Well-developed characters bring new life to a familiar and frightening story.
In this historical novel, two extended German families are torn apart by conflicting loyalties during the rise of Nazism.
Claus Diedrich “Diech” Wessel, the youngest of nine children, was born in Ahrensflucht, Germany, a small village by the North Sea. After digging trenches in the military during World War I, he decides to never again participate in another war. When he returns home, he finds work as a carpenter’s apprentice, which he gradually builds into a career. In the fall of 1922, Diech marries Marie Lucia “Mimi” Hornbostel, and the couple moves in with Mimi’s parents on her family’s farm in Westersode. Their son, Karl-Heinz “Heinzie” Wessel, is born in 1923, but the German economy is fragile, and there’s little opportunity for Diech to buy his own land. Mimi has family living in Absecon, New Jersey, and in 1927, the Wessels cross the Atlantic. Despite confronting some early anti-immigrant hostility, they begin creating their own American dream. Back in Germany, members of the extended Wessel family worry about the rise of Adolf Hitler, who becomes chancellor in 1933. Diech’s brother Fish writes to him: “Who are we but ordinary people caught up in a massive shift, like an earthquake….What can we do but ride out the storm and hope for the best?” From here, the novel—a fictionalized version of author Wessel’s own family history—becomes more ominous and relevant as readers watch the gradual indoctrination of the German populace; Heinzie’s cousin and best friend in Germany, for instance, proudly joins the Hitler Youth. After Mimi returns, in 1934, to her home country with Heinzie and his younger brother Louie to care for her recently widowed mother, readers will find it chilling to observe the fully Americanized Heinzie become a young Nazi. Although the historical details of book burnings and Kristallnacht, portrayed here, are well-known, the author’s strength is in his portrayal of ordinary Germans swept into the increasing horror—some actively, others passively—while others are stilled by fear.
Well-developed characters bring new life to a familiar and frightening story.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.
A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.
In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772775
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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