Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for supplying this book in exchange for a review.
This was a harrowing read with lots to hols your interest

The Woman Outside the Walls introduces you to Margie Wilson, a 90 year old woman who has spent most of her adult life hiding from her past and who she really is. Alternating between 2017 and the 1940’s, the truth about her past unveils itself because through the kindness of her neighbor Lauren and her teenage son, Freddie.

The war was hard for Anna, she experiences just about everything a young German woman could during that time. From being a member of the League for German Girls to falling in the love with the boy next door who left her alone and pregnant when he went off to war to a secretary at concentration camp to a prostitute in post war Hamburg to an English officers wife…Anna has lived more life than most and despite moving to England, changing her name to Margie and starting a new life…her past haunts her and she lives in fear of being prosecuted for her involvement.

This story raises a lot of questions about morals despite being a complete work of fiction and for that…I found to to be extremely interesting. It also bridges a gap between generations that so important these days, especially in the world we currently live in.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Bookouture and Suzanne Goldring for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review. It definitely gives the reader something to think about

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕟 𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕤
𝗦𝘂𝘇𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴
Historical Fiction
336 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs

The Woman Outside the Walls is about a young woman who unknowingly works as a secretary at a concentration camp after giving up a child. The job was posted as a secretary for a prison. It didn’t take long to figure out where she really was, but she stayed. She then looks over her shoulder for the rest of her life, fearing prosecution, even though she tried to help others, even when she was at the concentration camp.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs

This book shows that not all those on the wrong side of WWII were evil people. It flips back and forth between the present, where Anna is a ninety-year-old, and the past, where she was a teenager and young adult. Although she worked at the concentration camp, she spent the rest of her life differently. She comes across as a kind person, and I couldn’t help but like her. She was so young and had already gone through great grief when she found herself in this terrible position she didn’t know how to escape.

The characters are so raw and authentic. Every time I read about the barbarousness and need for basic necessities that aren’t available, I am bewildered by the steadfastness of humans to survive such conditions. So many misguided ideas led to copious horrendous acts toward fellow humans.

Ann’s life story strives to tell us the emotional and physical toll that WWII took on so many on both sides of the war. There are plenty of stories beyond the Holocaust that I am learning about by reading historical fiction. Although it is fiction, extensive research is done to bring those stories to life.

The Woman Outside the Walls is one of my favorite books of 2023 so far. It is emotional and heartbreaking but gives us a look at the internal conflict and sacrifices that were common during this time period.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

A different take on most of the WWII fiction I have read so far, What others had to do during those years to have enough to eat and stay alive was incredibly difficult.
I enjoyed the dual time line in this story, it kept my interest and curiousity peaked until the very end,
This was an interesting read with lots of twists that I was not expecting.
I had such conflicting thoughts and feelings in the end. It gave me a lot to ponder.

The audiobook was also enjoyable to listen. The narrator had wonderful ton and voice for each character.
Thanks to Net Galley and Bookouture for the advanced copy.

While this book was well written and I did enjoy it I just couldn't really feel invested in this as much as others I have read

At 90 years old, Anna cannot forget what she had done during WWII and her work in what she found out was a concentration camp. Not knowing how to reconcile this to herself, she finds a friend in a neighbor and her son. Good historical fiction writing.

Great book, loved the historical detail and portraying what happened in the war. Felt the chapters were muddled and out of timeline , which made it difficult to follow at times. But would recommend.

This is a dual timeline book. Early in World War II, Anna gets pregnant and leaves home to have and give up her baby so her parents will not find out. She then takes a secretarial job at a prison, though it turns out to be much different than what she expected. She witnesses horrors and finds herself in a moral dilemma.

In 2016 London, a 90 year old Anna reflects on her life at the prison, changing her name and surviving in Hamburg after the war, then changing her name again and coming to live in England. She is plagued by guilt and fear, all while living her life as the friendly old lady next door who loves to bake. It is time to reveal the truth.

This story was well written and delved into a myriad of emotions. It causes you to stop and exam what your response might be to the moral dilemmas Anna faces and how life is not black and white. I do wish some sections had gone into more detail but overall it was a very good read.

