The Dressmaker's War
A Novel
-
-
4.1 • 107 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
For readers of Amy Bloom, Sarah Waters, and Anthony Doerr, The Dressmaker’s War is the story of a brilliant English seamstress taken prisoner in Germany during World War II: about her perseverance, the choices she makes to stay alive, and the haunting aftermath of war.
London, 1939. Ada Vaughan is a young working-class woman with an unusual skill for dressmaking who dreams of opening her own atelier. When she meets Stanislaus von Lieben, a Hungarian aristocrat, a new, better life seems to arrive. Stanislaus sweeps Ada off her feet and brings her to Paris. But when war breaks out and Stanislaus vanishes, Ada is abandoned and alone, trapped on an increasingly dangerous continent.
Taken prisoner by the Germans, Ada does everything she can to survive. In the bleak horror of wartime Germany, Ada’s skill for creating beauty and glamour is the one thing that keeps her safe. But after the war, attempting to rebuild her life in London, Ada finds that no one is interested in the messy truths of what happened to women like her. And though Ada thought she had left the war behind, her past eventually comes to light, with devastating consequences.
Gorgeously written and compulsively readable, The Dressmaker’s War introduces us to an unforgettable heroine—Ada Vaughan, a woman whose ambition for a better life ultimately comes at a heartbreaking cost.
Praise for The Dressmaker’s War
“Mary Chamberlain’s clear, bright prose is river-swift and Ada Vaughan is a character rich with beautiful, flawed humanity. This is a gripping story about limits and the haunting, brutal way they can be drawn and redrawn in war.”—Priya Parmar, author of Vanessa and Her Sister
“A thrilling story, brilliantly told—I couldn’t put it down. Ada Vaughan is a character to fall in love with: utterly real, flawed, and beguiling.”—Saskia Sarginson, author of The Twins and Without You
“I found myself completely swept up in this tale of love, ambition, and vanity.”—Juliet West, author of Before the Fall
“The Dressmaker’s War is a powerful and gripping tale of longings and dreams, and how a chance meeting that seems to offer the answers and more instead comes with devastating consequences. It’s a story about what a person will do and can do under force.”—Cecilia Ekbäck, author of Wolf Winter
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chamberlain's outlandish novel chronicles the misfortunes of Ada Vaughan, a struggling but aspirational dressmaker in 1940s London whose dreams of founding a great fashion house are derailed by war. After getting bamboozled by Stanislaus von Lieben, a smooth talker who claims to be an Austrian count, Ada finds herself in Paris, far from her overprotective parents, just as World War II begins. When Stanislaus later abandons her in Belgium, Ada pretends to be a nun and is captured by Nazis, but not before giving birth to a son, Thomas, who is whisked away, presumably to an orphanage, by a priest who is eventually found dead. A few years later, Ada believes she has found Thomas after being forced to make dresses for a cruel Nazi Frau who is raising the child as her own. When the war ends, Ada returns to London and begins again, making the occasional dress while waitressing. She becomes a kept woman in an effort to save enough money to find her son, but has a violent confrontation with someone from her past that leads her astray again. Chamberlain's story moves at a breakneck pace that makes it hard to feel any connection to her beleaguered heroine or to suspend disbelief for some of the more unbelievable things that happen. The bad guys are as cartoonishly one-note as Ada is flighty and heedless of consequences. The muddled characters and unlikely coincidences prevent any statement about overcoming adversity from resonating.
Customer Reviews
The Dressmaker’s War
Very well written story about a very dark period in our history. The characters came to life. I couldn’t put it down; very compelling but heartbreaking.
The main character drove me insane
This was well written and I loved some hidden plot twists at the end but I DESPISED the main character. She came across as naive, stupid, and even shallow. Kept making stupid decisions that were just SO OBVIOUS what was happening but she was like this dumb little girl skipping along. I want women characters that are STRONG and intelligent. I understand the author was trying to show women being so vulnerable and treated awful during these times but I would have liked her to have a brain.
Loved the book!
Very well detailed . . Very graphic as to the treatment of non-German civilians during WWII . . touching, endearing, heartbreaking, sad . . definitely not an uplifting book, especially the ending. I could not put it down . . read the entire book in 3 days!