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Ellen Keith

Autor von The Dutch Wife

2 Werke 312 Mitglieder 17 Rezensionen Lieblingsautor von 1 Lesern

Werke von Ellen Keith

The Dutch Wife (2018) 281 Exemplare
The Dutch Orphan (2023) 31 Exemplare

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Canada

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My parents grew up in Holland and were 18 when war came to them. For that reason I was very interested in this novel. It was good but somehow on the light side and the characters never fully developed. Two sisters one in the resistance and the other married to a National Socialist Party member are the focus of this novel. Liesbeth has no backbone and drove me crazy as she”didn’t understand” what her husband was involved in. This was about as worked up as I got in this novel. It should have been more.
I did learn about historical events like the concentration camp in Holland in Vught. The hideout in the zoo etc.
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Smits | 3 weitere Rezensionen | Jul 9, 2023 |
Two sisters on two different sides.

Johanna was married to a resistor and Liesbeth was married to a man supporting Hitler.

They always have been close, but this war separated them.

Another thing that separated them was that Liesbeth was trying to become pregnant while Joanna was trying not to become pregnant but did.

We learn of the lives of these two women and the residents of Amsterdam as they struggle through the war to stay alive, to help others, and for the sisters to try to not become estranged even farther because of the secrets they are keeping from each other.

THE DUTCH ORPHAN takes a few chapters to get into, but as you read, as the tension rises, as relationships are strained, and as the story line marvelously moves along it is one you won't want to put down.

It will appeal to historical fiction fans and women fiction fans as the reader gets pulled into the lives of Johanna and Liesbeth in hopes the sisters will become close again and as the reader gets involved with the tense situations of the war.

ENJOY!! 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.
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SilversReviews | 3 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 20, 2023 |
This novel is set primarily in Amsterdam during World War II. Two sisters find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Johanna is a singer who has many Jewish acquaintances among her circle of musicians and performers. She sets out to raise money to help protect the Jews whose lives and livelihoods are more and more constrained. Her sister Liesbeth is married to Maurits, a Nazi sympathizer, and though she doesn’t always agree with his beliefs and behaviour, she doesn’t challenge him because “it wasn’t her role.” The danger increases when a Jewish orphan requires protection. Not trusting Liesbeth, Johanna keeps secrets from her sister, and gradually their once-close bond starts to unravel. Will they be able to reconnect after the war ends?

I found it very difficult to connect with either sister. Liesbeth is weak and shallow; though she has misgivings about the NSB, the Dutch Fascist Party, she becomes involved with a member of the movement. She describes herself as having been selfish as a child, but her actions suggest that she still is. She feels lonely so she betrays someone she loves? She is also stupid, not seeing all the so-obvious clues about the truth behind a man’s job, house, and possessions. Johanna also lacks intelligence. She is on the lookout for an informer but even when she witnesses suspicious behaviour, she dismisses it as a coincidence. Then, when she learns the identity of a bounty hunter, she decides to confront him directly. When that doesn’t end well, she replays the events “examining every detail, trying to figure out where I’d gone wrong”?!

There is a lack of tension at the beginning. Then though there is more later, the reader knows that everything will work out in the end. When one of the sisters finds herself in a dangerous position, it’s amazing how she manages to extricate herself. She indicates she “’had a lot of luck’” and that’s an understatement. A guard takes an interest in her for some vague reason, and a German officer finds her, “an unwashed stranger with a Dutch accent,” but doesn’t question her and, instead, offers her food and accommodation?

There are elements that I found strange and/or annoying. The title is an issue because the orphan does not appear until one-third through the book, and the story is more about the sisters than the child. Every time Willem appears, it seems we are told that he pushes up his glasses “with his middle finger”! The Germans are “hooked” on Pervitin, a methamphetamine, but it’s “perfectly safe”? At one point Johanna states she is in charge of organizing the guest list for secret house concerts, but later it is mentioned that the host “composed the guest list” and “the concert hosts vetted the lists before Jakob and I saw them”? Someone can see a film of a family outing to the beach and recognize the people as Jewish? An anti-Semite would be knowledgeable about a Jewish High Holy Day and say, “’By Rosh Hashanah, the whole city will be Judenrein’”? A woman knows nothing about sewing but “By the third shirt, I’d started to get the knack of it. My hands coaxed the fabric through the machine with ease”?

Some sections are vague. Prisoners were allowed to get a change of clothes to bring with them and to stay in contact with their families? The Germans confiscate bicycles and Johanna’s is taken by an Order Policeman by a canal one evening but she later has it when going to find Dirk?

Characters are introduced and then disappear. Nelly first appears three-quarters through the book and is mentioned ten times and then never again. The fate of some fairly important characters is just mentioned in passing. Is Marijke de Graaf the same woman as appears in the author’s previous novel The Dutch Wife?

Having enjoyed The Dutch Wife, I hoped to like this novel as well. Unfortunately, it is a disappointment. The characters are not engaging and there are just too many holes and inconsistencies. I read a digital galley so perhaps some of these problems have been addressed in the final copy.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski).
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½
 
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Schatje | 3 weitere Rezensionen | Apr 17, 2023 |
What a powerful read, a story of love and loss, and so much pain, as the evil that has roving Europe comes across the boarder of Holland.
Two sisters and a brother, and we follow this family, mainly the sisters. Beginning when their boarder is crossed and one sister is with the resistance, while the others husband joins the the evil that is trying to wipe out a religion, so much hate.
Will these two sisters have a relationship by the end of this war? We are with each of them, and wonder at times if either will survive.
We know how this all works out, but the author gives a personal look at the horrible happenings, and how so many families, men, women and children were affected.
I will be looking for more great reads by Ellen Keith!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Harlequin, and was not required to give a positive review.
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alekee | 3 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 5, 2023 |

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