quotes I liked:
Isn’t that something? Here in Germany, it’s against the law to use or display Nazi symbols, but back in the U.S., punks march through Charlottesville and Skokie in full Nazi uniforms with swastika armbands yelling Jewish slurs.”
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