The Plum Tree
"A touching story of heroism and loss, a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of love to transcend the most unthinkable circumstances."
--Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris From the internationally bestselling author of The Orphan Collector comes a haunting and lyrical tale of love and humanity in a time of unthinkable horror. The debut novel from a powerful voice in historical fiction, this resonant and courageous saga of a young German woman during World War II and the Holocaust is a must-read for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Alice Network. "Bloom where you're planted," is the advice Christine Bölz receives from her beloved Oma. But seventeen-year-old domestic Christine knows there is a whole world waiting beyond her small German village. It's a world she's begun to glimpse through music, books--and through Isaac Bauerman, the cultured son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for. Yet the future she and Isaac dream of sharing faces greater challenges than their difference in stations. In the fall of 1938, Germany is changing rapidly under Hitler's regime. Anti-Jewish posters are everywhere, dissenting talk is silenced, and a new law forbids Christine from returning to her job--and from having any relationship with Isaac. In the months and years that follow, Christine will confront the Gestapo's wrath and the horrors of Dachau, desperate to be with the man she loves, to survive--and finally, to speak out. Set against the backdrop of the German homefront, this is an unforgettable novel of courage and resolve, of the inhumanity of war, and the heartbreak and hope left in its wake. "A haunting and beautiful debut novel."
--Anna Jean Mayhew, author of The Dry Grass of August
"Ellen Marie Wiseman boldly explores the complexities of the Holocaust. This novel is at times painful, but it is also a satisfying love story set against the backdrop of one of the most difficult times in human history."
--T. Greenwood, author of Keeping Lucy
--Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Girls of Paris From the internationally bestselling author of The Orphan Collector comes a haunting and lyrical tale of love and humanity in a time of unthinkable horror. The debut novel from a powerful voice in historical fiction, this resonant and courageous saga of a young German woman during World War II and the Holocaust is a must-read for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Alice Network. "Bloom where you're planted," is the advice Christine Bölz receives from her beloved Oma. But seventeen-year-old domestic Christine knows there is a whole world waiting beyond her small German village. It's a world she's begun to glimpse through music, books--and through Isaac Bauerman, the cultured son of the wealthy Jewish family she works for. Yet the future she and Isaac dream of sharing faces greater challenges than their difference in stations. In the fall of 1938, Germany is changing rapidly under Hitler's regime. Anti-Jewish posters are everywhere, dissenting talk is silenced, and a new law forbids Christine from returning to her job--and from having any relationship with Isaac. In the months and years that follow, Christine will confront the Gestapo's wrath and the horrors of Dachau, desperate to be with the man she loves, to survive--and finally, to speak out. Set against the backdrop of the German homefront, this is an unforgettable novel of courage and resolve, of the inhumanity of war, and the heartbreak and hope left in its wake. "A haunting and beautiful debut novel."
--Anna Jean Mayhew, author of The Dry Grass of August
"Ellen Marie Wiseman boldly explores the complexities of the Holocaust. This novel is at times painful, but it is also a satisfying love story set against the backdrop of one of the most difficult times in human history."
--T. Greenwood, author of Keeping Lucy
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Community Reviews
The Plum Tree is part history, part romance, all great. It chronicles the life of Christine Bolz just before her small quiet town is invaded and destroyed, albeit not completely in a physical way, but certainly in an emotional way, by the Nazi invasion. While Christine and her family are safe from capture - they are the right race, breed, and color - the boy she loves is not. He is 1/2 Jewish, but as those of us well read during this time in history know, it didn't matter - 1/2, 1/4, an 1/8, a funny look in your eye - Hitler was out to destroy. Her father is taken as a drafted soldier and Christine and the rest of her family, to include her grandparents, are left behind to endure the wrath of Hitler and the Gestapo (while her father endures his own brand of torture). Touching and real, a challenge to all that still believe intermingling of races is wrong (can't believe there are still people like this out there!), The Plum Tree is a gripping bildungsroman that touches not only on the moral development and coming of age of Christine, but the struggle to thrive under the guise of an unjust war and the effort it takes to do so. ✯✯✯✯
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