The historical fiction coming out in the last few years that depicts regular people and their lives in extenuating circumstances has really been wonderful. I now add The Dutch Wife to the list of really great writing and storytelling.
As always with any WWII story set at a concentration camp there are many events of abuse, rape, starvation, murder and more awful actions. Ellen Keith does not dance around these issues; instead she describes them with a realistic and stark attitude. As we all know they happened, and part of historical fiction is to warn us not to allow history to repeat itself I feel the level of detail and description is more than appropriate for the subject matter. That said, be forewarned that this is not a novel for the faint of heart.

The Story
Our primary story is told from two points of view. One from a woman from Amsterdam who is a Jew sympathizer. The other from a man who is a higher ranking Nazi officer assigned to the camp. The setting is a Nazi concentration camp with marginally better conditions than Auschwitz; which isn't saying much.
The narrative is primarily about this woman and man coping with what life has thrown at them. They both make seemingly impossible decisions in order to stay alive. These decisions and moments are the real heart of Keith's novel.

The 'Side' Story
This separate story is based on a historical event I knew nothing about until reading The Dutch Girl. While the 1970's account of the Dirty War in Argentina and the wrongful communist persecutions sets up a great contrast to the WWII narrative; every time Keith swapped to this story all I wanted was for the chapter to be over so we could return to our leading man and woman at the camp. The dual telling of these stories adds an analytical view on suppression and control of a dictator; but overall I could have done without it. But I'm sure some English professors are thrilled with the comparison and essay opportunities the story adds to The Dutch Wife. This is added story is the only reason why I give this 4 stars instead of 5.

<b>Conflicting Emotions</b>
Both our characters in WWII have situations in which they are going against their gut reaction. Each time this happens they end up with conflicting emotions with what they are doing. Keith does a brilliant job of show us that circumstance is really what leads us to make certain decisions. And while in average daily lives they maybe wouldn't have made the same decision; the harshness of the concentration camp and the will to stay alive means that both our characters do what some may call morally subject things both physically, mentally and emotionally.
I've always thought that circumstance drives the core decisions we make on a daily basis. Factors like age, health, safety, money, opportunity (or lack of) cannot be overlooked when we analyse why someone does something at any given time.

Morals
As with most WWII stories, The Dutch Wife focuses on the inner personal conflict that many people (German or not) experienced when they started to realize what following the Nazi party laws meant in actuality. Keith focuses on the strife and struggle for average people to survive during this time of harsh rules and deadly outcomes. The focus is on how so many people 'allowed' this power shift to happen and why so many made decisions we might today call immoral.
The Dutch Wife clearly demonstrates that none of us can say that we would never, ever break a personal moral. Instead only that we have all been fortunate enough to not been pushed beyond all reason to make decisions purely based on the will to live.
For example: it's easy to say I will not cheat on my spouse; but it's a lot harder to stay committed if that spouse: goes missing for years, has ailing health issues, is inattentive or in any way abusive. Each of these scenarios (and many others) might convince, even the most fervently devoted spouse, to act differently than they would if they had a loving spouse next to them. Until you have been in someone's shoes you cannot say what you might have done or not done. The Dutch Wife shows this with such clarity regarding what we today would consider simple decisions. It's a truly wonderful perspective and had me thinking a lot about the idea of morality and what makes someone a 'good' person. Keith also focuses on the continuing theme that we all have a basic instinct, hard-wired in our brains, to survive. And at moments when survival seems unlikely or is challenged nothing but surviving matters anymore. This is the moment when 'good' people can cross over into areas of morality they never imagined they'd go. This is the power of limited options on the brain. Survival instinct takes over and we are no longer the person we once were.

Overall
The personal introspective into 'average' people and their rationales during this extraordinary time makes The Dutch Wife more about people and how we cope, than about WWII itself. Regardless of what historical plight or time Keith had chosen I believe the core story wouldn't change in this novel. Being able to relate with each character and understand each point of view helps us understand the factors restricting their choices. This makes this a very intimate novel that is likely to make many people wonder what they would have done given the same circumstances. In our increasingly complex and tumultuous world Keith has brought to light how the climate of circumstances can definitely change our actions.

I am finding myself asking (more often these days) if I would do the same thing as someone in their circumstances. Doing this BEFORE judging or assuming morality, faith or commitment is something I believe more of us need to do. If we hold onto the understanding that survival is the key to life then I believe we would approach many issues and people differently. I hope others are able to get better perspective on the difficulty of having only awful decisions before you. And while to die is always an option; we should never underestimate our animal instinct to survive.

4.5 for me.

This book is not what I expected.

Their is such a realism to the book, the characters are all strong even if not likable.

The story is told from 3 different characters, 2 , Karl and Marijke during World War 2 and the Nazi concentration camps . The 3rd character is Luciano a captive during the Argentine Dirty War in the 1977 era. I must admit I knew little of that era.

