I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from the Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This Terrible Beauty: A Novel
by Katrin Schumann
Published by Lake Union Publishing on March 1, 2020
Genres: Historical Women's Fiction
Pages: 381
Format: Hardcover
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From the bestselling author of The Forgotten Hours comes an unforgettable story of one woman’s journey to reclaim what she lost in a country torn apart by the devastating legacy of WWII.
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.
This Terrible Beauty by Katrin Schumann is an informative tale of how life was back after World War 2 ended for the German citizens that were stuck on the east side of the wall where Russia was in control.
Could Bettina handle things differently than she did?
Bettina Heilstrom
Bettina is our main character, and the one we follow most of the time. She married when she was young and didn’t have a good marriage. Bettina has done some things that I was okay with, but she could have tried not to give in to her urges of finding a different man. Either that or told the first guy that no, you couldn’t marry him. Just my thoughts here. If she didn’t stray from her marriage, she might have been there for her daughter while she was growing up or not.
What I like about Bettina is that she tries to be a good person and do the right things, even if the right thing for her wasn’t the right thing for her marriage. What I didn’t like about Bettina is that she could have tried to be with her husband more than what she did.
Three Stars
This Terrible Beauty by Katrin Schumann was something that I didn’t expect to happen. Okay, I do have to admit that the only reason I wanted to finish reading it was to see if she got her daughter back. With that explanation, I can’t exactly say anything about that as it is part of the plot of the story. We did go back in time a lot, and it was interesting to see what things were like for a German after World War 2 with the Russians with them in East Germany.
After all that, I am giving it three stars and recommending this book to those who like historical women’s fiction.
Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of This Terrible Beauty by Katrin Schumann.
Until the next time,
About Katrin Schumann
I was born in Germany and grew up in Brooklyn and London—as a consequence, most of my writing explores our search for a sense of belonging, and the struggle to define ourselves in the context of our circumstances. I now live in Boston and Key West, and am the Program Coordinator of the Key West Literary Seminar and Workshops.
My forthcoming novel This Terrible Beauty has been called “luminous and unflinching,” “unputdownable,” and “hard to forget.” It’s a love story about a young woman in 1950s East Germany who is forced to choose between her family and her freedom. Set on an island in the Baltic, it explores the collision of art, love and power in a totalitarian state. It was chosen by SheReads as among the “Most Anticipated Women’s Fiction in 2020.”
My previous novel, The Forgotten Hours—”gut-wrenching,” a “brilliant debut” with a “heart-pounding finish”—was a Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller. I’m also the author of several nonfiction books.
My work has been featured multiple times on TODAY and in Woman’s Day, The London Times and on NPR, as well as other national and international media. For the past ten years I’ve been teaching writing, most recently at GrubStreet and at local prisons through PEN New England. Many moons ago, I was granted the Kogan Media Award for my work at National Public Radio and received academic scholarships to Oxford and Stanford Universities. More recently, I’ve been awarded writing residencies at the VCCA, the Norman Mailer Writers Colony and Vermont Studio Center.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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