Why did I love this book?
Julia is a famous actress in Vienna at the time of the Anschluss. She’s married to a Jewish man, whom she ends up having to hide from the Nazis in their apartment, assisted by their loyal housekeeper. Little by little life becomes impossible. Julia’s charming, tolerant, very ‘Viennese’, acquaintances and fellow actors find it’s no longer possible to turn a blind eye to what the Nazis intend. Jewish friends including the elderly and very young, are murdered, deported, and persecuted. And then at the end, the Red Army moves into Vienna and one of the saddest things of all happens… There are two further books in the same series about post-war Austria, but this one is my favourite.
2 authors picked Night Falls On The City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Vienna, 1938. Beautiful actress Julia Homburg and her politician husband Franz Wedeker embody all the enlightened brilliance of their native city. But Wedeker is Jewish, and just across the border the tanks of the Nazi Reich are primed for the Anschluss.
When the SS invades and disappearances become routine, Franz must be concealed. With daring ingenuity, Julia conjures a hiding place. In the shadow of oppression, a clear conscience is a luxury few can afford, and Julia finds she must strike a series of hateful bargains with the new order if she and her husband are to survive.
A highly…
