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The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies that Outlast War by [Phyllis Edgerly Ring]

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Phyllis Edgerly Ring

The Munich Girl: A Novel of the Legacies that Outlast War Kindle Edition

by Phyllis Edgerly Ring (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun.
Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s mistress were friends.

The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna’s.

Plunged into the world of the “ordinary” Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante—and a tyrant’s lover—Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. With Hannes’s help, she retraces the path of two women who met as teenagers, shared a friendship that spanned the years that Eva Braun was Hitler’s mistress, yet never knew that the men they loved had opposing ambitions.

Eva’s story reveals that she never joined the Nazi party, had Jewish friends, and was credited at the Nuremberg Trials with saving 35,000 Allied lives. As Anna's journey leads back through the treacherous years in wartime Germany, it uncovers long-buried secrets and unknown reaches of her heart to reveal the enduring power of love in the legacies that always outlast war.

Length: 358 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 2908 KB
Print Length: 358 pages
Publisher: Whole Sky Books; 1 edition (7 January 2016)
Sold by: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B01AC4FHI8
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Customer Reviews: 160 customer ratings
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #169,579 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #2943 in Family Saga Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #3553 in Family Saga Fiction (Books)
- #574 in Cultural Heritage Fiction

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Liz

Amazing, fascinating and deep

Reviewed in Australia on 16 April 2020

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Complimentary copy received from voracious readers only for an honest review.

Loved this fascinating look at Eva Braun and Germany during WWII.

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I thoroughly recommend this book

Reviewed in Australia on 13 August 2017

This is another book about World War 2 and the legacies that outlast any war. This is the story of a Munich Girl who in fact, was Eva Braun Hitler's mistress and the friendship between two women that began as young girls and survived through all the barbarity and ugliness of war.
We are introduced to the story by Anna a young married woman who lives in New Hampshire with a self-indulgent husband for whom she puts everything aside. After her mother's death, she finds a hidden treasure of mementoes of the war and begins to find out more about her mother and her secret, elusive friend. After surviving a horrific accident in a burning plane, during which her (unfaithful) husband dies, Anna decides to find out more about her mother's life during those years in wartime Germany. It's a book to make you think and although it's fiction, it led me to find out more about the elusive Eva Braun and her place in Hitler's life. I thoroughly recommend this book.
Note - I was given a copy of this book by the author to read and in exchange, I choose to post this review.

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Jon Dee

Some Stones Are Best Left Unturned

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2018

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As I'm sitting in front of the laptop trying to review "The Munich Girl", an historical fiction / romance novel by Phyllis Edgerly Ring, my mind stutters. How does one sum-up an emotional roller-coaster ride, which not only sees the highs and lows of its protagonist's story but of WWII, Adolf Hitler and Eva Brown's.

Anna is anything but a confident woman. She is normally full of self -doubt, and does her best to attend to her husband's needs and demands, serving as both his academic editor, and housewife, while helping him to cost-effectively run his late father's WWII magazine.
All this is about to change, as Anna discovers a link between her late mother Peggy (who's half German) and Eva Brown, the notorious tyrant's mistress. A simple article which Anna sets upon to write for the magazine spirals into a quest after her mother's old life in Germany during the war, when an old manuscript that Peggy had written resurfaces.
Oh, and there's Hannes. The mysterious German who pops into her life and seems to be on top everything, especially when she needs him the most. This is a story within a story within a story, that will take us on a journey to Eva Brown's life story.

I am rather ambiguous about "The Munich Girl". Let's start with the one undoubtful thing: Ms. Ring's writing is superb. It is fluent, descriptive and accurate. The fact that some of the dialogues are in German (and translated) does not hurt the above, and in fact that is hardly noticed. Great job by the author on that front.

The fact that Anna discovers a manuscript is okay, however Anna's time-line is not continuous. It's divided to before/after a significant event, and I have found myself struggling at times to understand whether this is the "pre-event" Anna or not.

