Anika Scott: Finding Clara, Hutchinson (Penguin Random House UK) 9781786331885, trade paperback 

“Finding Clara” is set in the winter of 1946 in war torn Essen, Germany where the first order of business is to survive with a roof over your head and food in your belly. Clara Falkenberg is on the run trying to avoid Allied troops under a false identity as her real background would land her in an allied prison for war criminals in a second. As the daughter of one of the most successful steel industry tycoons and an English mother, Clara was forced to run her father’s business with the use of slave laborers under the Nazi regime to achieve their production quota. But this does not feel like an excuse to her as guilt and disgust with herself are eating at her consciousness. 

Captain Fenshaw of the British Forces is hot on her heels as Clara is trying to find her best friend Elise in the ruins of Essen.  Enter fate and Jakob Relling, a black market dealer who lost one leg as a soldier in Russia, and Willy, a boy in hiding in a coal mine guarding a priceless commodity – food and daily goods..   

What made this novel so appealing to read is its setting in unfashionable Essen, the prewar center of Germany’s  steel industry, a very well-drawn out female characters in Clara Falkenberg, her cold hearted family, Jakob Relling, a salt of the earth type black marketer trying to provide for his sisters and the grim, realistic description of life during the post war years. It reminded me in parts and atmosphere of “The Aftermath” (Niemandsland) by Rhidian Brook which has been made into a movie starring Kira Kneightly. I can easily see the potential of this plot for TV or Netflix.  The author has clearly done some extensive research and written an authentic capturing story. I would guess some ideas were drawn from the history of the Krupp family. 

I have to confess I was not totally blown away even though it is a well crafted story, it was just too predictable for my taste. But I can easily see the appeal to readers who are not very familiar with German history during that time.