The Living and the Lost, Ellen Feldman
The Living and the Lost, Ellen Feldman
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The Living and the Lost
A Novel

Author: Ellen Feldman

Narrator: Barrie Kreinik

Unabridged: 9 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/07/2021


Synopsis

From the author of Paris Never Leaves You, Ellen Feldman's The Living and the Lost is a gripping story of a young German Jewish woman who returns to Allied Occupied Berlin from America to face the past and unexpected future

“A deeply satisfying and truly adult novel.” —Margot Livesey, New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy

Millie (Meike) Mosbach and her brother David, manage to escape to the States just before Kristallnacht, leaving their parents and little sister in Berlin. Millie attends Bryn Mawr on a special scholarship for non-Aryan German girls and graduates to a magazine job in Philadelphia. David enlists in the army and is eventually posted to the top-secret Camp Ritchie in Maryland, which trains German-speaking men for intelligence work.

Now they are both back in their former hometown, haunted by ghosts and hoping against hope to find their family. Millie, works in the office responsible for rooting out the most dedicated Nazis from publishing; she is consumed with rage at her former country and its citizens, though she is finding it more difficult to hate in proximity. David works trying to help displaced persons build new lives, while hiding his more radical nighttime activities from his sister. Like most of their German-born American colleagues, they suffer from conflicts of rage and guilt at their own good fortune, except for Millie’s boss, Major Harry Sutton, who seems much too eager to be fair to the Germans.

Living and working in bombed-out Berlin, a latter day Wild West where drunken soldiers brawl; the desperate prey on the unsuspecting; spies ply their trade; werewolves, as unrepentant Nazis were called, scheme to rise again; black markets thrive, and forbidden fraternization is rampant, Millie must come to terms with a decision she made as a girl in a moment of crisis, and with the enigmatic sometimes infuriating Major Sutton who is mysteriously understanding of her demons.

Atmospheric, The Living and the Lost is a story of love, survival, and forgiveness of others and of self.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Griffin

About Ellen Feldman

Ellen Feldman, a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of The Living and the Lost, Paris Never Leaves You, Terrible Virtue (optioned by Black Bicycle for a feature film), The Unwitting, Next to Love, Scottsboro (shortlisted for the Orange Prize), The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, and Lucy.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Christine on April 25, 2021

Ah, another new WWII novel with a unique take on the wartime theme. I am loving these authors who come up with something different, allowing us to continue to honor the victims of the Holocaust without telling us the same story over and over again. The Living and the Lost takes place during the time......more

Goodreads review by Darla on August 29, 2021

What would it be like to be living in Berlin immediately after WW II? In addition to being a German Jew who spent the war in the US. And, you are a captain in the army working on Denazification. Talk about emotional overload. Millie Mosbach is sure she has her priorities straight, but does she reall......more

Goodreads review by Mandy on December 15, 2021

Historical fiction is still a relatively new genre for me and I am still finding my feet. When Return to Berlin was sent to me by Simon and Schuster Australia, I decided to give it a go. It was a different take on a war novel, with it taking place after the war has ended. And the main characters wer......more

Goodreads review by Irene Well Worth A Read on August 02, 2021

This story takes place in the aftermath of the war, in the rubble that is left of Berlin. Siblings Millie and David who had escaped to America when they were still kids are now grown and have returned to Germany in service of the United States. Millie is weeding out the Nazis from publishing and Dav......more

Goodreads review by Julie on September 07, 2021

The Living and the Lost is a complex, layered, and moving story that offers a unique perspective on post-war Germany. The author’s writing, especially the imagery and use of flashbacks, immerses you into the protagonist’s journey. The story shows the devastating effects of the war, both physical and......more