help me identify this book!

[lorijds]

A friend loaned me a book, and now I can't find it. I just started reading it, and I can't remember the name or author! Help! Not only do I have to replace it, but I really want to read it.

It starts out at the funeral of Jack. His daughter and wife Anna are introduced, they live in Minnesota. The daughter, whose name escapes me, is a professor. Anna is a German immigrant who is apparently not well liked, as none of the townspeople come to the house afterwards to pay their respects.

Then the book switches to Anna as a young woman in Nazi Germany, during the early years. She lives with her overbearing father, Gerhard. She falls in love with a Jewish doctor, Max. She is not Jewish. The Nazis come and ransack the Jewish quarter, Max escapes to her house and then....I lost the book!

The cover has a little girl in a wool peacoat on the front.

Help!!

[Murihiku]

Those Who Saved Us by Jenna Blum?

(I just googled the names and that is what came up.)

[lorijds]

I thought googling it would be too random--guess not! Thanks!

Lori

[Murihiku]

Google is kind of a spoilsport really, isn't it? It makes everything too easy and boring. What would have been much nicer for you is if someone had emailed back "I know that book! I read it too! And I've forgotten--let me just phone my sister in Croatia and get back to you."

I love google but I hate it too.

Anyway, is the book really good? The description I found sounded great.

[lorijds]

I thought it was good. Personal bias, though---I have some common characteristics with one of the characters, in that I have a German language and lit degree, did some postgrad research into the role of women in Germany (although did not stick with the WWII period, but mainly prior to the 20th century) and I have many relatives who lived in Germany during WWII--as normal, everyday Germans. Not Jews. Not resistance fighters. Poor farmers who fought and died for Germany. My favorite aunt (great aunt, really) is a war bride whose brothers were SS officers. So I'm already inclined to be interested in the story from the "other" point of view.

It's sad. Of course. Like that's a surprise, of course a book about Germany during WWII is going to be sad. But I thought it was well written and the story kept me in. I did think the ending seemed hurried--suddenly all these revelations and loose threads that are tied up very neatly and quickly. I still enjoyed it, though, in a melancholy sort of way, and I would recommend it to a friend.