Stone Mother

by Malve S. Burns

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Pub Date 1 Sep 2023 | Archive Date 21 Aug 2023

Atmosphere Press

Historical Fiction

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Description

Imagine growing up in a German family right after WWII with no knowledge of your country’s horrendous Nazi past or an understanding of your own family’s fierce internal struggles.

Marie is a dreamy child of a doctor whose family is offered refuge within the walls of Falkenburg Castle after the war. Within the safety of this thousand-year-old "stone mother," Marie begins her coming-of-age journey dominated by her troubled, often violent mother and comforted by her beloved father.

Soon, Marie is forced to leave the castle and is bounced from a Dickensian Children’s institution, to an inspiring private prep school for girls in Heidelberg, to the wild Alaska Highway, and back to Germany, where, at age fifteen, she discovers the full extent of Nazi atrocities and contemplates suicide.

With the help of her mother’s former teacher and the spirit prince of Falkenburg Castle, Marie begins to understand her mother’s pain. She finds a way to accept—though never condone—what she cannot change. Ultimately, when she faces the transgressions of both her mother and her motherland, she is inspired to engage more fully with her new Germany.

Imagine growing up in a German family right after WWII with no knowledge of your country’s horrendous Nazi past or an understanding of your own family’s fierce internal struggles.

Marie is a dreamy...

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A Note From the Publisher

Malve Burns' earliest memories are of living in a thousand-year-old castle in Germany. Before moving to the United States for graduate studies, she grew up in a silent country that did not acknowledge its horrific past. Malve has led the life of an academic, teaching and managing study abroad programs as well as working in think tanks and in development at Cornell, USC, Ithaca College, Johns Hopkins, and GWU. Her short story, "A Hot Munich Afternoon," appeared in the collection Defying Gravity. Czech Playboy published some of her short stories in translation. Malve lives in Washington, D.C., in a hundred-year-old condo castle.

Malve Burns' earliest memories are of living in a thousand-year-old castle in Germany. Before moving to the United States for graduate studies, she grew up in a silent country that did not...

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Advance Praise

"In Stone Mother, a young girl, born during a WWII bombing raid, struggles to solve the mysteries of her mother's abuse, her father's absence, and the strange silence about what happened during the war. Beautifully written and emotionally true, this novel deals with the damage caused by secrets and the need to discover the truth."

Barbara Esstman, author of The Other Anna and Night Ride Home

"A harsh mother, a kind-hearted father. A young girl is brought up with her siblings in a castle. This should be a fairy tale, but the bombs of WWII have only recently stopped falling. Set against the backdrop of Germany's defeat by the Allies, the author pulls us into the confusion, magic, horrors, and yearnings of an unraveled world for the girl and the wider society. What does her future hold? How do we survive trauma and learn to thrive?"

Maureen Roberts, author of My Grandmother Sings to Me (Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, 2004) and The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (Penguin Publications, 2000 & 2021)

"Stone Mother is an emotional rollercoaster where we get to ride shotgun as Marie explores a medieval castle, is shipped off to a home for'children of criminal parents,' is left to her own devices at 15 waiting tables at the Alaska Highway — this book will take you through majestic language from one astounding place to another, and back. Marie's journey, an echo of the author's own, navigating a stylish, unpredictable and cruel mother, yet we are privileged to come along, seeing an owl family on a windowsill and hearing her father's magical lectures about life — all while being surrounded by a family and country trying desperately to cope with dark secrets and the horrors of past sins. Unforgettable."

Hildie Block, author of "People" and editor of Not What I Expected

"An evocative novel about inherited pain and redemption." - Kirkus

"Whether seeking fiction about post-German recovery or individual survival of family dynamics, libraries looking for exceptionally vivid, evocative stories that blend the magical perceptions of youth with the staid absorption of adulthood will find Malve S. Burns has created a gem in Stone Mother that ideally will also earn a place on book club reading lists." -Midwest Book Review

"This story of understanding and acceptance is a great one to get you out of a reading slump. If you need something to get you back on track with your reading goal, you cannot go wrong with Stone Mother. You’re going to love it. It is two parts “growing up” and three parts “coming to terms with life.” Burns has infused the essence of coming of age in this captivating historical drama." -Independent Book Review

"Despite its modest length, Stone Mother offers a narrative scope akin to that of an epic. The narrative’s simplicity, coupled with exquisitely complex descriptions, imbues the characters with vivid life, eliciting empathy and a sense of connection from the reader. History unfolds organically before our eyes." -Literary Titan

"Stone Mother is a beautifully written, compassionate, but disturbing story about growing up in postwar Germany that will leave you thinking a long time afterward." -Feathered Quill

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