I loved the straight chronological narrative by Annaliese’s perspective of being a German around 1939.  Annaliese is a young woman who is swept off her feet by Hans. He’s a doctor wanting to do research.  He sees Hitler’s regime as a way to be able to further his medical research.  He wants to find a homeopathic cure for malaria.  He gets caught up in the violence and depravity that was the Nazis' goal.  Hans pressures Annaliese to be a good German hausfrau and have children.  Then a Russian prisoner named Alexander is sent from Dachau to work in their garden.  Anna’s story then takes a big twist and then after the war ends, yet an even bigger twist occurs.  Then in 1989 the past once again haunts Annaliese and her unknowing son.  We can’t ever escape the past.  Annaliese wasn’t an evil person, but being one that stands by while evil occurs has consequences also.  This book was so good but also unnerving.  It does one of the best jobs of teaching the lesson of the need to take action and face evil.  It was a great story and based on an actual physician whose career mirrors that portrayed by Hans.  I’ll be reading more of Debbie Rix’s books, next up is The Secret Letter.