I must say this book was a bit different than most of the WWII historical fiction novels I have read, and I have read a lot. This book centers around Anna, who falls in love with a German soldier and becomes pregnant. Afraid to tell her parents, Anna goes off to one of the Reich's special homes for unwed mothers where her child will be adopted by a respectable German family who are upstanding members of the party. After this Anna takes a secretarial job for what she thinks is just a normal prison that provides room and board for it's employees. She discovers the truth to be anything but normal. Upon the war nearing the end, Anna returns to her hometown to find it nearly completely destroyed by bombs. It's citizens are now living in squalor, those who have survived the fire from the bombs that tore through the town consuming everything in its wake. They have to scavenge for what food they can find and live in the basements of burned out homes. The women survive the only way they can, by selling themselves on the streets and at the army bases.
I never expected this story to go there but it did, and the tragic truth about the circumstances the citizens of Hamburg had to survive were truly appalling, they too, like many others were mostly innocent victims of WWII and Hitler's evil design.
This book breaks your heart and as you read Anna's story, both past and present I am sure you will feel and sympathize for and with her. I give it 5stars and recommend.
Thank you to Bookouture and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review in return.

I am an avid reader of historical fiction set in the second world war years.
Author Suzanne Goldring is new to me and I couldn't be happier to have found her books. She does tell her story well doesn't she.
Capturing the very nature and essence of her characters.
We meet Anna in this story and what an emotional story it is.
Present day, London 2016, Anna is alone in her home having lost her husband. She seems distracted and somewhat confused and you know that her memories of an awful time in her life are re-surfacing and consuming her.
You can feel her pain, her loneliness and her regret.
The author tells the story through dual timelines. I always adore when this is done as it gives a reader such huge insight into a character and how they get to present day.
Hamburg 1929, a trusting young woman, Anna leaves home having kept a huge secret from her parents.
She must now find her own way in the world.
So when she applies for a job as secretary in a prison she feels she will get her life back in order little realising it is about to get much worse. What she experiences will stay with her forever.
Hamburg 1945, Anna searches for her family amid the rubble hoping her secrets won't be discovered.
I found this to be an emotional read, quite harrowing but will completely touch you.
I enjoyed Anna and felt so incredibly sad for her, her journey and for all the many heartbreaking moments in her life.
So well worth your time.

Spanning over seventy seven years and told in dual timeline The Woman Outside The Walls tells us Anna's story, of her time working in a concentration camp and how she survived the war.

It's very well written and researched, with some fascinating, credible characters. I found it hard to read in places and extremely emotional in others.

Powerful, page turning and will stay with you long after reading.

Many thanks to Bookouture for my tour spot.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was asked to take part in a Book Tour from @bookouture recently. It’s a day or so behind as my little guy got sick with croup and bronchitis. But how cool was it to be part of a book tour for a brand new book to make its way out into the world. I have to admit I haven’t read historical fiction in a very long time. It did take me a little bit to get into but once I did I was very surprised with this story. I’m still thinking about it this morning. It’s not your normal historical fiction, the main character Anna goes through the war and marries and has children. You meet her when she’s in her nineties. Her next door neighbors son becomes interested in the war for a school project and starts asking her questions which stirs up memories for her. Anna is keeping a terrible secret that she has kept to herself for years, she knows judgment is coming. But what is her terrible secret? I am going to be brutally honest here, I did not like Anna at all. She made some pretty terrible choices. This is such a hard one to discuss without reading the story and I don’t want to give away anything. This novel really makes you think, what would you do? It’s meant for you to think and ponder. I think it succeeding in doing that for me. I did have a few issues with it though, the switching timelines (which I usually love) just didn’t do it for me. I wasn’t interested in Lauren’s timeline at all. I wish that the timeline from Anna leaving for her secretary position all flowed in proper order, it felt a bit jumbled. I would have liked more for the ending as well.

That being said, this novel will make you think and probably a bit angry at one point. But in order to understand history you should make yourself think and ponder. This will be an excellent debut into the book world. Congratulations to Suzanne Goldring!
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I would like to thank @bookouture , Sarah Hardy, Susanne Goldring and @netgalley for the ARC.

The Woman Outside the Walls by Suzanne Goldring opens in London in 2016. Anna is in her 90’s and has lived alone for many years following the death of her husband Reg. Every morning she checks the suitcase under her bed which she has hidden for safety. This reassures her but now she thinks things are catching up with her and she must leave her home. For where she does not know but she has this sense of urgency that she must go. She heads for the local bus stop but many buses come and go and by the end of the day her neighbour Lauren is worried that Anna’s milk remains on her doorstep which is very unlike her. Lauren and her son Freddie find Anna in a state of confusion and distress. What she is saying does not make sense especially as she is speaking in her native German.

Lauren thinks there is a story to be told about Anna but as she has been such a good neighbour for so many years, and once babysat her children, she is loath to dig deeper in fear of causing upset and distress. But Anna known to Lauren as Margie has had a difficult and challenging life and the burden of the past is weighing heavily on her. The memories locked away inside her head haunt her. Can Lauren break through the stiff shell that Anna has created around herself and if she does is she only opening up a can of worms best left firmly closed?

The story moves back and forth between the present day and Germany during the war years. Lauren and her son Freddie are the link or catalyst that allow Anna who has gone through several aliases and is now known as Margie to try and break free from the shackles of perhaps guilt and the horrific memories and images she witnessed during the war. Freddie through studying German and learning about Anne Frank and the war itself bridges the connection between the past and present and both himself and Lauren were well used throughout the story. But for me it’s Anna’s story in the past as she assumes the alias Margarete/Etta that really had me enthralled.

Anna grew up in Hamburg with her parents and now in 1945 she has returned to the place of her birth but the city she once called home has been ravaged and destroyed by British planes. The author spares no detail in describing the sights that meet Anna’s eyes as she has travelled on foot a very long distance to reach the city where she hopes she will be reunited with her parents. That is not to be the case as her home is destroyed and the stench of rot, decay, filth and disease fill the air and the landscape is blackened and desolate. Those that did not die during the horrific bombings were left to more or less fend for themselves and Anna finds herself seeking shelter in a cellar with a group of young kids who have named themselves the Ausgebombten gang.

Said gang boasts a cast of quirky yet resilient characters and again no detail as spared in helping the reader to understand the extend of deprivation, disease and starvation that faced those left behind. That’s what’s really good about this story is that we often forget that the German population suffered deeply during the war too and Suzanne Goldring has provided a solid and balanced viewpoint making the reader stop and think that innocent Germans suffered too. The descriptions of the conditions the gang live in and what they were forced to do just to get by day by day, well really they were horrific and Anna feels she is a burden to them. She turns to something that would have her parents horrified but she needs to survive.

There is a secrecy and wariness about Anna that has her constantly on high alert and looking over her shoulders. I could sense that she was hiding something significant and the fact that she always mentioned ‘The Other’s’ made me think there was a lot more to her than she was revealing to any of the gang that she befriends. I desperately wanted to know who ‘The Others’ were and I had a small inkling but never grasped the full extent as to who they were and their significance until the big reveal came towards the end of the book. We are taken back to the early 1940’s where we learn Anna’s history and what caused her to leave Hamburg. She has many wounds in her soul that lie gaping and the war and her experiences only widened them further. I found Anna to be resilient as I read through the story and as she reveals more about herself I did feel sympathy for her but when the climax is reached it made me sit up in shock and revaluate things. Her beloved Reg saved her from torment and persecution but did her actions leave her with no sense of moral code or decency or was she just doing what she had to do to make it through the war years? Anna is a divisive character that is for sure and although as an old woman she came across as caring and free from fault when I read of her in the past I don’t think I was always endeared to her.

The Woman Outside the Walls is a good read that really gets the reader thinking. It would be an ideal book club read as it would inspire great debate, the themes of the book are well developed and explored and they raise many moral issues. It ends on what I would call a cliff-hanger of sorts as the reader is left to decide how the individual characters deal with what they have learnt. It’s up to the reader to form their own opinion on all the revelations and that’s why I think this would make a good book club selection. If you have a firm opinion of someone and then you subsequently learn details that alter that in some way be it big or small do you then change your opinion or does it remain the same? How can it stay the same given what you discover is shocking? Having finished the book I still can’t decide how I would have dealt with what I read but one thing I know for sure it’s not a cut and dry situation by any means. Suzanne Goldring has done a very good job of shining a light on Germany during the war years and how one woman’s experiences shaped her for the rest of her life. It’s an enjoyable read despite the subject matter and provides the reader with plenty of food for thought.

*Overall 3.5 stars* Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book took a completely different look at the Second World War and the Holocaust, addressing the little talked about parts of the history of these events. I truly admired the author for taking this view and challenging people to look deeper than the surface of so many events in history. I cannot applaud the author enough for that. The whole book centres on stories of love and loss combined together to form a life which could have been led differently. This is such an amazing premise which caused this book to become unforgettable for me.

However, the book switched timelines a lot which became confusing for the reader. The chapters didn’t follow each other a lot of the time, causing the reader to try to catch up with where the author was. This made the reading process very off-putting and several times I found myself not wanting to read it due to this.

