Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s mistress were friends. The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna’s.

Plunged into the world of the “ordinary” Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante—and a tyrant’s lover—Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. With Hannes’s help, she retraces the path of two women who met as teenagers, shared a friendship that spanned the years that Eva Braun was Hitler’s mistress, yet never knew that the men they loved had opposing ambitions.

Eva’s story reveals that she never joined the Nazi party, had Jewish friends, and was credited at the Nuremberg Trials with saving 35,000 Allied lives. As Anna’s journey leads back through the treacherous years in wartime Germany, it uncovers long-buried secrets and unknown reaches of her heart to reveal the enduring power of love in the legacies that always outlast war.

The Munich Girl is an absorbing, historical memoir-esq novel, that interweaves fact with fiction, and will have you learning about historical events, whilst enjoying a beautifully told story.

The book follows the life stories of three women. Anna, who at fifty years old is just discovering information about her mother that has been kept secret for many years, her mother Peggy, (who at the start of the book has recently died), and Eva Braun.

If you’re not up to date on your history of World War Two, then you are probably wondering who Eva Braun is. Eva is the woman who stood at Hitlers side throughout the war. She was his mistress, the woman in the shadows. They were together for 17 years, before they finally married, and then committed suicide shortly afterwards.

I knew of Eva, but the detail that has gone into the story is phenomenal, and helps people understand more about the woman behind the name.

This is more than just about Eva though. It is about one woman’s quest to discover the truth about her parents, especially her mother’s past. Anna is consumed by her mother’s past, and digs deep into it by doing a lot of research. This is when she discovers that her mother was a long-time friend of Eva’s, and her interest in the past is heightened.

Phyllis has combined a rich plot, full of believable and touching characters, and mixed them together with historical facts to create a gripping book that you will find hard to put down.

The Munich Girl did start off very slowly for me, and I very nearly stopped reading. But, within a few chapters, something about the book held me within its pages, and pushed me to carry on reading. I am very, very grateful that I did.

I love the written word, creative expression, travel — and most of all — the noblest possibilities in the human heart. I’m always curious to discover how history, culture, relationship, spirituality and the natural world influence us and point the way for our human family on its shared journey.

I’ve worked as writer, editor, nurse, tour guide, program director at a Baha’i conference center, taught English to kindergartners in China, and served as instructor for the Long Ridge Writer’s Group. I’ve written for dozens of magazines, including Christian Science Monitor, Ms., and Writer’s Digest, and worked as editor for several publications.

My nonfiction books explore how to create balance between the spiritual and material requirements of our life. I write fiction because, like so much of art, it can help us discover just what shape this balance is taking within our own lives, and where that is leading our heart.

www.phyllisedgerlyring.wordpress.com
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