While the story itself is very compelling, and has twists and turns, some plot milestones were a bit too "convenient" for me. Without giving away any spoilers: While the Peggy/Eva Brown manuscript was fascinating, I found Anna's story hard to believe, especially her husband's fate, who is probably the most underdeveloped character in the book.

In a complete contrast, all the other characters were extremely developed and complex, which brings to my ultimate issue with "The Munich Girl":
The novel gives a voice to Eva Brown, portraying her in a complex psychological light, and at times as kind and compassionate. Personally, whether Ms. Brown was like that or not, I find it hard to cope with novels which romanticize, to any extent, Nazi Germany and its key figures. Sure, there were good Germans at the time, yet I think their contribution to the German history is negligible compared to the atrocities done by the German state and its accomplices.
Whether Eva Brown was among them or not, is irrelevant, she has made her historical choice by being the lover of a mad mass murderer, and standing by his side (and if she indeed prevented his order to execute the POWs in Germany as this novel claims, it was too little too late).

I had a similar issue with "Alone in Berlin" by Hans Fallada, but while "Alone in Berlin" handles the lives of everyday people, I found that Ms. Ring - perhaps unintentionally - had made the Hitler-Brown relationship to a touching love affair. A stone that I thought would have been best left unturned.

The novel gets 4/5 stars, I did enjoy reading it, although as I mentioned it has some complications. I'll let you be the moral judges of the historical events.

The reviewer is the author of And The Wolf Shall Dwell", a political-spy thriller.

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Dave Kindle Customer

Anna's history isn't like yours.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2018

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This is a wonderful eye opening book that tells the story of the human and caring side of a family and a friend that was never mentioned and a history her daughter Anna never knew. Anna trapped in a loveless marriage is unaware that her life is about to change after her Mum (Peggy) dies. Even more surprising is the history her Mum has that she only found out about after she died and her husband well i let you read that bit. Her Mums friend is the woman in Hitler's life Eva Braun (whom her Mum had some close shaves with) .. This is a story that tells the human side of a relationship in the build up and during the The Second World War based on people rather than guns and hate, with the story off Anna in 1995. It turns out that Anna's Mum met Eva when they were both young teenagers on a train when Peggy helps Eva and befriends her at a railway station and they share a journey from the Austrian border deeper into Germany. What follows is the moving story of that relationship and how Eva is very different to her partner why she chooses the path she does is a mystery but isn't that the case with most out us but obviously not with such evil. It is true that some are blinded by love to such a unbelievable level that just seems beyond understanding, it as in this case stay with someone after they change in such a unbelievable way. I have to remind myself that the vast majority of soldiers that fought for the Germans did so with full commitment to what they felt was a true and justifiable cause, as has been the case throughout history for so many Armies it would be hard to count them all.
It is often hard to see good in the lives that history has blackened I'm not referring to the Nazis but to individuals and so this story is about individuals that have partners with strongly opposing views as in the men in their lives are on different sides of the war one a Austrian the other a German Jew.
This is a deep and challenging book that I think is for both men and women there is the love story but there is a lot more to it than this there is the well I'm not going to spoil it but I think this is a must read book and I'm very glad i have. I hope you do as well.

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Rosie

Fabulous read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 April 2020

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I was given a complimentary copy of this book via Voracious Readers in return of giving an honest review.

Well what can I say - I read this book in two days. This a story of this ladies Peggy, Eva and Anna. It’s based in the era of Hitler and described the lives of the ladies above through the history of war, their life’s and loves

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend reading this. Definitely a book I will be reading again.

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Kindle Customer. Maureen Perkins

An amazing unputdownable book !!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 April 2018

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I really didn't want to finish reading this as the book was fascinating and so well written ! Hope my next book is as good.

