Review: What Remains is Hope by Bonnie Suchman
Today, I'm delighted to welcome back American author, Bonnie Suchman. I'm sharing my review of What Remains is Hope, the second book in her evocative trilogy about her husband's Jewish family in 1930s / 40s Germany. You can find my review of the first book, Stumbling Stones, which I can highly recommend, HERE!
What Remains is Hope is currently on blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club. Find other fascinating tour stops – excerpts, research and family history posts, and more – HERE!
What Remains is Hope
The Heppenheimer Family Holocaust Saga, Book #2
Bonnie Suchman
When Bonnie Suchman's blog tour for What Remains is Hope was announced, I was keen to delve back into the fold of the Heppenheimers – Jewish German ancestors and relatives of Ms Suchman's husband, Bruce.
This second novel in the trilogy about three strands of the Heppenheimer family is another important step into understanding the past, and – like the compelling Stumbling Stones – the author brings vividly to life the various family members. Some survived the war, others, sadly, didn't.
What Remains is Hope is the story of four cousins, descendants of Lazarus Heppenheimer. In the novel, the cousins are close, despite an age gap between them. The youngest is Gertrud, who is half-Jewish through her father, Robert, with her slightly older Jewish cousins Bettina, Trudi and Gustav.
The novel begins in 1930, when Gertrud was a 10-year-old child. Inquisitive and keen to keep up with her cousins, she lives with her mother, Margarethe. Her parents' relationship is difficult, and during the novel, they separate. When her mother remarries, she omits details of Gertrud's father, and presents Gertrud as illegitimate. Fortunately for her, Gertrud is baptised in the Lutheran faith, and with her mother's forged papers becomes non-Jewish. Much to Gertrud's frustration! However, as the years go by, she realises her mother had done this to save her life, and herself by association. It's a bittersweet realisation for Gertrud.
Her three cousins, however, are known in the Jewish community through the family connection, although only Gustav pays attention to religion. I found this an interesting aspect – that for many people in the 1930s – Christians and Jews – faith often played a lesser role in daily life. Unfortunately, the Nazis didn't care whether you were practicing or not...
We follow the four cousins' everyday lives over the years, and Ms Suchman describes their routines in great detail. These were ordinary people just wanting to live their lives, earn a living, and care for their loved ones.
The failing family business; the marriages to non-Jewish German spouses; house moves from anti-Semitic Frankfurt to Prague, Strasbourg (and later deeper into the 'free' French countryside); and even Munich (ironically!)...
All these events are painstakingly told against an increasingly sinister backdrop of restrictions and discrimination against Jewish people and businesses. Who could you trust? Your neighbours? Work colleagues?
And as the situation deteriorates, the nefarious means employed by authorities of trying to prevent Jews from applying for their passports and for visas for America and pre-war England must have felt so utterly frustrating to all who tried. There's a fitting German word for it – Schikane – which sums up the unnecessarily complex and usually (intentionally) bankrupting method of exhorting every Pfennig people had, every piece of jewellery or art, and they still had to jump through hoops. Through Gustav in particular, we feel the fear and uncertainty of the whole application process.
We also witness the chilling events of Kristallnacht, on November 9th-10th, 1938, through the eyes of Bettina in Munich and Gustav in Frankfurt. This adds a very direct, personal touch to the nightmare that many felt that night and from that moment onwards.
I don't want to go into any more detail, as not to give away too many plot strands, but suffice to say, What Remains is Hope, is an enthralling account of the lives of members of one family – ordinary women and men (and their children) who just wanted to live their lives in peace and safety. Their grandparents and parents had fought for Germany in the Great War, after all. And suddenly, they were undesirables?
I thought the novel was a worthy sequel to Stumbling Stones, full of painstakingly-researched detail. We witness at first hand the gradual breakdown of German society, in their deluded quest to find culprits for the misery of the Great Depression.
And whilst What Remains is Hope tells the story of the four cousins and their fight for survival, it is also a novel of hope for the future; of overcoming of adversity; and of the great importance of family.
My only issue would be about the editing of the dialogue. The author often uses characters' names in dialogue, which at times sounds unnatural, as we don't usually address each other in direct speech that much. The editor should have picked up on that, and removed a few instances. This would have eased the reading flow a little.
But apart from that minor issue, What Remains is Hope is a personal, heartfelt story that has you turning the pages, as you worry for the cousins and their families.
This is not a World War II novel about spies and dangerous daring-dos; it's a story about the quiet bravery of ordinary people trying to survive in a dark, hostile environment. In its message, What Remains is Hope succeeds. You will be moved to tears as you read the cousins’ stories, but don't forget – there is always hope...
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Blurb:
Praise for What Remains is Hope:
Beginning in 1930s Germany and based on their real lives, four cousins as close as siblings—Bettina, Trudi, Gustav, and Gertrud—share the experiences of the young, including first loves, marriages, and children.
Bettina, the oldest, struggles to help her parents with their failing business. Trudi dresses in the latest fashions and tries to make everything look beautiful. Gustav is an artist at heart and hopes to one day open a tailoring shop. Gertrud, the youngest, is forced by her parents to keep secrets, but that doesn’t stop her from chasing boys. However, over their seemingly ordinary lives hangs one critical truth—they’re Jewish—putting them increasingly at risk.
When World War II breaks out, the four are still in Germany or German-occupied lands, unable or unwilling to leave. How will these cousins avoid the horrors of the Nazi regime, a regime that wants them dead? Will they be able to avoid the deportations and concentration camps that have claimed their fellow Jews? Danger is their constant companion, and it will take hope and more to survive.
Praise for What Remains is Hope:
"Readers will find this follow up to Suchman's prior novel, Stumbling Stones, both a heartbreaking reminder of the Holocaust's atrocities and a compelling tribute to a family's refusal to surrender to despair...Richly compelling Holocaust account, centered on the power of hope."
~ Booklife by Publishers Weekly
"Author Bonnie Suchman has a way of making every moment count with her characters in a narrative that feels powerfully real as she spins deeply personal stories against a sweeping and tragic backdrop of history. ..What Remains is Hope is historical fiction at its best, and I'd highly recommend it to fans of gripping fiction that's emotionally resonant and grounded in truth."
~ K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
Buy Link: Universal Buy Link
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
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About the Author:
Bonnie Suchman has been a practicing attorney for forty years. Using her legal skills, she researched her husband's 250-year family history in Germany, publishing the award-winning, non-fiction book, Broken Promises: The Story of a Jewish Family in Germany, as a result.
Those compelling stories became Suchman's Heppenheimer Family Holocaust Saga. The first in the series, Stumbling Stones, was a Finalist for the 2024 Hawthorne Prize for Fiction, and recently, her family traveled to Frankfurt, Germany, to install stumbling stones for her husband's Great Aunt Alice and her husband Alfred, the real-life characters in the book. What Remains is Hope is the second novel in the saga.
In her free time, Bonnie is a runner and a golfer. She and her husband reside in Potomac, Maryland.
Connect with Bonnie:
Website • Twitter / X • Facebook • Instagram
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