The Woman Outside the Walls

By: Suzanne Goldring

Narrated by: Alison Campbell

Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

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, traveling eastward 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 neighbors 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?

The Woman Outside the Walls will take you on an emotional journey and show you that in war, even when you are on the wrong side, you can still do the right thing....

©2022 Suzanne Goldring (P)2022 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

A slow start

It was a good book, I am glad I listened to it all. Parts in the beginning almost made me stop but like a reviewer said, it was better as the story professed. Loved the narrator.

is this fiction.

I none of this book ever happened.... I hope we have learned from our mistakes.

Great Story in the End… a little slow to start!

Absolutely LOVED the story starting about midway through….. in the beginning, it was hard for me to stay engaged , but the further it went, the more interested I became. I wish the details of her full background had come out sooner… truly interesting, heartbreaking & a different perspective of life events during that time.

WHAT A FANTASTIC BOOK!

Wow! As other readers have stated in their reviews, I too found the book a bit slow in the beginning, but now that I have finished the book, I understand why the beginning two or three chapters were necessary to build and demonstrate the close friendship between Margie and her Jewish childhood friend. Had she not had that close friendship with her young Jewish friend, she may not have developed the compassion she had for the Jewish prisoners in the camp — she may have seen them more as some of the guards did — not as PEOPLE, but as “unworthy,” “dirty,” as “vermin to be extinguished.”

The author did an exceptional job of showing not only how the Jews suffered during this shameful time in our world history, but she very clearly showed how the British suffered as well as so many innocent Germans suffered who did not approve of what Hitler was doing or WHY he was doing it. Both British and German families (innocent families on both sides) lost EVERYTHING to bombings, including their lives to the war. Some, depending on their location in their respective countries, suffered only hunger and fear. Others in cities, suffered those things as well, but also ultimately lost loved ones, their homes, their businesses, their way of life, and ultimately, their own lives. They didn’t start the war and they had no way to end the war, but it was these people who (besides the Jews) who paid the heaviest price of all; they lost the most because of a crazy man who was able to convince thousands of others to join him.

The main character, Margie, realizes not long after taking a job as a secretary in what she was lead to believe was a regular prison, that she was indeed employed at a Jewish internment camp.

Once she realized what was happening, she was very upset. The longer she was there, the more upset she became. She had such empathy for the Jews and the awful treatment they endured day after day and the absolute PLEASURE some guards took in torturing the prisoners. Margie tried to help some of the women who cleaned her room by leaving small amounts of food for them under her pillow. This helped for a while — until the extra food was somehow found. The fact that it was Margie providing the food was never proven (though she was suspected), but the prisoners paid an awful price for having taken and eaten the bits of scraps Margie could sneak to them. They were being starved — of course the extra food was eaten!

Margie tried to get the prison commander to release her from her duties (she took quite a risk even asking to be let go), but twice after asking, her request was denied. She had few, if any ways to escape.

After the war, Margie meets a very nice older British man, Reg, who falls in love with her. He marries Margie and they relocate (with an infant orphaned boy) to England), where Margie tries to live a “normal” life as a good wife and mom. But, as happy as she is, she never loses the fear that somehow, someone will track her down and she will be prosecuted for her war crimes. Neither Reg, nor their two children know about her past. Margie is also terrified they will find out about her past as well. Even though she was “only” a secretary, if captured, she would be prosecuted just as severely as if she had been one of the prison guards executing Jewish prisoners.

Over the years in England, Margie becomes friends with her neighbor Lauren, and her son Freddie. Freddie asks Margie to help him with his German language lessons for school. Over time, he and his mom start to notice that Margie, now 92, begins displaying some odd behaviors. They begin to wonder if Margie is becoming senile.

Freddie next approaches Margie and asks her for help with his WWII class project. This sets Margie into a bit of a tailspin. Eventually, Margie decides that she must be truthful with her friends and even at the age of 92, regardless of the consequences, will tell Lauren and Freddie EVERYTHING. She is no longer afraid of being tried and sent to jail at her age; she just wants to tell the truth of what she knows, so the world will REALLY know what happened. She wants the truth to be known and never be forgotten so she can die with a clear conscience. They are few survivors left who know the truth of what really happened and she wants to tell her part before there is no one left who can speak for the Jewish families who endured so much at the hands of Hitler.

By deciding to do this though, it leaves Lauren with a big moral dilemma. Should she turn her 92-year-old neighbor in to be prosecuted, a friend whom she has never known to be anything other than kind, loving and giving, or keep her mouth shut and let the facade continue?

We are never given the answer to Lauren’s decision, but the book leaves readers with a HOST of moral questions about what they would do if they were in Lauren’s place.

This was an excellent book that left me with a lot of questions, first and foremost, “What would *I* do if I were in Lauren’s place?” Would my sympathies lie with Margie? She IS 92 after all, she never physically hurt anyone herself, and isn’t 60+ years of living with the fear of living with who she really is and of being revealed to everyone and the subsequent prosecution punishment enough? Or, should Lauren speak up, because don’t all the Jews who were hurt, either directly or indirectly, have a right to justice?

The book did leave me with one unanswered question…the author never explained WHY both of Margie’s children, Peter and Susan, moved to Australia, and want nothing to do with Margie. If there is an explanation within the book, I missed it.

I cannot finish this review without mentioning the narrator, the fantastic, amazingly talented ALLISON CAMPBELL! I specifically look for books narrated by Ms. Campbell, whether they are in my normal genre or not, simply because she is so good. Her voice and her accent…I could listen to her ALL DAY LONG (I often do)! If I could trade my voice and American accent for anyone else’s in this world, it would be Ms. Campbell’s! Kudos!

MAY WE NEVER FORGET!!!

Fantastic lesson

Fantastic narration, story and point of view about how horrific events such as the holocaust could even happen. We need to remember and learn from our mistakes so they don’t happen again.

Got better toward the end

So many secrets held by Anna/Etta/Margie, it was hard to follow at the beginning. I think I would have enjoyed it more in book form. The narrator’s voice changed for the various characters, but was a bit too “girlish” for my liking. Still, the theme is strong and thought provoking regarding how we treat others and our first impressions of our acquaintances and friends. The book was written to remind us to learn from past mistakes and take personal responsibility for the things we can control.

LOVE

I LOVED this book. Told from a point of view that's not often represented in stories about WWII; the main character worked in a concentration camp, at first unknowingly, then continued after she learned what it really was. I loved the elderly character she grew into. Wonderful narration. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Love Alison Campbell!

I listen to all audiobooks narrated by Alison Campbell, regardless of genre. She’s fantastic. I read the book before it’s release, but I’m going to listen the audiobook now. This story is well written and I couldn’t pull myself away.

Good story .. came together midway

This is one of those stories you know is good but you just have to stick with it. Once it comes together you realise how
good and poignant it is.

I do recommend it

Unique Look

Despite the story having a slow start, it did pick up and kept me hooked. Very interesting! I have over 350 books in my library, but nothing like this kind of subject matter. As for the narration, I love A.C’s performance here and in all audiobooks she does. She’s one of the best!