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Mrs. Mary Mcginlay

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 August 2017

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good story WW2

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Giselle Roeder

They did not talk about it

Reviewed in Canada on 19 February 2017

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I cannot believe how much of WW2 is revealed, how people felt, how they had to hide their true feelings, or actions, how they even had to hide it after the war was over. What really amazes me are the similarities to my memoir "We Don't Talk About That" - a true account while this author claims hers as fiction. Since I lived through and experienced it all, even more than "The Munich Girl"' tells, I can assure the reader that a lot of it is based on historical facts. You may read it as a delightful, absorbing romance or, like me, be reminded of awful happenings living in a "dictatorship" (in my case twice). This book will enlighten you and give you insight to how people learned to not talk about it.

2 people found this helpful

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Susanne Weigand

An uplifting (and in parts sad) story

Reviewed in Germany on 14 March 2016

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Bear with me when I am talking about myself. I am German and both my parents have lived through WWII and it was something we often talked about in my family. And in my time at school we were taught a lot about the war and Nazism. Later I read a lot of articles and several books about this dark period of German history. But for some reason I always shied away from learning more about Eva Braun, probably because I couldn’t understand why a young woman would willingly devote herself to a man like Hitler. So when I learned that Phyllis Edgerly Ring had written a book about her I became very curious.
I like the picture that the author has drawn of Eva Braun, her pride and her ambition, her insecurities and loneliness, her devotion and heartbreaking friendship and the story of her life.
But, and this is more important: This book is offering so much more. The story of three women (and only one of them is Eva) and how their lives crossed and intertwined. The story of a family and their complicated, but heartwarming connections. And even a love story I enjoyed. (And I seldom enjoy love stories, mostly they are too cheesy and sweet.)

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Rosa Demanins

An excellent novel

Reviewed in Spain on 24 November 2018

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I loved this book for its original story, its original outlook on the woman that was Eva Braun, and it is also full of reality-bites as well. There are surprising twists and revelations that leave a reader just thrilled. Kudos to the author, a wonderful read.

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Josephine

Eva Braun

Reviewed in Canada on 15 December 2018

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I read this book because I was interested in Eva Braun. I found the book easy to read but not consistent with much info.
It was a bit boring.

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Elizabeth Gayle Fellows

The Munich Girl

Reviewed in Canada on 19 September 2016

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Very interesting, comprehensible and thought provoking. Enjoyed the bit of mystery to it, and the concise geographical and political thoughts. Excellent read.

2 people found this helpful

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Lena A Scallion

Interesting and Engaging

Reviewed in Canada on 5 October 2016

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It was a most interesting book and I enjoyed every moment I spent with the characters. I missed them when it was over.

One person found this helpful

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VL Towler

A beautifully written story, full of surprises about one of the most mysterious women in contemporary history.

Reviewed in the United States on 30 November 2015

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I am stingy with my stars because I believe people don't pay attention when they see five stars. They think, "Yeah, right," and they chalk up the exuberance of the rating to the relationship of the reviewer to the author.

I had already been interested in Phyllis Ring's writing after reading her book, "Snow Fence Road." Her writing conjures up a different era, of a 1940s sensibility, where the less said, the more is explained. She has a simplicity to her writing, which I have learned, as a burgeoning novelist, myself, is extremely hard to achieve without someone of Phyllis's abilities (and, in full disclosure, I did hire her to be my editor).

Now, let me tell you the many reasons why I so love this novel and believe it should be considered an American classic.

Phyllis writes so beautifully, for one. Her love of language, whether English or German, jumps off of the page and into your mind with such ease, you don't even feel as though you're reading. She speaks to you. Her characters become your friend, even the subject of the novel, Eva Braun, which is absolutely frightening. That I should feel any sympathy with a woman who was romantically involved with one of the most heinous human beings ever to be brought into this world is disturbing to me. Which is one of the reasons why this book is so important.

As someone who had loved film most of her life, I had wondered about Eva Braun's importance to both German cinema and filmography, as I was aware that her films extolled Hitler's iconography, as it were. But I never took the time to research Braun, in particular. Conjuring up her name usually accompanied an imaginary bile, in me, a distaste in what she represented, so she was not someone whom I really ever wanted to know, per se. So, when I learned about Phyllis' work, I was truly fascinated with what she might glean about her for us.

