City of Women takes place during the time of the German Third Reich. Nazi Germany has already declared war on the Soviet Union and millions of men are engaged in brutal combat on the Eastern Front. The attention of the book mainly focuses on the women of Berlin at this time.
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A lovely young German housewife Sigrid Schroder is the ideal women of the age. She is stunningly beautiful, sexy and childless. She has a husband, but is away fighting on the cold Russian plains. She is engaged in the hardships of the war and is doing her part to be a good German. Sigrid has dark secret, she is having an affair with a Jewish man and becomes infatuated with him. Her romance will continue and she will eventually look away from the Reich's treatment of Jews and start assisting those in need. Her lover will go away, but she is set and determined to find him again and do whatever it takes to get him. This will lead to consequences.
Sigrid's neighbors notice her strange routines and feel she is assisting the enemy. She will be faced with many life changing choices.
This is a book about womens' daily lives in Berlin during the Second World War. It goes deeper then just regular home front duties, for this work shows the morals of the Berlin women and their secret sex lives. Overall this book has a little of everything from war, fear, sex, to helping the underclass.
Best part of story, including ending:
Sigrid is an emotional woman. One will clearly see how her emotions will take over her logic. This is a book for men and women, for as a man it helps me to understand the mentality of women. Yes times can change but human nature is always the same.
Best scene in story:
When the book shows how women reacted when the city of Berlin was nearly completely empty of young men. how they needed love and affection especially during the hardships of war.
Opinion about the main character:
Sigrid is a complex woman a woman ahead of her time. She is almost as a women of the 1990s transplanted back into Nazi Germany. This creates a very interesting twist to her life and the events at the time.
