In a world torn apart by war, where husbands, sons and fathers march off to
the front-line in the service of the nation, sometimes to return wounded
and sometimes never to return at all, what is a woman to do? That is the
central question that David Gillham addresses in his book, City of Women.

Sigrid is just a regular hausfrau, a housewife, whose husband has been
called to the front to fight a war that the German broadcasts claim, is
almost won. Cooped up in an apartment, with a mother-in-law who constantly
bickers and blames Sigrid for just about everything, the only solace Sigrid
finds are in the hours spent as a typist at work or when she spends her
time at the theatre, not really paying attention to the film being screened
but instead having an extra-marital affair, and all the excitement in
entails, in the back row of the theatre.

It is on one such day when Sigrid is by herself in the theatre, that a
young girl suddenly seats herself beside Sigrid and begs her to say that
the she has been with Sigrid in the theatre since the beginning of the
show. And when men from the Gestapo walk into the hall, checking
identification papers, Sigrid must make a choice… What is she to do?

It is this answer that plummets her into an alternate life that she’ll
begin to live, by maintaining the façade of a good hausfrau but really
rebelling against all that is ugly in the world. She will learn that none
of the relationships are really the way they seem to be; for betrayals are
found in the company of the best of friends and lovers while friendship and
rescue comes from the most unexpected places. She is after all in a city of
women, a place left with little to look forward if you aren’t fighting
back.

There were a number of moments that I liked in the book. While it wasn’t
wholly unpredictable, given its setting, the narrative is strong and makes
the book a fast read. At times I didn’t like Sigrid or Erica, the young
girl Sigrid takes to mothering, but given that I like the premise of the
story and to see Holocaust from the POV of a German, it made for a 4 star
read.

Recommended to those looking for some World War II or Holocaust fiction. ( )

This is an intelligent, taut thriller set in WWII Berlin. Sigrid's husband is fighting on the Eastern Front. She's a stenographer, living with her hard-to-please mother-in-law. Life goes on, in its drab and difficult way until she meets and falls in love with Egon, a Jew: and at more or less the same time, Ericha, who works with a group who hide Jews from the authorities, then helps move them on. But who can you trust in this game of cat-and-mouse? Is your enemy always your enemy? And can your friend be trusted? This is a morally suspenseful read, coloured with telling imagery, and understated conversations. Perhaps the ending was rather rushed, rather tidied up. But I was eager to turn the pages, though not so eager to leave the drab, dismal and terrifying world into which I had been thrust. ( )

I get that people liked the setting (certainly many things were well-written), and I get that the suspense is well-done, but... well, you kinda picked a suspense-guaranteed setting. Is it worth getting a ground-level discussion of complicity wrapped into a story that will keep people reading? Does that redeem the use of a complicated, terrible piece of history as a sexy backdrop? I don't know, but I have a bit of that fast-food aftertaste that sometimes accompanies popular cinema, as if I've been cheated.

I see reading here that I should have expected a romance/thriller, but this book was passed on to me and I never read the back. I thought, instead, I'd get stories about the women in Berlin, with realistic perspectives. Here I was unequivocally disappointed. ( )

Very good writing.WWII novel of Berlin where married aryan woman falls in love with Jewish man. At the same time she inadvertently becomes involved in hiding Jews. This book has more sex scenes than I need to read and the love between Sigurd and Econ seems more like lust, but it’s another facet of WWII and reads well. ( )

I really liked this novel. First of all, the characters are realistic, even if not really likable (that being said, I did like Sigrid). There's no sugarcoating, especially of the main heroine, whose motivations are often obscured, but this does not mean they are less believable. I actually thought this is what it would probably be like for the most, and is kind of refreshing after reading dozens of novels where similar characters working for the resistance seem to be the embodiment of heroism and nobility.

The whole atmosphere of the wartime Berlin is depicted wonderfully, full of disillusioned inhabitants still gripping on to the empty promises of a great victory which would never happen.

The love story was a bit of a drag, with Sigrid constantly coming back to her cruel lover who was simply using her all the time. But if he hadn't been like this, the story would have less depth and would be a lot more melodramatic. I think it gave this extra dimension to her character, reminding me of Sylvia Plath's Daddy, Sigrid having fallen for a man who is, simply put, a brute (no matter the circumstances).

On the other hand, I felt like Sigrid was too lucky. In reality, it is very unlikely she would so easily get out of all the troubles the way she did in this story. This was a little too much, even if allow for the licentia poetica. Also, the end of the novel left a lot to be desired. The stories of some of the more interesting characters felt unfinished. Also, by the end of the novel I really wanted to know what would happen to Sigrid after, would she live to see the end of the war in Berlin and the Soviet invasion together with the atrocities German women had to endure later on. ( )