This Terrible Beauty
Book Feature - This Terrible Beauty by Katrin Schumann
HBL Note: Two of my favorite things come together in This Terrible Beauty by Katrin Schumann: books about WWII and books that take place in Chicago. I’ve read a lot of WWII novels, but I’m really starting to like novels that take place in the aftermath of the war. For so long the end of WWII novels would be the end of the war, everyone was liberated and…what? They lived happily ever after? Hardly. This is the story of one woman who is forced to leave her homeland after her husband discovers she’s having an affair, until ten years later when someone from her past reappears. Scroll down to read more.
From the publisher:
On the windswept shores of an East German island, Bettina Heilstrom struggles to build a life from the ashes. World War II has ended, and her country is torn apart. Longing for a family, she marries Werner, an older bureaucrat who adores her. But after joining the fledgling secret police, he is drawn deep into its dark mission and becomes a dangerous man.
When Bettina falls in love with an idealistic young renegade, Werner discovers her infidelity and forces her to make a terrible choice: spend her life in prison or leave her home forever. Either way she loses both her lover and child.
Ten years later, Bettina has reinvented herself as a celebrated photographer in Chicago, but she’s never stopped yearning for the baby she left behind. Surprised by an unexpected visitor from her past, she resolves to return to her ravaged homeland to reclaim her daughter and uncover her beloved’s fate, whatever the cost.
