2018: When ninety-four-year-old Imogen receives a letter addressed to her in neat, unfamiliar handwriting, she notices the postmark is stamped from Germany – and it sends shivers down her spine…
1939: Thirteen-year-old Magda is devastated by the loss of her best friend, shy and gentle Lotte, cruelly snatched from her and sent to a concentration camp – the Star of David sewn on her faded, brown coat. As the Nazi’s power takes hold, Magda realizes she’s not like the other girls in her German village - she hates the fanatical new rules of the Hitler Youth. So Magda secretly joins The White Rose Movement and begins to rebel against the oppressive, frightening world around her.
But when an English RAF pilot lands in a field near Magda’s home she is faced with an impossible choice: to risk the lives of her family or to save a stranger and make a difference in the war she desperately wants to end. Little does she know, her actions will have the power to change the life of another girl, on the other side of enemy lines, forever…
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Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Secret Letter to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Secret Letter by Debbie Rix was inspired by a true wartime story as the authors parents were in the RAF and the Wrens respectively. She has used elements of their story to write what became a beautifully crafted story following two different women and their experiences during World War Two. The brief prologue really sets the scene for the story that unfolds.
In September 2018 Imogen receives a handwritten letter with a German postmark from Magda, a person she has never met. Magda knew Imogen's husband during the war and now all these years later she wishes to commemorate the part he played in a major event in the small town she lives in in the German countryside. Instantly, the reader's instinct is piqued and there are all sorts of questions and ideas running through your mind. You want all the answers immediately but before that can happen an absorbing, tense and emotional story must be told. The book is divided into four distinct parts which begin in 1939 and will eventually bring us up to the present day. But it is the sections set during the war years that make for an interesting, impassioned and fascinating read and one where the sacrifices of so many will long live on in your mind.
The chapters alternate between Magda and Imogen and once you settle into the rhythm of the story and know to expect that each chapter will switch between characters you immerse yourself into the story and are keen to discover how eventually the connections between the two women become apparent. Part one was very much introductory for the first quarter of the book, it was entitled the Phoney War and to be honest not much happened bar the reader getting to know the two girls and their family situation. I suppose it was similar to worldwide events with the war that there was a period of waiting and anticipating to see what the next move should be once war was declared. Once I reached the halfway point I found myself really absorbed in what was going on and starting to deeply care for the characters.
The first section followed Imogen as she was evacuated from Newcastle for fear of the city being bombed. She is moved with her school to the Lake District, she is very much an innocent teenager and I don't think she realised the true extent of what was about to unfold. That her sheltered childhood where she had been provided with everything she wanted would be dramatically altered. She spends the remaining years of her education in the Lake District and her focus does switch to men, Dougie being one but always at the back of her mind is family friend Freddie McMasters. Over several chapters we see how the affects of the war are beginning to be felt in Imogen's life and the same is said for Magda in Germany.
I thought it was brilliant that the author took two women, but both from very different backgrounds and opposites sides of the fence so to speak, and wrote about how different countries and families dealt with the war. We always get to read of English characters and their experiences of war but never German families. It provided a very different slant to war time fiction books and I think Debbie Rix has brought something fresh and innovative to this genre in which I have read many books. It also showed how not every German believed what was happening to their country and the actions of Hitler were right.
Magda has led a sheltered life on her family's farm deep in the Bavarian countryside with Augsburg being the nearest city. Her brother Karl had left Germany to study in England and it is when she receives a letter from him that things begin to change for her. For several years now Hitler and his ideologies have been forced upon the German people with endless propaganda in a bid to indoctrinate the nation and many believe everything he says but the contents of the letter sow a seed in Magda's mind. She begins to realise that all is not as it seems and when her close friend Lotte's family are taken away simply for being Jewish Magda herself starts to rebel. She doesn't want to be part of the Young Maidens, the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth. Nor does she believe in the German's racial superiority over many races especially the Jews. Magda doesn't agree with the new rules enforced upon Germans nor does she think victories should be celebrated. She wants to make a stand as she rightly believes that German citizens were being denied their liberty and their lives because they were Jewish or because of their Catholic faith saw them being at odds with what the Nazi's wanted everyone to believe. Yet the character of Otto makes Magda be more than wary of broadcasting her views.
Initially I found both Magda and Imogen to be quite immature and difficult to warm to but it is only as the story moves forward over the course of the war and these two young girls develop into young women both with incredible spirit, heart and determination that the reader comes to understand what connections in terms of personality they share. They mature into responsible adults deeply affected by what they witness but both equally determined to fight for what is right and to do their bit to see an end to such bloodshed and unnecessary evil. I thought Magda's parents, in particular her mother Kathe, weren't very clued in as to what Magda was up to. Kathe lived in a perpetual state of fear and she didn't like that Magda was thinking outside the box.
On the one hand I found Magda to be silly for putting her family in unnecessary danger. Maybe she should have just toed the line and fallen into step with what was required of Germans at the time just to make it through the war unscathed. But then I thought maybe she was very brave and deserved admiration for standing true to her principles. Life was uncertain and all anyone could do was go with it but she choose to go against the norm and fight for what she believed in. She helped anyone in need and by doing this various other strands of the story developed.
Both women had very different experiences during the war but to me Magda was the stand out character and she was truly extraordinary and remarkable for what she did. She is stubborn and wilful and at times you will find yourself wanting to shake her but then you see her loyalty and firm belief holding strong and true. She was selfless in some of her actions and the further her story developed during the later years of the war I was still constantly guessing as to how she does end up with connections to Imogen as suggested during the prologue. As for Imogen once she completed her first year studying architecture signing up for war work became compulsory. It was fascinating the work she was engaged in and when we are first introduced to her I never thought this was what she would end up doing as she seemed so childish and never one to settle to anything.
It was clear a lot of detailed research had been undertake by the author particularly in relation to Imogen's war work and again it's something I haven't really seen written about before in this genre. Of course romance does very much feature in this story, both for Magda and Imogen, because life and love do continue despite the ongoing horror and devastation. With regard to Imogen I thought she was being hasty and should have sought answers but when certain secrets are revealed you are left with a smile on your face as you understand just how clever the author has been.
The Secret Letter was a slow burner for me but once it found its footing the story really got going and I found myself racing through the latter half of the book more than keen to discover how all the dots would be joined up. I had my initial thoughts as to how the two strands of the story related to each other. There was a slight apprehension on my part that the ultimate reveal would be a disappoint or would fall a little flat but that wasn't the case at all. Instead it all felt very heart-warming and life affirming and it brought the story full circle with all loose ends being tied up. By the mid way point of the book, I truly felt I had travelled back in time and I felt every bit of the characters fear and anguish but also their willingness, boldness and bravery to fight for what is right and to always stand true to your principles and beliefs. The Secret Letter is an impressive read from Debbie Rix who is an expert at bringing the past to life and who has written a book which reminds us to never forget the sacrifices so many made in the past so we could live the way we do today.
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