Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
The Shape of Her
The Shape of Her
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Disgrifiad Cymraeg / Welsh Description
Mae'n 1967, ac mae'r rhyfel yn parhau i fwrw ei gysgod. Bu Ruth yn aelod o fudiad gwrthryfel, ac mae ei hanes cyfrinachol yn gyrru ei merch Katya ar gwrs peryglus ar draws yr Almaen i chwilio am ddiemwntiau Natsïaidd.
Disgrifiad Saesneg / English Description
It's 1967, and the war still casts a shadow. Ruth was a child resistance fighter; her secret past sends daughter Katya on a dangerous chase across Germany in search of Nazi diamonds.
Manylion y cynnyrch / Product details
- ISBN 13
- 9781781727324
- Gwales Code
- gwales.com.9781781727324
- Gwerthwr / Vendor
- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru
- Long Title
- The Shape of Her
- Awdur / Author
- Lauppe-Dunbar, Anne
- Current Price ex VAT
- £9.99
- Current Price inc VAT
- £9.99
- Availability Status (EN)
- Available
- Availability Status (CY)
- Ar gael
- Dyddiad cyhoeddi / Publication Date
- 2023-11-06
- Cyhoeddwr / Publisher
- Seren
- Media Type (EN)
- Paperback / softback
- Media Type (CY)
- Clawr meddal
- Pages
- 310 pages
- Size
- 135 × 208 mm; depth 18 mm
- Language Code
- English
- Categori / Category
- CY: Nofelau a Storïau ar Gyfer Oedolion (yn Saesneg) | EN: Adult Fiction and Stories (in English)
- Is-gategori / Subcategory
- CY: Ffuglen Lenyddol a Chyffredinol (yn Saesneg) | EN: General and Literary Fiction (in English)
Bywgraffiad yr Awdur / Author Biography
Anne Lauppe-Dunbar is a novelist and Director of Creative Writing at University of Swansea, and editor of the Swansea Review. Her parents were born in Germany and survived the war to meet in South Africa, where Anne was born. The family left during apartheid, returning to Germany before settling in the UK. She has published short stories and poems in collections from Seren, Cinnamon and Seventh Quarry. Her first novel 'Dark Mermaids' was shortlisted for the Impress Prize, Cinnamon First Novel Prize and the Cross Sports Book Awards New Writer of the Year Prize.
Adolygiad y Cyhoeddwr / Publisher Review
It is 1967, post-war West Germany, and Katya believes the world she lives in is ‘divided but safe’. Until it isn’t. A late-night break-in, nothing taken but plenty of pointless destruction, and a rune like an upside-down fork graffitied on the cellar wall. As she cleans up the mess, Katya finds an old newspaper mentioning the children’s terrorist group, the Werwolfe, set up by the Nazi’s to help disrupt the invading forces of both Americans and Russians. In 1949 some of the children were brought to trial for the assassination of the town mayor. And there’s her mother’s maiden name amongst the list of acquitted. She dismisses it as coincidence. Katya lives in the apartment building she’s inherited after the sudden shocking death of her parents, Berthold and Ruth, who were killed by a hit-and-run driver whilst they were on holiday. Since then she’s been living with overwhelming grief, getting through the days of sodden secluded crying with the support of Andreas, who has taken over her father’s solicitor’s practice in the upper floors of the apartment block, and of the old people, the ones her father has helped to make lives for themselves here in the West having escaped from East Germany. They comfort and fuss over her as she tries to do her job of helping to look after them in the care home where they live next door to her. Then the break-in happens. The old people are flustered and frightened in a way that Katya cannot understand: there’s more going on than they’re telling her. It’s only when she’s handed an old diary of her mother’s, by elegant ancient Guther, and begins to read of her mother’s life at the end of the war that Katya starts to understand the fear gripping these old people. But she’s barely begun to comprehend her mother’s terrifying history when the hands which abused her mother all those years ago reach out and grasp her too, pulling her away into a nightmare of utterly helpless captivity. Long ago her mother had found out the location of a cache of diamonds stolen from Jewish families before they were sent to the camps, and now interested parties want both Katya and her mother’s diary to help them track down this hoard. Even though Katya’s parents had told her nothing of their history, her ignorance is not believed by her kidnappers. This is an extraordinary, beautifully written novel. The awful twisting of human nature under both Nazi and then Soviet rule is subtly portrayed: in the desperate effort to survive, some are forced to betray others, whilst others seem to revel in the end-of-war chaos. They can expunge their Nazi records and become dutiful communists as long as they know the ‘right people’. Whether Nazi or communist, there’s plenty of opportunity to thrive within such brutal opposing systems for those without conscience. Anne Lauppe-Dunbar creates two parallel worlds, slipping effortlessly between 1945 and 1967, as mother and daughter, each in her own timeline, learn to survive and learn who to trust and how thin and fragile that trust has to be, as it seems everyone and anyone can turn them in if the price is right. Only a very precious few are completely incorruptible.
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