Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

"Christine, I want you to understand something. War makes perpetrators of some, criminals of others, and victims of everyone. Not all of the soldiers on the front are fighting for Hitler and his ideals. Just because a soldier is in the battle, doesn't mean that he believes in the war." The Plum Tree is a story of a young girl (Christine) and her family during WWII and the Nazi occupation of Germany. Beyond that, it is a tale of love and survival, of loss and strength, and a tale of hope. It is historical fiction, woven with a tale of romance between a young German girl and a young German Jew at the height of the terror in Nazi-occupied Germany. We have all learned about WWII, Nazi Germany, the concentration camps, and the horrors that befell Jews in Eastern Europe during Hitler's reign; however, this book brought this rich and terrifying history to life through the eyes of a young German girl and her family in ways that I had not experienced before. This is the first book that I have read from a German viewpoint rather than that of a concentration-camp or German Jew's perspective. And the story was chilling. Christine is a sympathetic protagonist who was easy to identify with. When the book opens, she is only 17 and is in love with a young Jewish boy from a well-to-do family. Predictably (although I don't mean this as a slight), their world changes when the war begins and Jewish families are targeted by Hitler and his men. We follow Christine through the changes in her hometown (including air raids, bombings, rationing of food, destruction, Jewish families being whisked away in the night to work campus, street shootings, and unspeakable violence). We often are not sure what has come of Christine's father (who was sent off to fight in the army) or Isaac, Christine's love who is likely sent away for being Jewish. Ellen Marie Wiseman writes this novel from personal experience- as a first generation German-American, Ellen Marie spent much of her life between Germany and America, and heard many tales from family members who lived during this time and experienced these unspeakable horrors. This gives the novel a freshness and a truthfulness that is easy to see. To say you loved this book feels wrong- it is haunting and heartbreaking and horrific- but it is also a lovely tale of young love and the heroism and spirit of a young German girl living in an unspeakably cruel world in a horrible period in Germany's history. That being said, this book is certainly a new favorite of mine and will be cherished forever. Although I thought I knew a great deal about this time period, WWII and Nazi-Occupied Germany, I was wrong. The perspective and the details from this story will undoubtedly stay with me forever.