"This stirring story of loss, love, courage and art traverses the 1920s Weimar Republic, the changing tides of 1930s Berlin, and a search for the truth in the 1990s."
Sweeping and suspenseful, Sarah Freethy’s The Porcelain Maker tells a poignant story of love between two extraordinary individuals who meet in 1929 as Germany teeters on the brink of monumental change. Interweaving past events and long-buried secrets with a daughter’s search for the truth in the present, lifetimes of love, heartbreak and unthinkable decisions are related in page-turning style.
1993. Clara is searching for the truth about her family and buys a set of figurines she hopes will lead her to it, among them a little rabbit. Before her death, her mother, Bettina, had called Clara’s father the “porcelain maker of Dachau”, and Clara is set on discovering who he was.
1925. Weimar Berlin. Jewish Viennese-born Max is a “future Bauhaus architect extraordinaire” when he meets beautiful art student Bettina, whom he calls his “little rabbit”. Skip forward a few years — they’re a devoted couple, and Bettina is being mentored by Kandinsky. At the same time, the threat of Nazism is on the rise. By 1937, Bettina’s Expressionist art is hailed “degenerate” and Max might be arrested at any time. This leads the couple to leave Berlin, and Max starts work in an SS porcelain factory with a new identity.
Heartbreakingly, Max is later arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp. Bettina has no idea where he is, or what’s happened to him, and so two searches play out — Bettina’s and Clara’s. Richly detailed on the art of porcelain making, and shot-through with emotion as dreadful experiences and secrets are revealed, The Porcelain Maker is a vivid, tense, suspenseful read.
| Primary Genre | Romance / Relationship Stories |
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