This was a great read - the story interweaves 2 timelines - late 1930's and early 1990's - The 1930's story revolves around Emma and her life of how she ended up painting a mural for an American German Bund camp. I will say this is the first time I had ever heard of a Bund camp and it sent me right down a rabbit hole to a part of history I was vastly unaware of. The 1990's story involves Lily learning that she was adopted and going to meet her biological grandmother Emma - through the weaving timelines we get to know more about Emma and Lily and how their worlds have now come together. If you like authors such as Fiona Davis or Beatriz Williams. the writing and story style is very reminiscent of their works.

I thought this one was just gorgeous. The opposition these women faced and they parallel with which they handled it. The courage of Emma surrounded by such cruelty and choosing to stay for sake of others.
Lilly’s courage to just keep going when others would
Ha e given up. Finding each other at such imperative moments in each others lives. 🤌🏼🤌🏼
I loved it. I wish that Juliet or Patric has still alive, but that is my only critique.

What a fascinating book! I had no idea about any of this and neither did the main character at the beginning of the story.

The historical angle is super interesting. German camps for children during WWII in the United States where the kids were trained to become soldiers to help win WWII and indoctrinated with Hitler’s sick ideas of what the world should look like and how certain people groups should be treated.

The whole story is very well put together with so many twists and turns, but it also has the human element of failure. Real characters that struggle with real problems, searching for identity and life’s meaning. Thinking of others, making a difference. I don’t want to give away too much, but this story will stay with you for a while and pull on your heartstrings! WWII plays a big role, but there’s a lot more to it. I’d strongly suggest indulging and buying this book. You won’t regret it!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Köehler Books for providing me with an ARC. I was not required to leave a positive review, but was very happy to do so!

A fascinating, well-researched story about two timelines intertwining.

Split between the 1930s and 1990s, I was hooked from the moment I began reading. Both timelines were equally fascinating and I was on the edge of my seat as we got closer to the end. Jacqueline Sheehan did a wonderful job researching and writing about this period in American history, particularly as we continue lose survivors of this time. I highly recommend for anyone interested in American history or fans of Pam Jenoff.

The Camp Muralist was hard for me to get into. However, I did read it distractedly; it was also a very tense read from the minute Karl entered the story. I just kept imagining all the terrible things a man like him would do to a single young woman and a small orphan boy, which made reading the book feel stressful.

I was attracted to the book because the synopsis mentioned a German-American youth camp. I knew there were Nazi sympathizers in the U.S. before WWII. Still, I had no idea that they were brazen enough to run camps for children that were meant to emulate the Hitlerjugend organization in Germany.

Emma was such a brave young woman, ahead of her time in many ways. She didn’t kowtow to people and their silly judgments of her. After losing her job (because of a head nurse who lived to make people’s lives miserable), she heads out to her family’s old summer cottage to regroup and figure out what to do next since the aforementioned head nurse from hell had her blocklisted.

With nursing no longer an option, Emma jumps at the chance to paint a mural at a mysterious camp that popped up right on the border of her parents’ land. Emma was a very intuitive character, but she was also very aware of being a single woman at the end of the Great Depression.

Then there was Lily. Fifty years later, facing business failure, the end of her marriage, and finding out about a long-lost grandmother she never knew about. These dual perspectives seemed like two different books until Emma and Lily end up in each other’s orbits. Old secrets and long-buried truths begin to reveal themselves through these two women’s search for family and belonging.

Ultimately, I think The Camp Muralist has a very important message. It is a reminder that when we do not remember history, the worst parts of it begin to repeat themselves. God forbid that we allow a new version of the Bund Camps into our country. And may we be brave enough to chase them out like the real-life citizens of Southbury if they do appear again. Thank you, Jacqueline Sheehan, for writing such a timely and important book.

Thank you NetGalley for the free advance copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Camp Muralist gave me one of my favorite things historical fiction can do: send me straight to Google because I had no idea this part of American history existed. Emma Lundgren’s work at a German American youth camp in 1938 Connecticut slowly exposes how openly Nazi ideology was taking root on American soil before World War II. That history is unsettling enough on its own, and the novel makes it feel personal rather than distant.

I was especially interested in the German American Bund and the youth camps because I knew very little about them going in. Emma initially sees the mural commission as a chance to practice her art, but the mistreatment of a young boy and the beliefs being taught inside the camp force her to pay closer attention. More than fifty years later, chef Lily Milan learns that the story she has been told about her own adoption is incomplete, which eventually leads her back to Emma.

The dual timeline gives the book a family mystery as well as a historical one, and I liked seeing those pieces gradually connect. For me, though, Emma’s 1938 storyline was the part I kept thinking about. I read a lot of historical fiction, and I always appreciate finding a book that covers something outside the usual World War II stories while still making the history feel immediate.

My sincere thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advance review copy.

As with her earlier novels, Jacqueline Sheehan combines the tumult of the “real world” with psychology and imagination. The result is a powerhouse of a story told in dual narratives: Emma is an artist in 1938 hired to paint a mural at a German American bund camp, Lily is a failed chef half a century later and a continent away. The connection between these two women, and the secrets that both separate and bind them, give the reader a novel that is both character-driven and full of plot twists, both page-turner and deeply thoughtful.

Sheehan does a great job of weaving together multiple stories and timelines; the themes of what it means to be a family, gender discrimination, community action and antisemitism feel timely and relevant. I knew some of the history of the Nazi movement in America, but not about the camps. The ending, while not a complete surprise, was well written.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
I want to thank NetGalley and Köehler Books for providing me with an ARC.
Would you like me to say that this is an important book now since it sends an important message that ignoring history can lead it to repeat itself. Why? Why should it be said? Why do people turn a blind eye to the blaring alarm signs right in front of them?
Emma isn't one of them. When she accepts the opportunity to work as a muralist at a camp being run near her parents' land she comes upon the realisation that its spreading Nazi propaganda in the USA by brain washing the young children. This isn't fiction but is truth. Long before WW2, there were Nazi forces at work to corrupt and make as many people malleable to their ideology.
This is a book about one of the many people who in small ways fought against an enemy who appeared invincible and won. Its through their efforts the world is a better place and now its our turn to give our all for the future generations and to carry forward the legacy of the previous one.