But this book is one I highly recommend for those wanting a different look at the Second World War. This is certainly not the typical historical fiction for that era and with he overflow of World War Two era historical fiction books, this is a welcomed edition to any person’s bookshelf.

The Woman Outside the Walls by Suzanne Goldring is such an incredible story. This historical fiction story takes place before the Second World War, during and after in 2016. The story is told by Anna, or Margie as she has called herself since she lost her family and everything she owns during the war. Anna survives during and after the war any way she can. She faced many important moral dilemmas along the way and made some very bad decisions that had terrible consequences. Anna worries that one day the terrible choices she made in her past will catch up with her.

I am a huge fan of historical fiction and The Woman Outside the Walls is no exception. It’s an enthralling, heartbreaking and amazingly written story. Definitely have the Kleenex handy while reading this tearjerker.

Thank you to @bookouture and Suzanne Goldring for my advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review. A definite 5 ⭐️ read for me.

In her latest book, Suzanne Goldring explores a part of WW2 history that has been rarely spoken about. Germany is at war. Anna, a young girl from Hamburg, has met and fallen in love with a dashing German soldier. She soon discovers that she is pregnant. Embarrassed to tell her parents, she goes away to a place where she can give birth in a unique facility, and her child will be given to a good family. She is devastated when her baby is taken from her soon after birth. She decides she must do something with herself to help her deal with this grief. She applies for a secretary position at a prison. What she discovers is that this is no ordinary prison and the horrors that she sees are almost too much to bear. She does what she can to help these people but also puts her own life in jeopardy.

We jump in time to Anna in the present day. She continues to struggle with the horrors that she saw. People around her know her as a kind old lady. They don't know about the part she played during the war, and she is terrified of being discovered.

This was a riveting story. I kept turning the pages to learn more about Anna's moral dilemmas and pondering what I would have done in the same situation. Suzanne Goldring has an effortless writing style that flows easily and keeps you engrossed up to a gripping ending. Well Done! I can honestly say that Suzanne Goldring is becoming one of my favourite authors, and I look forward to all her latest releases!
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
4 stars out of 5
Available Now
Amazon Kindle $4.99 or 0.00 if you have Kindle Unlimited

The Woman Outside the Walls was an interesting read. Anna was not the typical main character in WWII books. I couldn't decide if I liked her. I liked how it took awhile to tell her story. It was hinted at but not actually addressed until later in the book. It gave us a chance to get to know her.

However, I feel like some of the subcharacters' stories were incomplete. I wanted to know more.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

At the age of 17, Anna discovered she was pregnant and did what she could to hide it from her parents. She found herself at a maternity home they promised to give her baby to a good family. She agreed. Anna never saw her child again after it was born. When she finds out about a secretarial job at a prison, she feels that she can get past the sadness that came with giving up her child.

Anna innocently took a job that would impact her for the rest of her life. It was not the best decision by far. That is the story about Anna during 1940s Hamburg, Germany. However, this utterly heartbreaking story does not end there. In fact, during modern time in London, Anna is now 90 years of age and is considered to be a kind, friendly, helpful woman. However, she has kept a secret for decades, and that secret is about to be revealed.

As the story goes back and forth between the past and the present, it is easy to see that Anna was truly an innocent woman who made a bad decision, one that still deserved to have consequences. While working at the prison, which Anna soon learned that it was far more, so she did what she could to help some of those who were suffering. This made it clear that she had not chosen the wrong side, but definitely got caught at the wrong end of things. As Anna is now in her nineties, how did she get past working at such a terrible job where countless innocents lost their lives? In fact, now that the light is shining regarding the actual happenings during the war, Will Anna suffer any consequences now as an old, frail woman?

As this story goes deeper into the present, readers see how Anna's past just might determine her future. What a compelling read! Heartbreaking at every turn, a moral dilemma to be sure, Suzanne Goldring definitely pulls you into this story. A story where pain and loss were clearly tangible. In fact, having tissues nearby would be suggested here. With the addition of two characters who play pivotal roles in this thought-provoking story, Lauren and her son Freddie, both sides of the story will definitely leave a lasting impact on me.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Please enjoy my YouTube video review - https://youtu.be/ll2ovoddweA

“She thought she’d escaped. But they were still searching…”


Either before or after reading this story, you should definitely check out the reference at the end of the book entitled: –

“BACKGROUND TO THE WOMAN OUTSIDE THE WALLS”

Author, Suzanne Goldring, explains beautifully which sections of the storyline are partially factual, based on some interesting and intriguing research, which clearly had a tremendous impact on her. Even down to the relevance, darkness and cruel undercurrents of the chapter headings, which are taken from the collection of stories by The Brothers Grimm.

