Saving Amelie by Cathy Gohlke

My Thoughts:

I'm always fascinated by WWII Germany.  I occasionally wonder how I would have handled living in such chaotic and frightening circumstances.  How were some people able to look away and ignore what was happening while others were capable of rising above and risking their lives to do what's right.  Saving Amelie is a story of heroes and villains, secrets, experiments, Nazis and a little deaf girl disguised as a boy.  I was horrified to read of exterminations carried out on "defective" children.  The Nazis told parents they were giving them extra assistance and then the child would soon disappear.  Unbelievable but true.  The story begins with two friends who, over the years, have drifted apart.  They meet again in Germany and Amelie's mother begs her friend, Rachel Kramer, to take her daughter and raise her.  She fears for both her life and her child's...  Rachel feels that her friend isn't well at first but quickly discovers that the fear is all too real.  Promising to help Amelie, she seeks the help of Jason Young, a journalist.  The terrifying part of the story is that SS officer Gerhardt Schlick, Amelie's father, is the one planning for Amelie's demise.  He's a horrid character.  Cathy Gohlke, the author, does an incredible job conveying the terror he projects to the people around him.  As the story unfolds, Rachel Kramer discovers that her adoptive parents had plans for her that began long ago.  The life she thought she had soon turns into a nightmare and Amelie is not the only one in hiding...

I really enjoyed Saving Amelie.  It educated, entertained, and made me think- all qualities that turn a good story into a great book.  Cathy Gohlke always allows the Lord to shine in her books- even in the midst of a terrible war.  Saving Amelie will stay with you a long time after you read it...


More about Saving Amelie...

Increasingly wary of her father’s genetic research, Rachel Kramer has determined that this trip with him to Germany—in the summer of 1939—will be her last. But a cryptic letter from her estranged friend, begging Rachel for help, changes everything. Married to SS officer Gerhardt Schlick, Kristine sees the dark tides turning and fears her husband views their daughter, Amelie, deaf since birth, as a blight on his Aryan bloodline.

Once courted by Schlick, Rachel knows he’s as dangerous as the swastikas that hang like ebony spiders from every government building in Berlin. She fears her father’s files may hold answers about Hitler’s plans for others, like Amelie, whom the regime deems “unworthy of life.” She risks searching his classified documents only to uncover shocking secrets about her own history and a family she’s never known.

Now hunted by the SS, Rachel turns to Jason Young—a driven, disarming American journalist and unlikely ally—who connects her to the resistance and to controversial theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Forced into hiding, Rachel’s every ideal is challenged as she and Jason walk a knife’s edge, risking their lives—and asking others to do the same—for those they barely know but come to love.

*I was given a copy of this book by Tyndale in exchange for my honest opinion.  No other compensation was received.*