The Devil Comes To Bonn By Jennifer Harris- A Historical Fiction Novel

 

A novel about moral ambiguity that reflects the #MeToo movement

 

Book Summary

2015. Stella, a professor and historian, comes to the beautiful and ancient city of Bonn, Germany, for a World Heritage conference. With things at home tearing at the seams, she is determined to pretend all is well. At least, until she is assaulted over a trivial matter by another delegate, Professor Giovanni Costa. Bewildered, Stella descends into a shadowy observer, slowly becoming an obsessed stalker. When she meets the elderly Hildegard on a park bench by the River Rhine she is drawn into her wartime story, little seeing the similarities to her own situation.

1941. Hildegard, new wife to Kurt and student of architecture, surrenders to the inevitable; she needs a job for them to pay their rent. Interviewing for a hotel post, she does not realise her life now is off course, running on a track destined to collide with the sinister Fuhrer himself. Although repulsed, she must play along with the Fatherland ideals—to show anything but enthusiasm would not only leave her without a job but probably worse circumstances. She is thrust into the role of maid to Hitler in the infamous room 106 in a hotel he visited more than 70 times. She is no longer able to hide away from reality in her studies. Moving forward is the only option, no matter how dark it gets.

With the story switching between 2015 and 1941, Stella and Hildegard face questions of survival, identity, love and meaning as they juggle moral ambiguities in a world of elusive justice.

Book Details

ISBN: 9781803137629 (Paperback)

ASIN: B0CCYMJ6V6 (Kindle edition)

Page Count: 328

Release Date: July 26, 2023

Publisher: Troubador Publishing

Genre: Fiction | Historical Fiction

****I received a complimentary book from publishers, publicists, NetGalley, book tours, and or authors.  A review was not required and all opinions and ideas expressed are my own.****

My Review

The Devil Comes to Bonn is a duel timeline novel set in the years of 1941 and 2015. This book centers on two women who are faced with the question of Moral Ambiguity in their lives. Both are very conflicted about men around them who are lacking the ability to make ethical decisions. 

Stella a professor in 2015 meets an elderly woman named Hildegard at a World Heritage Conference in Bonn, Germany. While there, Stella has a terrible run-in with a “famous” professor whom she has an altercation with. From there she becomes absolutely obsessed with getting back at Professor Costa to make him pay. This part of the story was weird and kind of creepy how she stalked him, even though she should have pressed charges. She goes through a lot as she deals with him.

Hildegard’s story was fascinating to me. She was living in Germany in 1941. She gets a job as a maid at the Rheinhotel Dreesen. She is assigned to be the maid for the Fuhrersuite where Adolph Hitler would come and stay. Hildegard is disgusted at doing this job and also intimated and scared. Soon she becomes involved with a revolutionary group fighting against Hilter and the Nazis. 

This story comes down to making decisions in our lives and having the courage to do the right thing. It’s also a matter where readers have to decide who the villains and heroes really are. It’s also a story about women who gather their strength so as not to be pushed around anymore. The Devil Comes to Bonn is a powerful story that will make you look at people and their motives in a different way.  

****Meet Author Jennifer Harris****

 

Jennifer Harris writes literary fiction inspired by the historic environment—not historical fiction, but fiction set in the contemporary era that responds to the past, remembered either publicly in monuments and memorials, or in subtle, private ways. Her PhD is in Cultural Heritage theory and she has lectured in and researched cultural heritage and museums for many years. She has also run a small museum and worked as a journalist in Australia and London.

Jennifer is from Western Australia and has lived also in France and the UK. In 2020 she relocated to Seattle in the spectacular Pacific Northwest of the USA.

Connect with the author via: Amazon | Goodreads | Website

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