...


Anna’s childhood living in 1929 Hamburg, Germany, is rudely interrupted in a way she is as yet unable to full comprehend, when her best friend Etta is suddenly and without explanation, taken away from the school both girls attend. Anna is forbidden to play with her, or visit her home anymore, and eventually the family pack up and leave the country, never to be seen or heard from again. It is only as she grows up, that Anna discovers that Etta came from a Jewish family and was thus no longer deemed to be of good enough standing to be allowed to mix or live alongside any good German citizen.

Moving into her late teenage years, Anna takes a secretarial course to enhance her chances of finding employment and also begins to discover her own sexuality and that of the opposite sex. Her eye falls on Gunther, who is slightly older than she and is already a member of the Hitler Youth Movement. Naive as Anna is, she simply refuses to see what is staring her firmly in the face, believes Gunther’s line that she is the only one for him and allows him to have his way with her on the eve of his going off to the front line. Gunther is subsequently killed, and Anna lies to her parents about finding a position which necessitates her living away from home, in order to hide the truth about the predicament she is now in. Baby Peter is removed from his mother at birth and Anna never sees him again, not ever knowing whether he lived or died.

Anna secures a secretarial position in a ‘prison camp’, again so naive as to not know exactly what situation she was allowing herself to become involved in. By the time she comes to her senses and even with her brave offers of help to some of the prisoners, it is too late, and her fate is sealed until some two years later, when word gets out that ‘liberating’ Russian troops are on their way and the camp needs to be cleared and any evidence of wrongdoing destroyed. Escaping the camp herself and returning home to Hamburg, Anna realises the almost total devastation which has been wreaked upon the city and the futility of searching for her parents in the mayhem left behind. A new identity as Etta and a hand to mouth life, lived underground as part of a small group, means that everyone must play their part in providing food and clothing for the community, which for the young women means making the most of their assets, to attract the eye of the British liberating forces, even for Gertrude who has only just given birth to a new son, also called Peter. Gertrude has past demons of her own though, which she is never able to reconcile, thus making her final decision fatal and irrevocable, leaving Peter an orphan.

Reg is not your usual serviceman, being slightly older than many of his comrades. He makes no demands on Anna, other than that of friendship and an enduring love which he realises is quite one-sided, eventually asking her to marry him and return to England as his wife. Anna explains Gertrude’s situation to Reg and begs that she might bring baby Peter with her to England, rather than have him starve in the cold basement. After decades of marriage to Reg, with Peter never knowing the circumstances of his birth and he and his sister long since having moved to the other side of the world to escape their strange family home life, Anna, now with another change of identity to Margie, has never told Reg the true circumstances in which he found her all those years ago. Whilst Reg has long suspected that Anna’s story was tailored to meet the situation in which she found herself, his reaction if he had ever known the full extent of his wife’s past deeds and the true extent to which she had deceived him, can only be guessed at. Now alone and in her nineties, Anna sits with her growing collection of war-crimes cuttings, just waiting for the doorbell to ring…

Neighbours to Margie, are Lauren and her two children Amy and Freddie, although Amy is now away at university and Freddie is fast approaching his teenage years. Lauren’s husband Colin, was a serving police officer when he died in his early fifties, leaving her to raise the children alone. Freddie is definitely a credit to his mother and they both take seriously the need to keep a close eye on their nonagenarian neighbour, although this they have always done without intrusion into her private life, so are completely unaware of her past and the circumstances surrounding her long marriage to her husband, or her country of origin. It isn’t until Freddie, realising that German is Anna’s (Margie) native tongue, decides that he would like to interview her about the war years, as this is his current term project at school. Anna completely loses the plot when Lauren and Freddie approach her with their request and at first refuses point blank to discuss it with them. She then spends some contemplative time alone with her thoughts and memories, guilt and shame, before deciding that the couple need to know the truth about her past, trusting Freddie to do what he will with the information, as she can carry the burden no longer and is prepared to meet her maker under whatever circumstances dictate.

...

