The Brunswick: A World War II Novel of the American South
This historical novel, inspired by true events, links plot threads set on the eve of WWII, when rural Georgia and Vienna, Austria, couldn’t seem farther apart. Charlotte is ripped from her secure home in Austria by the oppression and discrimination sweeping the country after its forced unification with Nazi Germany. Cora tries to save her father’s Georgia hotel, The Brunswick, without his help, and Thomas flees to Georgia to escape ignominy in Chicago. Eventually the opportunity to save Jewish children from Hitler’s ethnic cleansing unites them in ways they could not have anticipated.
Murray skillfully combines real events with fictional characters representative of their time and place. Cora and Thomas have secrets which they fear will disgrace themselves and their families. Charlotte worries she may lose both father and mother, as she has already lost her home. An effort by American Jews to evacuate Jewish children draws them all together. Nothing goes as planned, and new dangers lurk on both sides of the Atlantic. But new friends and resources also appear when needed most.
Murray’s capable storytelling and alternating point-of-view characters propel the tale’s action and consequences. Anachronisms of speech, dress, and technology detract from the period feeling, though modern readers may not detect them. Transatlantic telephone calls were by radio until 1956, and Nazis would have driven German, not English, luxury cars.