You want to find out what happens to the 3 of them. Can their be forgiveness after such atrocities, how do you learn to live again.

The book was well written and drew you in from page 1

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy. I saw that the book was out in Canada when I was half way through my ebook so I went and bought my own copy.

This story will stay with you for a longtime.

Absolutely LOVED this book!!! Marijke's story was my favorite. It was heartbreaking and I may have teared up at a few spots. She did what was needed to survive. I kept hoping she would live to see the liberation of the camp.

The book alternates between Marijke, Karl and Luciano and is primarily set during WWII. Marijke is a Dutch political prisoner of the Nazis. She ends up working at the prisoner brothel in Buchenwald. She sees this as her only chance to survive in the camps. Marijke never gives up hope of being reunited with her husband. Karl Müller is the new Schutzhaftlagerführer at Buchenwald and ends up falling in love with Marijke. At times I liked Karl. He helped Marijke survive and was even loving towards her and at times he felt bad for the people at the camp. But honestly he was a horrible person and was the cause of so many deaths even if he personally didn't kill them. I think he did struggle with his position at the camp and would have rather been a biologist. In the end he finally got what he deserved, but it was nothing compared to what the people in the camps endured. Luciano's story takes place in 1977 while he is a college student in Argentina, living with his parents. He is kidnapped and tortured for being involved in protests. He always felt like his father was ashamed of him.

I loved the story , characters and writing style. The torture that Luciano endured was sometimes hard to read about. I never knew there were brothels at the camps for the privileged prisoners or even the SS officers. I can't imagine what the woman endured. I also never knew that Buchenwald had a zoo. I didn't want Marijke's story to end. I wanted to keep reading about her life.

I definitely recommend this book. It was a wonderful read. I look forward to reading more books by the author.

Thanks to NetGalley, HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) and the author, Ellen Keith, for a free electronic ARC of this novel.

This is a historical fiction novel. Even though, it is based on fact. This novel is about a young Dutch women and her husband. They are caught helping Jews. Thus, they are separated and sent to a concentration camp. Hoping to be near her husband, she is recruited to be a prostitute for the prisoners who had earned a special privilege. Meanwhile, a young man is taken from his home, never to return. He is one of the disappeared. The detail of all areas of a concentration camp, and how it works, is shared in detail. The living conditions, food rations, punishments, of the prisoners as opposed to the officers is stark.
This a wonderfully written story. It's contents are sad and heartbreaking, but it happened.
The characters are portrayed as real people, with thoughts and emotions. I highly recommend this book. Brilliant!

Heartbreaking and scary. Who knows what any of us might be capable of doing during evil times? Pray we're never tested.

The Dutch Wife is a Historical Fiction novel that tells the story of three people during WWII in dual story lines. The reader is privy to the points of view of Marijke de Graaf, a Dutch prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp and SS officer Karl Muller whose job it is to run the camp. The other story line, decades later, follows a young man named Luciano Wagner in Buenos Aires.

I'm all for dual story lines in books. I like getting a better look into different characters but the story lines weren't balanced well here. Luciano's POV felt so different and vague compared to the other two that I struggled to stay interested. Readers are kept in the dark (much like Luciano himself) about how Luciano fits into the main story line and it was frustrating being strung along for so much of the book. When the answers are finally given, it's late in the story and the connection wasn't much of a surprise.

As a big reader of WWII fiction, I always welcome learning more about it. Keith taught me about aspects of life within the concentration camp that I hadn't known before, specifically for non-Jewish women. But I wanted more depth, stronger character development and more backstory, especially for Marijke. Why was she involved in the Resistance? And I could have done without the romance angle which felt sudden, more than a little icky and I didn't feel I was given enough reasons to get behind it. With these issues and the abrupt ending leaving readers with unanswered questions, I thought The Dutch Wife was an okay, lighter Historical Fiction read, but not a book I'd be encouraging everyone to pick up.

What an intense book! It was well written but the subject matter is so heavy that it's hard to know what to say about it. I found myself skimming Luciano's chapters as they were even more depressing than the chapters set in the concentration camp.

The epilogue was poetic justice.

(edit: I've heard some people say this is a romance. It is 100% NOT a romance. Just FYI.)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I had heard so much buzz about this book (Brand new novelist! Canadian author! Riveting premise for a book!).

When I started the book, I was cautiously optimistic about how it was going to go.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
I had to force myself to finish this book even though historical fiction (and especially war time fiction) is my favourite genre.
I wanted to like Marijke - but she felt like a caricature of a Dutch resistance fighter rather than a real one.
The blips to Argentina were puzzling at best and I had no idea why they were included (other than to state the obvious that Luciano was Karl's son).

I was so heartily disappointed in this book. Maybe I was expecting a Kristin Hannah "The Nightingale" sort of book and that's why I was disappointed, but I just felt it was too trite, too superficial and not real enough.