Although the book is labeled fiction, truthfully, it's hard to believe it, as the details jump off the page. Phyllis appears to have traced the comings and goings of this enigmatic woman, who, was encamped in her various places of refuge, waiting for her man, Die Fuhrer, to return to her. And it is in this capacity that we understand her: a woman of her time period, who turned the other way while her man went off to war, doing these "manly," but hopelessly imbecilic and crazy things. He would return to her periodically, every couple of weeks or months, while she waited for him, dutifully. Did she remain willfully blind, ignoring the atrocities that were being committed in the name of the Fatherland? Or was she too close to him to even know what he was doing, because when he returned to her, he was her lover, not her military commander?

Was the man who could butcher so many people the same man who could come home to her, and luxuriate in the arms of his beloved, exposing his vulnerabilities to her only? I'm not sure we'll ever know, but there's an inkling of what Eva probably felt during the years that she was with him (17 years, I seem to count). Was there any redeeming quality in her that makes her seem more human, and less a monster of historic proportions, in our hatred of all things "Third Reich?" You'll have to read to find that out for yourself.

Above all, this novel is about women. About friendship. About the way we protect each others' vulnerabilities. Of the secrets we keep. And about our loyalty to each other, though we carry out our daily lives supporting our men, as that's what women did, especially back in the day.

The novel is also about love. The kind we women always dream about and find in the character Hannes, a new hero for all women. I defy any woman not to believe him to be the man we've all been waiting for, or, if married, for whom we'd divorce our husbands if we had a chance to be with him.

The story is also a mystery, of the history behind a portrait that hangs in the home of an American woman of English and German descent. It is a story about longing to reconnect with our beloved deceased, of learning the things that our parents could not tell us for fear of destroying our own lives yet to be realized.

Phyllis has done a very brave thing, sharing a history with us that might be part of her own past, on some level. But the care that she took in making it plausible is also a gift to the reader. She dares look at the soul of the German during WWII, and the aftermath, in a reconciliation of sorts, that still hasn't been accomplished beyond the Nuremberg Trials, except through the bravery of women like Phyllis who are willing to open the door a crack to give us an opportunity to ask questions, ponder, and reconcile our humanity with our inhumanity.

I'm sure I'll read this book a second time. There are so many layers to it. I found it an irresistible and important read.

30 people found this helpful

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Book Club Mom

An Excellent Story about Hitler's Mistress, Eva Braun

Reviewed in the United States on 4 April 2016

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People choose their life paths for many reasons and their decisions are sometimes hard to figure. During wartime, many ordinary people become trapped on these paths, in situations that are bigger than themselves. Perhaps that is a good way to describe Eva Braun’s relationship with Adolf Hitler, a man who set his own path and destroyed nearly six million Jews and others who did not fit his Aryan profile. Phyllis Edgerly Ring’s The Munich Girl is the story of Eva Braun and her friendship with Peggy, a German girl she meets on a train outside Austria. In this historical fiction, Ring suggests how one might understand and even sympathize with Eva, who met Hitler when she was seventeen and waited sixteen years for him to publicly acknowledge their relationship. Facing wartime defeat, Hitler finally married her and, less than two days later, they committed suicide.

The Munich Girl begins in a New Hampshire college town, as Peggy’s daughter, Anna is hired by Hannes Ritter, the new editor of a military history magazine owned by Anna’s husband, Lowell. Anna’s first assignment is to write an article about Eva. As Hannes describes his native Germany, Anna is instantly drawn to him for reasons she does not fully understand. Long silenced by her controlling husband, it’s the first time Anna’s opinions matter.

Anna is already facing change as she grieves her mother’s recent death. As she sorts through Peggy’s belongings, Anna discovers a number of items that suggest her mother’s life in Germany was far different from the one Anna knew. At the center of this curiosity is a portrait of Eva, a post-war prize acquired by her father that has been hanging on their wall for as long as Anna can remember.

In the midst of her research, a sudden turn forces Anna to face her life in a new way. Her discoveries about Peggy and Eva set her on a journey towards renewed strength and self-worth and show her the true meaning of family, love and going home.

Ring successfully tackles a tricky subject by suggesting a sympathetic understanding of Eva, who is often portrayed in history books as selfish and uncaring. By drawing parallels between the three women, their shared feelings of loneliness and despair, the author offers a possible explanation for Eva’s choice to love one of the most despised men in history. As Peggy tells her good friend Eva, “I may never understand your being with him. But I can well understand why someone would want you near.”

In addition to these parallels, Ring shows how German citizens were forced to endure Hitler’s reign. Many bravely joined the Resistance and others risked their lives by protecting the resisters. Her story shows the human element that exists on all sides during wartime and the hardships all people must endure.

The Munich Girl is an excellent story with unique ideas, layers and themes. And while Anna’s journey reaches a satisfying finish, Ring leaves the reader with much to consider.

24 people found this helpful

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Ellen McBee

Strong premise, needs editing

Reviewed in the United States on 28 September 2017

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There's nothing wrong with this book that a good editor couldn't have fixed. The author has obviously done quite a bit of research on Eva Braun but really fell down on other aspects of the history, such as the 1936 Olympics. Her character apparently saw a swimming competition at the track and field venue. She also repeated the often-told but entirely fake story that Hitler refused to shake Jesse Owens' hand or that the Nazis were unhappy that Owens had won his medals. Bigger than historical problems, though, are mechanics issues. The story takes place in three separate timelines. The effect really removes the reader from the book and from the emotional experience of the viewpoint characters. Nearly the entire book is telling me about events, not showing them. I'm halfway through the book and can't remember the main character's name and I'm puzzled that the only friend she has is a man she met four months previously. The symbolism of the husband's departure is heavy handed. The dream sequences come across as amateurish and, frankly, I am skipping them. The prose tends to fall into cliche or strange wordiness that again doesn't get a reader into an emotional experience. I don't object to self-published books; the concept of this story drew me in. But strange coincidences and too many lucky occurrences just keep throwing me back out.

18 people found this helpful

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Cheryl az

An American woman discovers her mother’s secret past while researching Eva Braun

Reviewed in the United States on 27 May 2019

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This book just sounded so intriguing, knowing the theme involved a friendship with Eva Braun. How does a friendship with an acquaintance of Hitler even develop!? My curiosity was satisfied with the innocent enough way in which the friendship formed between the two young women, who unknowingly had lovers moving forward with contrasting agendas.

The stories in both time periods were engrossing - the years during the friendship that lead up to Hitler’s end, and the modern day story of Anna and the search into her mysterious mother’s past with Eva Braun. I loved that the true nature of Eva Braun’s photo was not revealed during its possession by Anna’s evil husband. Another tyrant! Boy, could Anna, her mother and Eva Braun learn a thing or two about selecting their men!

Then the awful sounds of the sirens and smell in the air from the bombings, and streets littered with the dead. Curfews, water limits for bathing, and if the emotional and physical discomforts didn’t take enough of a toll, there were food shortages and long waits in food lines. The Italian restaurants didn’t require a ration coupon. Cabbage, potatoes and yogurt were apparently available, but cheese and meat pitifully scarce. One of the cafes went to the extreme of serving donkey schnitzel! But, oh did the Germans know how to bake and enjoy their breads and pastries! Spitz Brotchen, Mohn Brotchen, Mehrkorn… I cannot pass a German bakery without sampling something from the showcase!

Having learned more about Eva Braun, I wonder if her goodness had the slightest positive impact on Hitler. She might have seemed like another of his victims, but unlike others, she had freedom of choice. A good book leaves you thinking… and this book certainly did that for me.

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