Blog Tour Review, When We Were Innocent

Libby Trent believes she knows the difference between right and wrong.

But everything changes when she finds out about a man named Hans Brenner, a Nazi who escaped Germany after the Second World War. A war criminal who has lived his whole life in hiding.

Because the man suspected of being Hans Brenner is Libby’s own beloved father.

The sweetest, gentlest man she knows. Who raised her alone, who lives in her family home. Who cares for and watches over Libby’s own children.

When Libby finds a secret box in her father’s bedroom, she knows it might contain evidence. But does she dare open it, if it could prove her father guilty of the most heinous crimes in history?

Because if she finds evidence, she won’t just have to choose between right and wrong, she’ll have to choose whether to betray her own father…

A totally heartbreaking and powerful story about a daughter’s impossible dilemma and the darkest of family secrets, perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Amanda Prowse, and Diane Chamberlain.

My Review:

This is a great book club book.  A lot of chances to talk about what you would and wouldn’t do and what you thought as you read.  While my Dad wasn’t born until after the war, he was in the Army and other than knowing he was stationed in West Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie right after the Cuban Missile Crisis, I know nothing of his military time and he is unwilling to speak of it other than our running joke that he had to run five miles before breakfast and me saying I’d skip breakfast.  

This book sparked such powerful questions for me.  Starting with is Libby’s father Hans Brenner?  Should there be a statute of limitations on these war crimes?  Would your answer be any different if the person led an exemplary life after that?  With Libby’s father being 96, this would have been 70 years ago.  Does his guilt rely on how complicit he was?  And she was asked to find evidence to help prove he was at the camp.  Could you do that to someone you loved?  Would your faith in the law outweigh your love?  Is there anything a loved one could do to break that bond?  I think I could keep going and going.

The book unfolds with Libby in the present learning of her father’s potential war crimes and in the past with Hans Brenner at the extermination camp.  It is a powerful read.  Here in the US we tend to shy away from teaching of the concentration camps and some schools and governments have even banned Anne Frank, so this is also such an important conversation to have.  

This book will stay with me for a long time.  And if you read it be sure and let me know if you agree with Libby’s actions and choices.  I think I would handle at least part of it differently.

Sherry