2/17/20 - METROPOLIS By Ellie Midwood Hosted by @HFVBT

METROPOLIS

ELLIE MIDWOOD

PUB DATE 1/31/2020

Weimar Berlin, 1924  
 
Unemployed actors, profiteers, cabaret girls, and impoverished aristocracy – out of this wild set of characters populating Weimar Berlin, Margarete Gräfin von Steinhoff belongs to the latter category. Having lost everything due to hyper-inflation, she considers jumping into the freezing waters of the Spree rather than facing the humiliating existence shared by millions of her fellow Germans. However, a chance meeting makes her change her mind at the last moment and offers her a chance to rely on the help of the metropolis itself, where anything can be sold and bought for money and where connections are everything. The bustling nightlife of cosmopolitan Berlin, with its casinos and dance halls, brings good income for the ones who don’t burden themselves too heavily with morals. 
 
After a New Year’s Eve party, Margot finally meets her ever-absent and mysterious neighbor, Paul Schneider, who makes a living by producing a certain type of film for his rich clientele. Under his guidance, Margot discovers a new passion of hers – photography and soon, her talents are noticed by the prominent newspaper, Berliner Tageblatt itself. But being an official photographer of the most celebrated events of the La Scala and most famous Berlin theaters no longer satisfies Margot’s ambitions. As soon as the chance presents itself for her to get involved with the cinematography on the set of "Metropolis" - the film with the highest budget ever produced by the UFA – Margot jumps at it, without thinking twice. At the same time, Paul becomes involved with a rival project, "The Holy Mountain," which stars an as yet unknown actress and an emerging director in, Leni Riefenstahl. As the two women meet, professional rivalry soon turns into a true friendship, fueled by their passion for cinematography. However, due to the economic woes facing Germany, both projects soon run out of money and now, both film crews must go to extreme lengths to save their respective productions. 
 
Set against the backdrop of a decadent, vibrant, and fascinatingly liberal Weimar Berlin, "Metropolis" is a novel of survival, self-discovery, and self-sacrifice, in the name of art, love, and friendship.


THOUGHTS/REVIEW:

Ellie Midwood is one of my favorite authors. After reading Auschwitz Syndrome: A Holocaust Novel Based on a True Story (Women and the Holocaust, Book #3), I fell in love with Midwood’s fantastic writing that is full of heart, creative, and vivid. Midwood’s brilliance is her ability to transport the reader to any place and to any time. In METROPOLIS, Midwood takes me to the Berlin 1924.

The story opens with “Margot” Margarete von Steinhoff and Ernst Weginer having a chance meeting at the edge of the freezing waters of the Spree having both decided to end their lives that night. Margot losing everything she has including her home and Ernst back from the war with not a penny to his name. Margot’s father lost three of their factories and kills himself from the staggering inflation that is due to the government printing tremendous amounts of currency to pay reparations but has back fired and have affected most of the middle class families.

But another thing was happening in Berlin at that time and that is the development of a sophisticated and innovative culture in literature, film, painting and music, a movement called German Expressionism in the Weimar Republic. Metropolis was a huge project by the UFA that cost over 5 million Reichsmarks to produce. Within the realm of this historical backdrop, Midwood was able to give her readers a beautiful glimpse into this fictional world surrounding an amazingly resilient woman whose story is simply irresistible and addicting.

I absolutely loved this amazing book and love Midwood. An auto buy author for me and one that will continue to surpass my expectations. What a brilliant writer and another book I was truly mesmerized.

I highly recommend this book!!

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT:

Ellie Midwood is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning historical fiction author. She owes her interest in the history of the Second World War to her grandfather, Junior Sergeant in the 2nd Guards Tank Army of the First Belorussian Front, who began telling her about his experiences on the frontline when she was a young girl. Growing up, her interest in history only deepened and transformed from reading about the war to writing about it. After obtaining her BA in Linguistics, Ellie decided to make writing her full-time career and began working on her first full-length historical novel, "The Girl from Berlin." Ellie is continuously enriching her library with new research material and feeds her passion for WWII and Holocaust history by collecting rare memorabilia and documents.

In her free time, Ellie is a health-obsessed yoga enthusiast, neat freak, adventurer, Nazi Germany history expert, polyglot, philosopher, a proud Jew, and a doggie mama. Ellie lives in New York with her fiancé and their Chihuahua named Shark Bait.

Readers' Favorite - winner in the Historical fiction category (2016) - "The Girl from Berlin: Standartenführer's Wife" (first place)

Readers' Favorite - winner in the Historical fiction category (2016) - "The Austrian" (honorable mention)

New Apple - 2016 Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing - "The Austrian" (official selection)

Readers' Favorite - winner in the Historical fiction category (2017) - "Emilia"

Readers' Favorite - winner in the Historical fiction category (2018) - "A Motherland's Daughter, A Fatherland's Son"