Alongside the rather gruesome Grimms Brothers dividers I mentioned earlier, each chapter is also clearly date stamped, making the back and forth between the German and English locations and their many time frames which cover the period 1929 – 2017, digestible and easy to follow. Compelling, wonderfully descriptive and profoundly touching words conjured up a truly visual and evocative, if not always comfortable, sense of time and place throughout. If you are only able to experience this immersive storyline as an ‘armchair traveller’, you most definitely won’t be disappointed.

The writing is evocative, poignant, highly textured, fluent and well-paced, with several unexpectedly intense and emotional moments, which are perceptive, intuitive, often raw and passionate, yet profoundly touching, highlighting both the fragility and resilience of the human mind and physical body, whilst uncovering the long-term and unseen effects the trauma of grief and loss can have, which can last a lifetime. Lauren’s story also explores the lengths a parent will go to and the sacrifices they will make, to keep their children safe from harm and the gut-wrenching feelings of failure when they are unable to protect them as they feel they should.

The characters are well developed, complex and authentic to their place in time, although that did not always make them easy to relate to, or invest in. Circumstances meant that some were still searching for a sense of belonging and closure, on what had been tumultuous periods in their lives, which made them compelling and emotionally vulnerable, frail yet with an amazing inner strength and the tenacity to want to rebuild their shattered hopes and dreams and, in some cases, to make amends for the past.

For the younger characters, particularly Freddie, the future is all important, with the past being an era he had never sought to waste his time and energy challenging. When personal circumstances mean that he is forced to confront a truth well beyond that documented in his history study books, his open-minded, mature attitude surprises both Lauren, his mother, and Anna herself. Maybe his rather too compassionate and ‘liberal’ perspectives upon hearing the truth about Anna’s past will not make him popular, however his decisions are well thought through, much as his own father’s would have been and both he and Anna know the full depths of the risk they are taking.

Trying to look back dispassionately when I had finished my journey with this book, I could only come to the conclusion that there really were no winners in this generational saga. Even though the story had traversed many decades and Anna had even crossed the ocean in a bid for freedom, a new beginning and peace of mind, she never seemed able to escape the thoughts that dominated her waking hours, nor the visions of the terrible things she had witnessed, which were locked in her head waiting for when she closed her eyes at night. So many damaged lives and too many wasted opportunities to ever afford peace of mind. There was to be no forgiveness or lifting of the burden of guilt with Anna locking the experiences away in a place where only she could find them, no one had seen past the facade she had created, to offer the help and solace she needed to set herself free. However, after finally listening to Anna recount her experiences and stories out loud, there seemed to be a palpable sense of relief, the gentle sigh and release of a long-held breath and the sudden lifting of a burden of guilt, with the knowledge that her life would and indeed, should, be judged by others. For Lauren, the realisation that her elderly neighbour has a past she is finding it difficult to even contemplate accepting and knowing what her own conscience is telling her she should do, has placed her in an almost impossible situation, given the completely opposite reaction of her son Freddie, who is open-minded enough to play devil’s advocate and get both sides of the story out into the public domain.

Given the vast plethora of WWII books I have read over a relatively short period of time, I am always amazed at the many diverse storyline’s authors are able to come up with. The Woman Outside The Walls definitely has that defining difference which made it unique, interesting and intriguing.

What always makes reading such a wonderful experience for me, is that with each and every book, I am taken on a unique and individual journey, by authors who can fire my imagination, stimulate my senses and stir my emotions. Whilst for me personally, this book had the power to evoke so many feelings, I’m sure I won’t have felt the same way about the potential outcome of this storyline as the last reader, nor probably the next, so this really is an experience you need to have for yourself and see where your thoughts lead you!

In Germany in 1942, seventeen year old Anna conceals her pregnancy. She is unwed and her baby’s father was killed, so she goes to a special maternity home where her baby will be given to a family. She falls in love with her perfect baby and is heartbroken when he is taken away. Desperate to escape her grief, she takes a position as a prison secretary. Now, decades later in 2016, Anna is a kind elderly woman and no one knows a thing about her past. Will the truth set her free or destroy her?

When I saw this book being compared to “The Nightingale”, I knew I had to read it! I am a huge fan of historical fiction set during World War II. It always shocks me to read how human beings treated each other. Although I have read quite a few books on this subject, I thought this one was unique. I won’t give any spoilers, but I will say this was an incredibly thought-provoking story. Told in dual timelines, it asked the question just what would I do to survive? I have chills just thinking about it ❤️

Thank you to Netgalley, Suzanne Goldring and Bookouture for the ARC and your spot! “The Woman Outside the Walls” is out NOW!