In a time of war, chaos, and oppression, a gutsy young girl learns to survive, in this international saga penned by an admiring husband.
For Renate Werner, the sounds of war began when she was just three, living in Berlin as the city came under fierce aerial bombardment. Even Hitler, the fanatical leader so many had followed so loyally, urged the remnants of citizenry hanging on in the city to flee. Renate’s mother Erika had everything planned, suitcases packed…but her husband would not accompany the family. Erika, little Renate, and her brother Dieter embarked on a new life of moving, dodging, learning to be refugees and then, residents of Communist-dominated East Berlin. When Renate was in eighth grade, a decision came down from the state that she would not be allowed to attend high school, despite her excellent grades and thirst for knowledge. At that point, she and her mother embarked on yet another trek, to get to and stay in West Berlin, where Renate could complete her education. It was there that the aspiring young career woman met Naveen Sridhar, and attached herself to yet another unknown culture, that of her fiancé and his family. She explored India to immerse herself in his heritage. Their many adventures ultimately led them back to Berlin, where they now reside.
CANDLELIGHT IN A STORM – BORN TO BE A BERLINER is a unique, spellbinding biography in which Sridhar’s paean to his courageous wife is interwoven with a scholarly work of nonfiction complete with endnotes, making connections between the lives of Renate and Naveen and events on the world stage, both in Germany and India. Sridhar accomplishes this task in a capable manner that manages to be erudite without being overbearing. Both family members and dedicated students of the human story of Berlin from the fall of Nazism to the era of the Wall, to the present day, will find Sridhar’s writing both charming and elucidating.
CANDLELIGHT IN A STORM deftly mixes family memories with a readable historical reference.
Sridhar accomplishes this task in a capable manner that manages to be erudite without being overbearing.
~IndieReader.
– See more at: http://indiereader.com/2015/11/a-husband-pens-a-loving-biography-of-his-wife-in-candlelight-in-a-storm-born-to-be-a-berliner/#sthash.hUM8EMD6.dpuf
