Helpful Score: 1
This is the story of the Richter family and how the secrets of the family members effect their lives.
They are recent German immigrants to New Germany, Minnesota. Their children attend the local school, where classes are taught in German. Then WWI breaks out in Europe and the townspeople find themselves held under suspicion and their traditions and language banned.
Then there are the secrets of the Richters mother, Magdelena (Maggie) and the daughter, Liesl.
The story opens shortly after WWI and Herman Richter has returned from the war, a disgrace to his father because he fought against Germany, only to find his sister is allied with Lester Sutter, the son of a rival family. Then something happens and Herman and his two brothers take Lester to Turtle Lake where they force him into the lake with his clothes weighted down with rocks. They keep him in the sights of their rifles until he drowns.
This is a slow moving story, but it is well worth reading. The secrets that each person carries takes the family to where they are now. Maggies secret brought her to the New Germany and to marry Wilhelm Richter. Liesls secret has kept her from going to school and having any life outside of the family home.
They are recent German immigrants to New Germany, Minnesota. Their children attend the local school, where classes are taught in German. Then WWI breaks out in Europe and the townspeople find themselves held under suspicion and their traditions and language banned.
Then there are the secrets of the Richters mother, Magdelena (Maggie) and the daughter, Liesl.
The story opens shortly after WWI and Herman Richter has returned from the war, a disgrace to his father because he fought against Germany, only to find his sister is allied with Lester Sutter, the son of a rival family. Then something happens and Herman and his two brothers take Lester to Turtle Lake where they force him into the lake with his clothes weighted down with rocks. They keep him in the sights of their rifles until he drowns.
This is a slow moving story, but it is well worth reading. The secrets that each person carries takes the family to where they are now. Maggies secret brought her to the New Germany and to marry Wilhelm Richter. Liesls secret has kept her from going to school and having any life outside of the family home.
This book started out great - the first few chapters suck you right in. Then I got bogged down in the middle when there was all this war stuff going on. I wanted the book to be better than it was overall. I thought it was going on my "WOW" list, but not so. It was GOOD, but not GREAT for me. I would recommend it - I do like how the author developed the characters and you could visualize everything that was happening - you were right there. I was enthralled with how hard life was back in the early 1900's, yet so much simpler.
