Shadows of Berlin
1955 in New York City, a city of towering intensity, of skyscrapers and blaring traffic. A city of instant coffee, roaring subways, and ultra-modern TVs. A city that daily re-invents itself to meet a perpetually unfolding future.
But in a certain 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. Fleeing with her Uncle Fritz, Rachel hoped to find freedom from her pain in New York — and in the arms of her new American husband, Aaron.
This child of Berlin and daughter of an artist cannot seem to outrun her guilt, even in her new role as a “normal American housewife,” not until she can shed the ghosts of her past. And when Uncle Fritz discovers, in a dreary midtown pawn shop, the most shocking portrait that her mother had ever painted, 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 frantic drumbeat of 1950’s Manhattan, Shadows of Berlin dramatically explores survival, redemption and the way we learn to love and forgive across impossible divides.
“I have been a fan of David Gilham’s work since City of Women, and his latest,
Shadows of Berlin, is his best yet.”
— PAM JENOFF, NYT Bestselling Author of The Woman with the Blue Star
Praise for NYT Bestseller
City of Women
“Extraordinary! David Gillham’s excellent novel, City of Women, is built on one of the most extraordinary and faithful recreations of a time in history — Berlin in World War II — that I’ve ever read.”
—ALAN FURST, NYT Bestselling Author of Under Occupation
If you would like to inquire about scheduling a virtual book club discussion with David, email: bookclubsgillham@gmail.com