The House by the Lake, by Ella Carey

In "The House by the Lake," Ella Carey rolls out a story of a "schloss" or landed estate, in the former East Germany that was almost destroyed, first by the Nazis and then by the Soviet occupation, and that has been left to rot in a village that is also dying. In telling the story of this schloss, Carey focuses on 94 year old Max Albrecht and his granddaughter, Anna, living in 2010, San Francisco. After the story breaks about a time capsule flat in Paris, opened after 70 years of abandonment, Max asks Anna to do one favor for him. He has never spoken of his past, but he asks her to retrieve something for him hidden in the schloss, his family's ancestral home.

As Anna carries out her task, her family's past unfolds for her, one small morsel at a time. Anna learns that her grandfather had a connection to the time capsule flat, and that he fled the Nazis, and his family in 1940. Since he has always refused to discuss the past, she must figure out why he never went back to Germany and why he cut all ties with his family. Along the way, as Anna visits the cosmopolitan, reunified Berlin, and the struggling rural villages of the former DDR, she learns that "the past must be dealt with on its own terms."

This is not a history book, although there is history in it as Carey goes back and forth between the 1930s and 2010. It also is not a frothy romance, although there is romance. It is historical fiction, with some true history. It also tells a very intriguing, suspenseful story that will make you think.

(I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
Print Length: 258 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1503934152
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (March 29, 2016)
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC