The Mare: A Novel

"Essentially, this novel asks the reader many uncomfortable questions about responsibility. When does it rest with others? When does it rest with you? Hermine Braunsteiner is a New York suburban housewife whose past as an ambitious female Nazi concentration camp guard catches up with her. The reader watches Hermine’s post-war American life, and that of her faithful husband, unravel. The book time-travels and has two narrators: we see the German camps through Hermine’s eyes, and we see Hermine through her husband’s eyes. Well, on a technical level, Angharad Hampshire has a perfect understanding of structure. Time travel is difficult but she achieves the moves seamlessly: the reader is never lost. Her characters are unshowy yet absolutely stick with you. I can see Hermine. I can see Russell. They are complete human beings. So many writerly pitfalls lurk when writing about the death camps. Angharad Hampshire falls into none of them. Her writing is plain and direct, and her control makes the story she’s telling all the more compelling and disturbing."