La librairie des livres interdits

Marc Levy

Description

From the award-winning, USA Today Bestselling Historical Fiction Author, Ellie Midwood

Winner of the International Book Award contest Readers' Favorite in the Historical Fiction category (2016)

"Standartenführer's Wife": This is a story of Annalise Meissner, a young German Jew with long time ago falsified papers, living a carefree life in pre-war Berlin. A talented ballerina, she comes from a wealthy family and at first doesn't want to concern herself with the changes her country starts undergoing under the new Nazi regime. However, when the oppressions against the Jewish population begin, she realizes that she can't be a silent bystander and swears to help her people in any way possible.
She falls in love and gets married to her father's longtime friend, Standartenführer Heinrich Friedmann, who even though he works for SD – the Reich Secret Service – seems to share her views, and soon Annalise learns why. Her new husband turns out to be a counterintelligence agent working for the US government, and together they start a dangerous game against the sinister Gestapo, trying to save as many lives as they can and not to compromise themselves.
But it's not only the persecuted people Annalise wants to save; she meets the leader of the Austrian SS Gruppenführer Ernst Kaltenbrunner whom everyone seems to fear, but for some reason, Annalise isn't intimidated by the Chief of the Austrian Gestapo and doesn't believe the rumors about his brutality. Gruppenführer Kaltenbrunner isn't hiding the fact that he would love to get this beautiful girl as his mistress, but Annalise, despite the mutual attraction, stays faithful to her beloved husband. However, the risky game she's playing will soon change everything…

"Gruppenführer's Mistress" continues to follow Annalise's story. Caught up in a dangerous game between the Allies and Nazi Germany Secret Service – the RSHA – she's torn between staying faithful to her husband and yielding to the demands of her American superiors and starting a romance with the unpredictable Chief of the RSHA Ernst Kaltenbrunner, who she finds herself attracted to more and more every day…

"War Criminal's Widow": As soon as Annalise, a counterintelligence agent working for the American OSS office, thinks that all the dangers are finally behind, swept away by the protective hand of her high-ranking lover – the Chief of the RSHA Ernst Kaltenbrunner – she has to face an even bigger challenge. With both fronts approaching her quickly collapsing Germany, she has to make a fateful decision: to run from the allied prosecution together with the father of her unborn baby, the man, who the allies consider one of the major war criminals and who they can't wait to bring to justice; or to stay with her husband Heinrich and accept a generous offer from the OSS – a new and free life in the United States…

"Ellie Midwood's The Girl from Berlin is a fast-paced and utterly enthralling novel that chronicles the years leading up to World War II through the eyes of a young ballerina, Annalise Meissner. This novel is meticulously researched, and Annalise's story is so compelling that I became totally engrossed in her life and experiences. Midwood is a master at blending fact and fiction in such a way that I was often tempted to revisit my history books to see which characters were historical personages and which were not. Her writing is seamless and inspired, and I soon forgot that an author was actually the creative force behind Annalise's words... highly recommended." - J.Magnus for Readers' Favorite