In a place of destruction is there forgiveness and love ?

The Aftermath by Rhidian Brook is set in immediate post-WW2 Germany. The main character is Colonel Lewis Morgan, who comes to a ruined Hamburg where he is tasked with helping to rebuild the heavily bomb-damaged city. He is given a beautiful house on the River Elbe in which to live, which has been requisitioned from the dignified and cultured Herr Lubert. Lewis – who bears no personal malice towards the German race and has an idealistic vision of rebuilding not just the city itself but of repairing relations with the city’s inhabitants, decides to share the house with its owner and with Herr Lubert’s fifteen-year-old daughter, the rebellious and motherless Frieda. This is a decision that is popular with Lewis’s colleagues, nor with his wife, Rachael, when she arrives with their son, Edmund. She is amazed to find herself living with ‘the enemy’. Rachael is still grieving after her elder son was killed by a German bomber and she cannot understand how her husband can be so forgiving towards the German race. When she realises that Lewis’s grief at the loss of their son is nowhere near as acute as her own, she begins to feel resentful towards her husband. As time passes Rachael turns her attention towards Herr Lubert who is the last person one would have expected her to become attracted to, and this attraction is something that will have a huge impact on her own future and on everyone around her.

The novel has the story of Rachael at its heart but it also focusses on Edmund who becomes involved with a group of semi-feral boys who are surviving by theft and looting in what has become a dark and dangerous world. Frieda falls for a dubious young man and also finds herself drawn into dangerous activities and Colonel Morgan becomes unpopular and isolated. By spreading out the story through various individuals the author is able to highlight a lot of what went on in the reconstruction of Germany at this time and what happened with the rehabilitation of some Germans.

I was interested to read this novel because I have recently read a non-fiction book which covers a lot of the same ground and which has much the same title – Aftermath by Harald Jahner (see my review here) and it was fascinating to see how the novel reflects the reality. I actually enjoyed the non-fiction title better because I thought that the novel dragged a bit in the middle and I grew weary of Rachael. Nevertheless it is an unusual period to write about and I found the novel entertaining.