When Twilight Breaks (Pre-WWII BOOK 1)
Sarah Sundin
Revell Pub
Feb 2nd, 2021
When Twilight Breaks by Sarah Sundin is a novel where readers will experience a range of emotions with an inspirational story. Woven into this historical novel’s pages are love, intrigue, mystery, and danger.
Sundin noted, “It was inspired by my grandfather’s story who studied the German language in 1936 Germany. He was a professor there. I was struck on how an American living and studying in Nazi Germany would feel. After doing some research, I found that thousands of Americans there had one of two opinions: either they were horrified seeing the oppression of the Jews like my heroine Evelyn, or saw Germany prospering while the rest of the world faced unrest and an economic depression like Peter.”
This suspenseful story focuses on the unfair laws and treatment of the Jewish population in Munich Germany in 1938 before the war began. Evelyn Brand is an American foreign correspondent determined to prove her worth in a male-dominated profession and to expose the growing tyranny in Nazi Germany. But she is assigned a fluff piece where she must interview Americans in Germany. Peter Lang is one of those Americans, a language professor at the University of Munich, doing a doctoral study on language learning. When Evelyn is assigned a story to interview Peter’s students, she finds herself intrigued by this professor and he in turn is completely taken with Evelyn.
“Evelyn talks about how her dues are twice as much as a man’s. I put in this book quote, “If a man hunts down a lead, he’s called bold. I’m called pushy. If a man finds an unconventional way to get a story, he’s called clever. I’m scolded for breaking the rules.” I hope every woman who tries to succeed in a man’s world can relate to this quote. We see this in business today where a successful woman is considered brassy and pushy. I mention in the book two women correspondents who were in Germany, Dorothy Thompson and Sigrid Schultz. Her nickname was Firebrand which basically describes her spunkiness, independence, and courageousness. She is intelligent, adventurous, bold, sometimes sarcastic, and does not follow the rules.”
But in the beginning they have polar opposite views. He is disillusioned with the chaos in the world due to the Great Depression, losing his father to a beating by Communists, and impressed with the prosperity and order of German society. While Evelyn sees a police state and viciousness. After introducing Peter to her friend Herr Gold, a Jewish café owner whose baked goods are delicious, he witnesses the Nazi brutality. Peter realizes there are tragedies happening right under his nose, the persecution laws of Jewish businesses and the destruction of Jewish Synagogues. Everything changes after the real-life events of Kristallnacht, when the story becomes an adventure tale as the hero and heroine try to outwit their enemies and escape the German nightmare.Readers will feel not only the danger and injustice, but all the helplessness. This book resonates long after the final page is turned. It was fascinating to see the build-up to the war from the perspective of American citizens who were residing in Nazi Ger
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