Why a Booktrail?
1910s, 1930s, 1970s, 2007: “Do for me what I couldn’t”
Hotel on Shadow Lake
What you need to know before your trail
When Maya was a girl, her grandmother was everything to her: teller of magical fairy tales, surrogate mother, best friend. Then her grandmother disappeared without a trace, leaving Maya with only questions to fill the void. Twenty-seven years later, her grandmother’s body is found in a place she had no connection to.
Desperate for answers, Maya begins to unravel secrets that go back decades, from 1910s New York to 1930s Germany and beyond. But when she begins to find herself spinning her own lies in order to uncover what happened, she must decide whether her life, and a chance at love, are worth risking for the truth.
Locations
Reset- Geramany -Munich
- A: Schwabing
- B: Perlach
- C: Victuals Market
- America/USA - NY
- D: Shawangunk Mountains
- E: Mohonk Preserve Visitors Center
- F: Tarrytown,
Travel Guide
Germany
The Germany of the book is a country fraught with danger and more. This is where the bulk of the story is set, the background to the Nazi era and the secrets and lies which come from this time. Martha’s twin brother Wolfgang supports and is under the influence of the Nazi party
Munich
“As usual these days, the conversation revolved around the Fuhrer’s plans plans to annex the Sudentenland, a region of Czechoslovakia, and its German-speaking population”
Schwabing
Martha’s father loves this part of the city. “The heart of Munich’s artistic and bohemian life” he had called it. And she would be living right in the centre of it
Perlach
The family live in this part of the city. Their house sat right at the borer of the city line, at the edge of a forest as dark as the mood in the house”
Tarrytown New York
Maya travels to the last place her grandmother was known to have been before she died and ends up at Shadow Lake. This is in a forested area of upstate New York near a luxury hotel owned by a German family.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
A novel of two strands and two locations. A story of how the horrors of the Nazi era can spread like ripples across the pond of time. The story starts in Germany when you realise just how black and white this time was to people, even within the same family – Martha and her brother believe in a very different Germany.
Parts of this were tricky to read but honest. I felt it was the stronger thread of the two as seen through the eyes of a young girl, the events were even more horrific in many ways. There was a lot to take in here but then again parts I really didn’t want to linger on.
What was at the centre of the whole mystery however was the last message of her grandmother. What did she mean by her last question? Although the story in America took this strand up, it often felt disjointed to the historical background set in Munich. The story however was heavily inspired by that of the author’s grandmother she explains in the back of the book so it does hold a special meaning and gives a new level of interest to the whole book.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Hotel on Shadow Lake
Destination: Berlin, New York Author/Guide: Daniela Tully Departure Time: 1910s, 1930s, 1970s, 2007
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