_The Orphan's Tale_
by Pam Jenoff
For Ingrid Klemt, the young Nazi officer who followed the circus from place to
place, always watching her intently from his chosen seat in the front row of the
bleachers, was the most fascinating man she'd ever known, and when he asked for
her hand she did not demur. He was her one chance to leave the wandering life
of a circus aerialist behind her, to have a single, stable home with status and
apparent safety. Never mind he was part of the Nazi world and she was Jewish if
unobservant. He had fallen in love with her the first time he saw her flying
overhead in the circus. But, once the war was on in earnest he came to her with
their divorce papers, apparently with no concern that the Reich was treating
their marriage as if it had never been.
Noa was only seventeen when she was seduced by the young German soldier who was
billeted in her home. They had but one night together, but that was enough to
leave her pregnant. Once her parents realized her state, her father drove her
from their home on the coast of Holland, and she found herself fleeing to an
institution in Germany where her baby would be accepted for the Liebensborn
project and adopted out to a good Nazi family. Or would he? He was born with
olive skin and dark eyes, after all.
They came together in the Neuhoff Circus, to which Ingrid, now known as Astrid
Sorrell, came in search of her family when she found her own parents' villa had
been appropriated by the Nazis and left nearly destroyed. Astrid's lover Peter,
the star clown for the show, stumbled upon Noa lying unconscious in the woods, a
young baby protected by her body. The baby Noa had saved from a boxcar that had
appeared full of infants destined for the east, many of them already dead.
She'd been able to save but one who reminded her of her own lost child. Herr
Neuhoff won't send these further victims of the Nazis off, demanding that Astrid
train the girl as an aerialist.
But can a Dutch girl and the Jewish circus star find common cause on the
trapezes over the rings of Neuhoff's circus? And can either of them find
redemption for the mistakes made in the past?
A well written exploration of the practices of the Nazi state and the ways in
which those on the run from Nazi oppression found to protect themselves and one
another. I found this in print at Costco in their paperback collection and am
glad I did. A bit of a tear-jerker in places, but not in any maudlin way.
Recommended. Available also from Audible with two readers, one each for the
chapters written from the points of view of Astrid and Noa.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very
wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
We gave the Goblin King control of our nation!
