From Publishers Weekly
Memory is the terrible burden shouldered by the protagonists of Moran's novel, survivors of WWII who became executioners in order to live. Polish-born Anja has left her former existence behind, fleeing Krak¢w, where she betrayed Resistance fighters to the Germans. In a displaced persons camp, she meets, across a barbed wire fence, former Wehrmacht officer Walter Fass, himself forever plagued with guilt for the massacre of partisan fighters in Yugoslavia. The two make the practical decision to marry-Walter offers Anja the shelter of his uncle's Tyrolean farm, and Anja helps one-armed Walter with the farmwork-and they gradually come to feel affection for each other. The birth of their daughter brings them closer together, but just as love and honesty come to seem possible, one of Walter's wartime comrades appears on their doorstep. Seductive, unscrupulous Mila is a Chetnik woman with a steely will and secret objectives, and she insinuates herself into both Walter and Anja's lives, poisoning their marriage. Moran has an impressive ability to create characters who are at once morally troubling and sympathetic. Anja, in particular, is a nuanced figure, pleading weakness but also acknowledging the pleasing sense of power her wartime actions gave her. The parallel account of another postwar marriage of convenience linking Anja's lesbian friend Sisi and Walter's homosexual friend Dizzi provides a piquant counterpoint to the main narrative. But truth and happiness are perpetually out of reach for both couples, and the novel's tragic conclusion forgoes even the comfort of confession. Moran (The Man in the Box, etc.) ties up his tale too quickly, but his examination of the fine distinctions between evil, weakness and desperation is stimulating and unflinching. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In the late summer of 1945, Anja and Sisi find themselves in a displaced person camp; they agree to marry two ex-soldiers, thereby insuring their release. Anja marries Walter Fass, an ex-Wehrmacht officer. Both are trying to escape a past filled with horrific memories: Anja, who betrayed her friends in the Polish underground, and Walter, who agonizes over his role as "a passive witness to barbarity." Sisi, a vivacious free spirit, marries an Austrian who fought with Walter in Yugoslavia; theirs is a loveless marriage. But while Anja and Walter's union also begins as one of convenience, their feelings gradually evolve into love, cemented by the birth of their daughter. The past erupts in the form of a woman who fought with Walter and forced him to participate in a mass murder--an act that torments him daily. As if emerging from the grave, she destroys his burgeoning efforts to make peace with his ignoble past. Moran expertly delves into the psyches of his fragile characters, leaving a haunting portrait of the aftermath of war. Deborah Donovan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Washington Post
A dark, fascinating study of souls in torment.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Anja Wieniewska narrowly survived Word War II in German-occupied Krakow. How she did it is her ugly secret. Nearly translucent in her survivor's body, she is "an empty dress, walking," in the eyes of Walter Fass, who spots her through the wire fences surrounding the Displaced Persons camp in gray Bavaria. A soldier from the defeated side, Walter has his own secrets. The two form a marriage of convenience, both desperately hoping to become someone new, to leave behind the haunting memories of who they were - and what they did - in wartime.

Anja and Walter flee to Walter's family farm at the foot of the Italian Alps, and there they become more to each other than refugees with a common enemy. The possibility of healing and even redemption appears within their grasp. But when an old war comrade of Walter's shows up on their doorstep, their fragile peace begins to unravel. Moran carefully and potently portrays the wrenching emotional struggle that threatens to destroy their love and their new lives - and deftly places it in the context of a chaotic world forever changed.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

[Moran's] examination of the fine distinctions between evil, weakness and desperation is stimulating and unflinching. August 25, 2003

The Washington Post

Moran, a onetime journalist whose fifth novel this is, seems to be saying that the war's poison, its evil, has infected both women and will never go away. We read on, wondering which of them will triumph. This is a dark, fascinating study of souls in torment. — Patrick Anderson

Seattle Times

Thomas Moran...writes as gracefully as almost anyone you could name...

Publishers Weekly

Memory is the terrible burden shouldered by the protagonists of Moran's novel, survivors of WWII who became executioners in order to live. Polish-born Anja has left her former existence behind, fleeing Krak w, where she betrayed Resistance fighters to the Germans. In a displaced persons camp, she meets, across a barbed wire fence, former Wehrmacht officer Walter Fass, himself forever plagued with guilt for the massacre of partisan fighters in Yugoslavia. The two make the practical decision to marry-Walter offers Anja the shelter of his uncle's Tyrolean farm, and Anja helps one-armed Walter with the farmwork-and they gradually come to feel affection for each other. The birth of their daughter brings them closer together, but just as love and honesty come to seem possible, one of Walter's wartime comrades appears on their doorstep. Seductive, unscrupulous Mila is a Chetnik woman with a steely will and secret objectives, and she insinuates herself into both Walter and Anja's lives, poisoning their marriage. Moran has an impressive ability to create characters who are at once morally troubling and sympathetic. Anja, in particular, is a nuanced figure, pleading weakness but also acknowledging the pleasing sense of power her wartime actions gave her. The parallel account of another postwar marriage of convenience linking Anja's lesbian friend Sisi and Walter's homosexual friend Dizzi provides a piquant counterpoint to the main narrative. But truth and happiness are perpetually out of reach for both couples, and the novel's tragic conclusion forgoes even the comfort of confession. Moran (The Man in the Box, etc.) ties up his tale too quickly, but his examination of the fine distinctions between evil, weakness and desperation is stimulating and unflinching. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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