Historical
Three young artists in 1930s Germany are torn apart by love, ideology, and war. Years later, haunted by trauma and bound by memory, they reunite at an art exhibition, where past betrayals and enduring connections collide in a final reckoning of conscience, identity, and redemption.
Find this ebook at your favourite retailer below:
Families at War is a sweeping tale of love, loyalty, and the brutal legacy of war.
Set across two decades and three countries Joseph Kennedy’s debut novel traces the fates of young people whose lives are torn apart by the rise of Nazism, the brutality of war, and the long shadow of its aftermath.
In 1930s Friedrichshafen, an English Jewish student, Judith, shares an artistic bond with gentle, thoughtful Matthias—and the dangerous attention of their classmate, Hinrich, whose devotion to Nazi ideology curdles into obsession. When hatred erupts into violence, Judith flees Germany with her family to England, while Matthias is driven into the Wehrmacht. The war soon hurls them into opposite worlds: Judith becomes a wartime nurse confronting the horrors of the Blitz and the burns ward, while Matthias endures the Eastern Front, witnessing atrocities that fracture his faith and future.
Across the Channel, in occupied France, the fearless Yolande risks everything in the Resistance, crossing paths with Hinrich in a deadly confrontation that will reverberate for years. As families hide, flee, resist, and simply try to survive, their choices entwine in unexpected ways.
After the guns fall silent, an art exhibition on Lake Constance draws these fractured lives together once more. Scarred by memory yet searching for meaning, Judith and Matthias must face the love they lost—and the man whose hatred shaped their destinies.
A story of courage and cruelty, survival and renewal, Families at War illuminates how love and art endure even in history’s darkest hours.
Here's what readers have to say about this book....
What a tale! Enjoyed the structure, and obviously so well researched. Told with compassion for its characters, and within the greater narrative, so many well observed moments imagined.
A good read, long time since I couldn’t put a book down - only stopped by two eye operations where I wasn’t allowed to read too much. Great intertwining stories and quite a surprise at the end.
Brought together by a shared talent for art, the three main characters are beautifully detailed in the opening chapter of this gripping WW2 story. Judith Lareine, an English jew, a gifted painter, in Germany due to her father's job as a professor at Friedrichshafen university. Matthias Krieger, a German catholic, a skilled sculptor, helps out with his father's building business and farm. Lastly Hinrich Richter a portraitist, a member of the Hitler Youth, aspires to the SS like his father. Hope this makes you want to read on to discover the stories around the three protagonists. A cracking read!
A fascinating read following three young people and their families across the second world war. It is unflinching in descriptions of the horrors of war and how people are individually and collectively impacted.
This is a most moving book that tells how the lives of three families from a small Southern German town were transformed and their petty jealousies became hatred. The catalyst for this transformation was the rise of the Nazis and the terrors of the war that was to follow. It covers the complexities of the atrocities experienced by the Jewish population, the privations and conflicts faced by the ordinary German soldier in his wish to survive and how some people were able to manipulate the chaos to their advantage at an horrific cost to others. Well researched and vivid portrayal of the characters.
