Vendor
	Fletcher Agency Yona Levin
Original language
English

SHADOWS OF BERLIN

David Gillham

A captivating novel of a Berlin girl on the run from the guilt of her past and the boy from Flatbush, Brooklyn who loves her

1955 in New York City, the city of instant coffee, bagels at Katz’s Deli, new-fangled TVs. But in the Perlman’s walk-up in Chelsea, the past is as close as the present. Rachel came to Manhattan in a wave of displaced Jews who managed to survive the horrors of war. Her Uncle Fritz fleeing with her, Rachel hoped to find freedom from her pain in New York and in the arms of her new American husband, Aaron.

But this child of Berlin and daughter of an artist cannot seem to outrun her guilt in the role of American housewife, not until she can shake the ghosts of her past. And when Uncle Fritz discovers, in a dreary pawn shop, a lost painting of Rachel’s mother, Rachel’s memories begin to terrorize her, forcing her to face the choices she made to stay alive – choices that might be her undoing.

From the cafes of war-torn Germany to the incandescent lights of Broadway, Shadows of Berlin lyrically explores survival, redemption and the way we learn to love and forgive across impossible divides.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

David R. Gillham is the New York Times bestselling author of City of Women and Annelies. He studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California before transitioning into fiction. After moving to New York City, Gillham spent more than a decade in the book business, and he now lives with his family in Western Massachusetts.

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Book Published 2022-04-01 by Sourcebooks Main content page count: 0 Pages

Available products

Book

Published 2022-04-01 by Sourcebooks

Main content page count: 0 Pages

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Issue: December 1, 2021

Shadows of Berlin.
By David R. Gillham
Apr. 2022. Sourcebooks/Landmark, $26.95 (9781728250441)

“Unlike her mother, an artist who died in a German concentration camp, Rachel Perlman managed to survive the war and is now, in 1955, settled in New York, married to a "nice Jewish boy" from Flatbush. Yet the "shadows of Berlin," where she lived as a "U-Boat"—a Jew hiding in plain sight in a desperate attempt to evade capture—continue to enshroud her life. Unable to reveal the depth of her survivor guilt to anyone in New York, from her psychiatrist to her in-laws, who treat her as a curious "specimen from a blackened planet," Rachel struggles silently with "the muscularity of her fear and shame." Then her Uncle Fritz, complicit in what happened in Berlin, reveals that he has found one of Rachel's mother's paintings, and the power of that painting, as well as its subject—a woman who both saved and helped damn Rachel during the war—brings about a catharsis and a possible path to redemption. Echoes of Sophie's Choice reverberate throughout Gillham's novel, but he makes it his own with both the crisply detailed portrait of postwar New York and the compelling U-Boat story.”

Trauma and survivor’s guilt haunt a young woman in Gillham’s stunning latest (after Annelies). Berlin-born Rachel Perlman, 29, lives in New York City in 1955 with her American husband, Aaron, having fled Europe after WWII. Gillham flashes back to the years before the war, with Rachel (born Rashka Morgenstern) living comfortably in Berlin with her widowed artist mother until the anti-Jewish laws strip them of their possessions and her mother’s livelihood. Rachel and her mother go underground and live as what are known colloquially as “U-boats,” or Jews hiding in plain sight. They’re caught in 1944, and to save themselves from being sent to a concentration camp, Rachel is pushed into helping her mother’s former muse Angelika identify other U-boats. Now, in New York, Rachel struggles to be a conventional wife, while being terrorized by nightmares and visions of her deceased mother and others. After her uncle discovers her mother’s shocking portrait of Angelika, Rachel’s painful memories of Berlin peak into overdrive. Gillham’s use of Berlin’s cafés and New York’s walk-ups, restaurants, and parks is superb, and the generous sprinkling of Yiddish in the text adds a layer of richness. While the story is a tribute to resilience and starting over, it doesn’t shy away from the hurt that adults can bring to children. This is heart-wrenching and memorable.

CITY OF WOMEN:
UK - Penguin Books
Italian - Piemme
Dutch - Mistral
Chinese (simplified) - Beijing Heping Yahua Cultural Communications
Portuguese - Editora Schwarcz
Hebrew - Matar Triwaks
Hungarian - Alexandra Konyveshaz
Turkish – Neo Basim Ve Yayincilik
Lithuanian - Tyto Alba

*Translation rights with PRH

ANNELIES:
Russian - Publishing House"Text"
Serbian - Vulkan Izdavastvo
Spanish - Editorial Planeta Mexicana
Romanian - Corint Books

*Translation rights with PRH

“Gillham is a powerful storyteller, and Annelies is marbled with spare eloquence that captures the absurdity of life after the camps. . . . A novel that reminds the world to remember Anne Frank is most welcome.” —USA Today

“A haunting what-if.” —Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author of We Were the Lucky Ones

“Not only a poignant reminder of all that was lost during the war, but a vivid, searching exploration of what it meant to exist in the aftermath.” —Jessica Shattuck, New York Times bestselling author of The Women in the Castle

"I can’t wait for Gillham’s next novel—play it again, Sam.”
—Stephen King

“The writing is a great mix of the literary and commercial, page-turning and suspenseful, with a morally complex, intelligent heroine at its center. If you’re a fan of well-written historical novels in the vein of Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, this one is for you.”
—Slate

“Philip Kerr and Alan Furst have outdone their literary counterparts. Now, with his first novel, City of Women, David R. Gillham joins their rank.”
—Charles Finch, USA Today

“Gillham’s writing is often stunning . . . The characters are complex . . . Deeply felt and mercilessly real.”
—The Plain Dealer, Cleveland

“A meticulously researched and beautifully told love story—and a remarkable look at life in Germany during World War II.”
—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“[A] stunning debut . . . Transcendent prose.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“As impossible to put down as it is to forget.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An exemplary model of historical fiction generously laced with romance, suspense, and exciting plot twists.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“A thriller of searing intensity that asks the most urgent of questions—how to love, who to trust, what can be saved in the very darkest of times. . . . Utterly compelling.”
—Margaret Leroy, New York Times bestselling author of The Soldier’s Wife

“A moving and masterful debut . . . Powerful and piercingly real. You won’t soon forget these characters.”
—Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife