She inherited this shame and hatred of Germany from her mother, who had arrived in the United States at age 16 to work as an au pair, and remained on an academic scholarship.

As an adult, Shattuck began to make sense of her complex emotions, and develop curiosity as to the experiences of "ordinary" Germans of the Nazi era.

The grandmother was very open about her history and attitudes, as Shattuck wrote: "Unlike many Germans her age, including my grandfather, she did not want to sweep these subjects under the carpet.

[3] The story begins at the site of a Bavarian castle in 1938, with detailed descriptions of the society of the pre-war days in Germany among a certain class of landed aristocrats.

Together, they make their way across the smoldering wreckage of their homeland to Berlin, where Martin’s mother, the beautiful and naive Benita, in the hands of the occupying Red Army.

[2] Carrie Callaghan, for the Washington Independent, called the novel "brave" and wrote "'The Women in the Castle' pleads the case for humanity as both dreadful and beautiful."

Her achievement — beyond unfolding a plot that surprises and devastates — is in her subtle exploration of what a moral righteousness like Marianne’s looks like in the aftermath of war, when communities and lives must be rebuilt, together.