The Dressmaker's War

By: Mary Chamberlain

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

London, spring 1939. Eighteen-year-old Ada Vaughan, a beautiful and ambitious seamstress, has just started work for a modiste in Dover Street. A career in couture is hers for the taking - she has the skill and the drive - if only she can break free from the dreariness of family life in Lambeth.

A chance meeting with the enigmatic Stanislaus von Lieben catapults Ada into a world of glamour and romance. When he suggests a trip to Paris, Ada is blind to all the warnings of war on the continent: This is her chance for a new start.

Anticipation turns to despair when war is declared, and the two are trapped in France. After the Nazis invade, Stanislaus abandons her. Ada is taken prisoner and forced to survive the only way she knows how: by being a dressmaker. It is a decision that will haunt her during the war and its devastating aftermath.

©2016 Mary Chamberlain. Recorded by arrangement with Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Critic reviews

" The Dressmaker of Dachau is 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 R&J Pick, 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)

Good Story, Would have preferred a different narrator.

I liked the story overall. But if you want a book that's positive and uplifting this is not it. The main character makes mistake after mistake that causes her own misery, in my opinion. There is no happy ending to this book. But it keeps you interested and has a good feel of the war - feels realistic and well researched. It also goes into life right after the war, which is a nice change.

Also, listen to a sample before buying - the narrator had a weird breathy way of speaking and it took me some time to get used to it and not be annoyed by it.

Stunningly Tragic

Most World War II historical fiction novels are sad and inspiring, and empowering, and reveal new understandings of life during the war. This book, however, takes a deep dive into one woman's tragic experience. It is very, very sad, and though she is "lucky" from time to time, you never have a feeling that she is at the beginning of a good and positive life. Though there are insights about life during World War II, this book is more philosophical in nature, and reveals much about life of an abused woman, then and now. Society is not prepared to support her. In the end, the lawyers and the rest of society are the ones who sound crazy, and the woman's words make more and more sense.

Definitely worth reading, but be ready for a deeply disturbing story.

The narrator is highly stylized and is great if you don't mind that. She performed all but the first in the Maggie Hope series, and I loved her style for that.

A story of poor choices

After having read many Holocaust era books, this one annoys me no end. The research is admirable but the central character, Ada, is much less so. Almost at every turn, the author gives her character poor choices and denies her daring and resourcefulness. It’s a novel after all!
The reader’s clarity and phrasing are OK, but her breathy delivery in semi-whisper throughout the book also denies Ada full agency.
In the end, I rate the book three stars because, as Ada asserts, women’s experiences in war are very often different,invisible and misinterpreted in mainstream culture.

Annoying!

Annoying narrators voice and story! Don’t use your credit for this book. Story was weak.

Awful

The stupidity of the main character was insulting. I am not sure what the author was trying to convey and the ending was pathetic.