The Woman Outside the Walls – Blog Tour

This book was set in two different timelines–one in 2016 and the other during WWII.

In 1942, Anna was pregnant–she was only seventeen. The father of her unborn child is already dead and Anna decides to give the baby up for adoption, to a well to do family but she didn’t realize how it would affect her once the baby boy was snatched away from her. Heartbroken with grief, Anna starts working at a camp in the east. Present day in London, Anna is a ninety year old woman. Her neighbor, Lauren finds her at the bus stop and brings her back to the house. Lauren’s son is learning German and Laurel believes Anna as a kind loving old woman. But when they find out about Anna’s secret, will it destroy their relationship with this kind elderly woman?

Writing about war, particularly about WWII is very challenging and the author must have done tremendous research on the subject. The story itself was emotional and heartbreaking at times and there were some tear jerking moments in the story. This was also quite an unputdownable book and really touching particularly when reading about Anna and we see her as one courageous and brave woman who had to overcome many obstacles in life. Overall, this was an emotional and heartbreaking story and I highly recommend this book. Worth five stars!

I always knew it would come out one day. They are finding everyone who has stayed hidden. They would have come to me in the end.

Hamburg, 1942 Seventeen-year-old Anna knows she can never tell her proud parents the truth about where she is going. She must hide the fact that she is pregnant, that the father of her unborn child is dead and that she is on her way to a special maternity home, where her baby will be given to a perfect family. She tells herself that this is the best solution. She doesn’t expect to feel the rush of love for her beautiful baby boy in the white blanket, or the devastation when he is snatched from her, never to be seen again.

Desperate to forget her grief, she sees an advert for a secretary in a prison, far away in the east. Days later, she leaves Hamburg, travelling eastwards by train, feeling as if a whole new life is about to begin. It is the biggest mistake she will ever make.

London, 2016 Ninety-year-old Anna sits on the edge of her bed, hands trembling, eyes brimming with tears, as she looks at the picture of the soldier in the newspaper. Her friends and neighbours know her as a kindly old lady who bakes cakes and always has time to listen to their troubles. They don’t know about the hated green uniform she burned, the memories of the prisoners she tried to help and the bombed and blackened city she once called home. But now the time for a reckoning has come, will revealing the truth free Anna or destroy her?