Shadows of Berlin - David R. Gillham

Author: David R. Gillham

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An excellent piece of literary fiction with well-carved characters and well-thought-out themes. It covers the post-WWII period, with some flashbacks set during the war itself. The audiobook enhances the experience.

Story:

New York, 1955. Rachel is married to a young Jewish hotel manager named Aaron. She hopes to find solace in this marriage and escape the demons of her younger years in WWII-era Germany, as a U-boat Jew struggling to stay alive and away from the Nazis. But with the ghost of her mother constantly around her and the memories of the war always fresh, Rachel is stuck in the past and hopeless about the future. Aaron meanwhile is battling his own inner feelings with respect to the war and his wife. Will this young couple be able to overcome their individual struggles and cleanse their marriage of the shadows that hang over it?

The story is narrated mainly from Rachel’s limited third person pov.

The main characters are carved quite well. Rachel especially is such a layered character with her deep-rooted guilt over the past affecting every action of hers in the present. Aaron’s character begins in an oafish way but soon his personality starts revealing its shades. He is understanding in many ways and stubborn in many others. I liked his character much more than I had expected because a male character is rarely shown with such complicated yet realistic emotions. The rest of the characters range from intense to annoying to loveable to caricatured. The NY Jews (except, to a certain extent, for Aaron) felt more stereotypical than the German Jews, but as this is a story based in the 1950s, I am not sure how much of the ‘stereotype’ had its basis in historical facts.

The German flashbacks reveal a part of the WWII not commonly found in this genre. I hadn’t read about the U-boat Jews, the German Jews who survived the war submerged below the surface of daily life. Most of the portrayal of life as a German Jew in the 1940s was quite interesting to read. The NY segment was almost equally appealing, primarily due to the focus on PTSD and other mental health issues faced by Rachel. Aaron too struggled with his own version of survivor’s guilt as a Jew who didn’t face as many terrors as his German counterparts did. While this makes the book pretty serious, the author balances these dark topics with a healthy dose of humour and many light-hearted scenes.

I found the story built up wonderfully. What begins as myriad pieces of individual, seemingly unrelated subplots comes together into a perfectly cohesive whole as the book reaches its finale. There is no linear plotline and not even flashbacks to fixed points in the past. The narration goes back and forth to various historical time points and when this is added to the present narrative of 1955, the story fleshes itself out and reveals its depth and scope.

On the flip side, there is a lot of rambling at times. The pace is quite slow, though this is to be expected in literary fiction. A part of the writing seemed anachronistic for the time period.

I got strong vibes of Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch” from this book. The stories aren’t similar at all but in both novels, a painting is at the centre of the action, both are strongly character-driven, both have characters struggling with their pasts and trying to make peace with their presents, both deal with prejudice, both deal with PTSD, and both have grey characters than clear-cut black or white ones. I suppose “Shadows of Berlin” comes out the winner in comparison for completing within 416 pages what “The Goldfinch” required 750+ pages to accomplish. And it has a better ending.

The audiobook, clocking at 16 hours, is narrated by Suzanne Toren. She does an outstanding job keeping this complicated book together. With multiple timelines, a whole load of characters and various languages (English, German, Yiddish, and possibly French), her task wasn’t easy but she handles it extremely well. At the same time, I wish the writing had incorporated the time points to which the story goes in the past. There is no reference made to the time period and it is only as the events in that chapter unfold that we understand which timeline the story is in. I would definitely recommend the audio version but only to those comfortable with the audio format. Newbie listeners might find themselves a bit lost in the proceedings.

I think I would have liked this book even if I had read it, but the audiobook definitely turned my experience into an even better one as the slow pacing didn’t bother me as much.

My thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the ALC of “Shadows of Berlin”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.