My Name is Eva by Suzanne Goldring ~ Book Review

Evelyn Taylor-Clarke, or Mrs T-C or Hilda, as she is known at the senior home where she resides, is gentle old lady with dementia well liked by staff.   At her age, Evelyn has slowed down in body and in mind, or so Evelyn would like them all to think.  But she is a woman who still has her wits about her and remembers everything.  And that includes the promise she made to her deceased husband to find the truth about what lead to his death and to hold the man responsible for it to account.  She remembers her time as Eve in post war Germany when wanting to do her part she first worked for the British Secret Services in an interrogation camp, fittingly named the Forbidden Village and all that transpired there and then in a resettlement camp for displaced persons.  She remembers all the horrors that were tucked away from there never to be mentioned except in letters to her beloved departed husband.  Most of all she remembers the horrific things she herself has done in order to keep the promise to her husband. No one at the senior home would ever believe the heart of revenge she has carried throughout all these years.  But when her niece, who has taken over her affairs which includes the selling of her precious home, comes across a suitcase filled with questionable items and an old cookie tin with a picture of a child,  Eva must not let on that she knows anything about them.  The secrets must stay only within her remembrance never to be revealed to anyone. But that doesn't mean she can't enjoy the game of keeping those around her guessing.  

This was a really interesting take on a WWII story.  It takes place after the war and looks at the role of the interrogation camps where Germans were questioned and also the work that took place trying to place victims of the war who had been displaced.  The author's research into these two aspects of the war was very apparent.  The story is told in several ways:  it's a time split novel that goes back and forth from 2016 and 1945.  But some of the chapters are also told thru short letters that Eva is writing to her husband both before and after his death.  To the care center, Evelyn is a pleasant old woman, but Evelyn has different sides to her personality and life only she knows.  Her love for her husband drives her decisions through out the story and her quest to find the truth about his death and hold the man responsible no matter the cost to herself is woven really well through the 3 different viewpoints.  I've never read a WWII story that actually took place immediately after the war and that was a really interesting aspect that kept me really engaged in the story.  The ending I did not see coming at all.   The only part of the story I didn't really care for was the fact of Evelyn's character pretending to have some dementia in order to fulfill her whole plan of revenge.  I was uncomfortable with that aspect of the story as I really feel for those who struggle with that in real life.  

I gave this story a 9/10

Reading Challenge Goal met:  Read my library holds and prompt "Read a book with red on the cover" from the Read Your Shelves Challenge.