Shape of Her
We begin with Katya, the youngest member of a group of characters who, in common with many affluent Jewish families, were robbed by the Nazis of their art and wealth, in this case, a cache of diamonds, still unrecovered decades later.
When new clues, hidden in a mysterious code, emerge, regarding the whereabouts of the stolen hoard, Katya, driven by a compulsive loyalty to her dead mother, is drawn into a search. At this point Anne Lauppe-Dunbar lures us into a world of almost unbearably heightened tension, which she sustains throughout her story.
Along with the novel’s unrelentingly fast pace, the reader, barely able to draw breath, is challenged by the rewarding task of engaging with the numerous vividly drawn characters (family members and those emotionally linked to them) who become involved in a story that is intensely harrowing. This is no easy read. Whether involving a mouse’s scuttle across a violent, breathtaking scene or the bleak twitter of a bird in a silence brittle with suspense, Anne Lauppe-Dunbar’s prose is luminous and electrifying.
Negotiating and in many instances narrowly surviving the hazards she encounters, the focus is always on Katya and her emotional and physical involvement as she pursues her objective across a Germany still bruised and corrupted by the legacy of the Second World War. The writer’s portrayal of Katya cleverly avoids sentimentality, leaving us with a strong character whose vulnerability can still move us as we travel with her through the harsher elements of her story.
If you seek a cosy read in a comfortable armchair, don’t choose The Shape of Her. But if you want to be captivated, enthralled, chilled and indeed thrilled, this is one for you.
