A captivating and atmospheric historical novel about a young girl in Nazi Germany, a psychoanalyst in fin-de-siècle Vienna, and the powerful mystery that links them together
Gretel and the Dark explores good and evil, hope and despair, showing how the primal thrills and horrors of the stories we learn as children can illuminate the darkest moments in history, in two rich, intertwining narratives that come together to form one exhilarating, page-turning read.
In 1899 Vienna, celebrated psychoanalyst Josef Breuer is about to encounter his strangest case yet: a mysterious, beautiful woman who claims to have no name, no feelings—to be, in fact, a machine. Intrigued, he tries to fathom the roots of her disturbance.
Years later, in Nazi-controlled Germany, Krysta plays alone while her papa works in the menacingly strange infirmary next door. Young, innocent, and fiercely stubborn, she retreats into a world of fairy tales, unable to see the danger closing in around her. When everything changes and the real world becomes as frightening as any of her stories, Krysta finds that her imagination holds powers beyond what she could ever have guessed.
Rich, compelling, and propulsively building to a dizzying final twist, Gretel and the Dark is a testament to the lifesaving power of the imagination and a mesmerizingly original story of redemption.
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“This book weaves two stories: one set in Vienna in 1899,
narrated by Stefan Rudnicki; the second set in Germany in the early 1940s,
narrated by Cassandra Campbell. Having two narrators helps the listener follow
two plots that become entwined as the story progresses. Rudnicki deftly
portrays a staid psychoanalyst with a somewhat pedantic and detached attitude
who encounters a puzzling patient in Vienna. Campbell portrays a naïve, young
woman in Germany years later who lives in her imagination, which is full of
dark fairy tales. Campbell’s steady narration intensifies the contrasts between
appearance and reality, hope and despair as she creates an understated and
haunting atmosphere. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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AudioFile