Sigrid Schröder is a good German woman. She works as a typist while her husband serves on the front line in Russia. She lives with her mother-in-law to economize. She donates to the war effort. She goes through her days with her head down, no longer seeing the destruction around her, but when a young girl from her building begs for help, Sigrid can't ignore the plea. That one small action sparks Sigrid's repressed passion and she can no longer live with the guilt of complacency.

CITY OF WOMEN is difficult to read because the subject matter is distressing and because of the ambiguity of the characters and their actions. Nothing is black or white but all the varying shades of grey in between to match the perpetually grey, winter sky of the story. I find stories like this hard to get through and I need to put it down and walk away from it occasionally. Not because it's badly written but because it's painful to put myself into that time and place with these people for long periods of time.

Set in Berlin during World War II, the story asks the haunting questions of what is the right thing to do. The ambiguous nature of this question leaves many grey areas and because there is no one clear answer, the characters are hard to connect with. The storytelling method leaves many of the internal thoughts out, giving a linear action of events which allows the reader to interpret the actions for themselves. This is wonderful for the speed and fluidity of the story, but creates a distance between reader and character.

Sigrid is a very difficult character to connect with. She's emotionally isolated with no true friends of confidants. Her actions are not always morally sound and her motivations are questionable. I didn't find her likable, but I did find her interesting. Interesting enough that I had to find out what her choice would be. Even at the end of the story, I didn't like her but I did respect her choice.

CITY OF WOMEN isn't for the faint of heart or for those who see the world in clearly defined lines of what is right and wrong, but it is a story that will move you, break your heart, and reaffirm your faith in humanity. It will also leave you awake wondering what you would have done.

Book Summary

It is 1943—the height of the Second World War. With the men taken by the army, Berlin has become a city of women. And while her husband fights on the Eastern Front, Sigrid Schröder is, for all intents and purposes, the model soldier’s wife: She goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law, all the while ignoring the horrific immoralities of the regime.

But behind this façade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former Jewish lover, who is now lost in the chaos of the war.

Sigrid’s tedious existence is turned upside down when she finds herself hiding a mother and her two young daughters—whom she believes might be her lover’s family—and she must make terrifying choices that could cost her everything.