The Sunflower House by Adriana Allegri ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory―a real-life Handmaid's Tale―during World War II.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

November 2024; St. Martin's; 978-1250326522
audio, ebook, print (336 pages); historical fiction

There have been so many books about World War II in the last several years, that it seems like there would be more repetition.  This is definitely not the case with The Sunflower House.  This debut novel was well-researched and about a subject rarely written about  - the  Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure” blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good” Nazi families.

Allina lived in a small German village with her aunt and uncle who raised her.  Her life was carefree - she worked with her uncle at his bookstore and spent time with her friends and her fiancé.  She isn't worried about the future and feels that the changes being brought about by the Nazi party won't affect her small village. Until one morning when most of the people in town are murdered by the Nazis.  She is still alive and given the protection of the leader of the group.  Hoping that his rape of her has made her pregnant, he takes her to a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home.  When she finds that she isn't pregnant, she is forced to become a nurse for the babies in the house.  There she becomes a witness to the workings of the baby factory that was being praised by the German hierarchy.  It was a way to provide sex for the soldiers as well as rewarding the women for having babies that had pure Aryan blood.  While there, she fell in love with a German leader who was not what he appeared to be.  Will their love and respect for each other allow them to make changes to the poor treatment of the babies at the Lebensborn houses in Germany or is their love doomed to fail?

Years later, Allina's daughter finds a box with a swastika on it in her mother's closet.  She and her mother had never been very close and when she asks her mother about the box, Allina shares her past with her daughter which helps to bring them closer to each other in the last years of her mother's life.

This is a beautifully written story about loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.  It's also about the love between a mother and daughter and how important it is to reveal the secrets of the past.  This is a debut novel for this author and based on this wonderfully written story, I look forward to her future books.

Additional Information:  In the beginning, the Lebensborn were taken to SS nurseries. But in order to create a “super-race,” the SS transformed these nurseries into “meeting places” for “racially pure” German women who wanted to meet and have children with SS officers. The children born in the Lebensborn nurseries were then taken by the SS. Lebensborn provided support for expectant mothers, wed or unwed, by providing a home and the means to have their children in safety and comfort.

Buy The Sunflower House at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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