If you love WWII books about concentration camps in WWII this is one you should read.

Thanks Netgalley and Bookouture.

All thoughts and opinions are my own and are not influenced by anyone elee

I've read numerous books in this genre, as it's one of my favorites. However, this book didn't work for me. Sadly, the storyline felt a bit too familiar from others I've read over the years. Nothing in the book was well defined. The beginning/middle/end seemed jumbled together, perhaps due to the reverse chronology. The dual timeline didn't work in this book the way I've seen it done by so many other authors. The dialogue felt stilted. There was nothing about this book that will stick with me now that the last page is turned.

This book will appeal to readers who like historical fiction, especially World War II. Written in dual timelines, Germany during the 1940's and London 2017. It is the story of Anna a German woman working as an office administrator in a concentration camp and the guilt she lives with for the rest of her life.
It is an emotional story about survival, guilt and love with a cast of well drawn characters and an interesting plot.
4****

This book tells the story of Anna and the unlikely events leading up to her days as a woman in her nineties. She trains as a secretary during prewar time, but events occur that change the course of her life, which she takes desperate steps to hide. She's befriended her next door neighbor, who is also a widow, and her family. Her neighbor discovers her secret, and they must decide how to move forward. This book had me wrapped up in wondering how Anna was going to recover from her past, and also trying to guess what the different parts of her past were. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction and a good puzzle.

This book was good for the most part. I liked the characters and subject matter but the story seemed to lag at times. Margie was a very strong woman and her story was very moving but I would have liked to know more about the time she worked in the camp instead of waiting till the end of the book to find out what she did and how she got her scar. Overall it is a book worth reading and enjoying.

It's with a heavy heart I wrote this review, having read a good number of this authors other books and loved them this one just did not do it for me it lacked a beginning middle and end , it was rather jumbled up also if you didn't know German you could have been rather lost I've loved her others hopefully this is a one off.

Absolutely gripping storyline that I could not put down, we read about Margie and her past life as a German during wartime and all she endures, a story which is so descriptive you feel you are there with her, heartbreak and hardship suffered by many Margie has kept her story to herself for over 70 years, her neighbour and son whom she thinks of as family are curious to know more as Freddy is doing a project about the war at school and Margie is also helping him progress with his German, she is reluctant to talk about the horrors she has seen until she finally feels brave enough to ask Freddy to tell everyone her story
Brilliantly written and an emotional storyline
Highly recommend this book

2.5 stars - the saving grace of this book was that it kept me interested enough to continue reading, but it's a bit of a mess. The reverse chronology and back-and-forth between past and present doesn't work as effectively as it should, and the dialogue is pretty unnatural and terrible, especially in the 2017 storyline. There is far better historical fiction that tells similar stories.

Spread over a time-span of 77 years with each chapter varying from different characters perspectives and in the past and present, The Woman Outside the Walls is a well-crafted novel that tells the story of a woman with multiple identities and one major story to tell. Annaleise/Margarete/Etta/Margie has lived through her own personal hells and a lifetime of grief and regret thanks her country and the war and mayhem it created.

You will read about Anna’s life during the war, post-war in the ruins of Hamburg and her adult life in England. The author does a great job at making the story personal no matter what part of her story you are reading. This was a very humbling book and showed that there were ordinary citizens whose lives were never the same again thanks to the Nazi Regime. They, too, experienced their own trials and tribulations. But what is it, that haunts Anna’s dreams and thoughts? Albeit predictable early on, finding out Anna’s story is told in such a clever way that you will find the book hard to put down. And you will ask yourself: What would you do to survive a war? And a post-war where death is knocking at your door every day? How would you, if ever, silence the ghosts of your pasts?

Also posted on Goodreads!

Any fan of historical fiction, or of a ripping good read will be beguiled by this book. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Set in two timelines this tells the story of Anna in the second world war and in 2016. Post war she is trying to survive in Hamburg desperate to find her family. She comes across a group who take her in, she is only seventeen and has been through so much. We then get Anna's wartime story.
In 2016 (and onwards) Anna is ninety and her neighbour wonders where she is- Anna has fled yet again but got to the bus stop and doesn't know where to go. Her past is coming to the forefront of her mind now she has lost Reg her husband several years ago and feels she should tell someone before it's too late. Her neighbour's son is learning German- the language Anna spoke when she was at the bus stop. Could this and his new interest in history bring Anna’s memories out at last?
I really enjoyed this, it's a wartime story in a very different way which to me made it more personal as we get to know Anna in more than one scenario. There’s a warmth of storytelling and wonderful characterization. Enough description to envisage the scenes without being overly wordy makes this a page turner of a read. We can probably guess in part as to Anna’s backstory but none of us can really know what the Anna’s of this world went through, all we know is that so very many did so, few surviving. An emotive story very well told and one to perhaps make the younger generation think for a while.

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i don’t have much to say about this one — i feel like i’ve already read this story a million times, and i hoped there would be something innovative about it, but there wasn’t. the characters were very plain and i just didn’t mesh well with goldring’s writing. there’s nothing terrible about it, but it’s just perfectly forgettable.

This is the second book I've read by Ms. Goldring, so I'm familiar with her style of writing and how she lays out her books (meaning dual timelines). "The Woman Outside the Walls" didn't work for me. For once I actually preferred the modern (2016) storyline opposed to the WWII timeline, though even there I had a number of issues (why would putting something on YouTube be a good idea - with so many trolls online, it's just asking for trouble, especially telling Anna's story). While I read with a bit of fascination (and horror) about Anna's plight in Hamburg, it wasn't enough to engage me with her storyline. There was a bit of hinting about Anna's life before returning to Hamburg, but the Publisher's summary says she becomes a secretary at a prison, so the reader can guess what her secret was. While I think Ms. Goldring's Author's Note and the Reader's Group questions interesting, this book just didn't grip me like Ms. Goldring's other book did.
I will NOT be posting a review on Goodreads or Amazon, though I did post a rating on Goodreads.