Release Date: December 3, 2019 

In 1963 in Frankfurt, Germany, Eva Bruhns is a bright, 24-year-old woman eager for her future to start while living with her parents, sister, and little brother. The destruction of World War II is in the past now that the city, including her parents’ restaurant, is rebuilt. Eva helps her parents at their restaurant, The German House, in between her work as a Polish translator and dates with her suitor, the wealthy son of a businessman, Jürgen Schoormann. However, Eva’s neatly planned future becomes muddled when investigator David Miller hires her as a translator for a war crimes trial.

As Eva struggles with her family’s and suitor’s expectations, she becomes increasingly invested in the Frankfurt Trials against SS officers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her new job brings past horrors to the forefront as Eva confronts the truth of her nation’s and her own past. The vague memories of her childhood bring Eva closer to the trial as it progresses. She must make a choice to uncover the atrocities in the past or to become the woman and the wife she is expected to be. 

Annette Hess’ The German House is a story that shows the atrocities committed by the Nazis through the eyes of a young German woman who must reconcile her own identity with the actions of her nation. This novel deals with the difficulty of speaking the truth and the complex relationships between a maturing woman and her family.