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Back The German Wife
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Praise
  4. Dedication
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. 24
  29. 25
  30. 26
  31. 27
  32. 28
  33. 29
  34. 30
  35. 31
  36. 32
  37. 33
  38. 34
  39. 35
  40. 36
  41. 37
  42. 38
  43. 39
  44. 40
  45. 41
  46. 42
  47. 43
  48. 44
  49. 45
  50. 46
  51. 47
  52. 48
  53. 49
  54. 50
  55. 51
  56. 52
  57. A NOTE FROM KELLY
  58. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  59. The German Wife - Reader's Guide
  60. Discussion Questions
  61. Booklist

There has to be an after, I told Jürgen the previous year when I first arrived in Huntsville. Hearing Mayim speak with such immense gratitude and hope as she told me about the blessings of her new life, I finally accepted a truth that had been gradually dawning on me since Jürgen was shot.

After wasn’t going to be a single moment when all of the trauma and the guilt disappeared and everything was okay. There would still be regrets and shame and nightmares and midnight anxieties, but after meant waking up every morning and facing each day as it came. It meant extending grace to those who feared me and my family and giving our new community time to learn that we were more than just the mistakes of our past. After would be truly mourning Georg and Laura, but it would also mean long car rides to see Mayim and to meet Ben and her children. It would mean never losing the wonder I felt that she had survived.

After would mean living the second chance Jürgen and I stumbled into with constant gratitude, raising our children in love, to counter the immense hate we had seen.

That was how we moved on. And I was finally ready to begin.

A NOTE FROM KELLY

Story ideas often come when I least expect them, and this book was no exception. In July 2019, my friend Teresa invited my family to join hers for a Saturday afternoon outing to Parkes, a small town about ninety minutes’ drive from our homes in Central New South Wales.

Parkes is famous for many things: a fierce rivalry with the nearby town of Forbes; an annual Elvis festival; and the two-hundred-foot telescope that juts out of the flat, sparse landscape to the north. The CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, known to Aussies as “the Dish,” helped broadcast the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing. The Parkes Observatory was hosting a festival for the fiftieth anniversary of that event. As I wandered the exhibits with Teresa and our respective children, I saw a display about the history of the US space program. It mentioned beginning in 1950, German scientists worked with American scientists to develop the rockets that would ultimately see humankind reach the moon.

I was immediately struck by how unlikely that arrangement was. Just a few years earlier, those men had been on opposing sides of a horrific war—but they worked together and achieved one of humanity’s most astounding technological accomplishments. I started researching as soon as I got home that night and fell down something of an Operation Paperclip rabbit hole.