The Shape of Her Bargain

Ninteen forty-five. After the fall of the Third Reich, fourteen-year-old Ruth escapes a terrifying encounter with her newly-Communist boss. She is helped by the Werwölfe – the terrorist network set up by Hitler – of which she is a member. She returns to her home, only to find it under attack. She is given a sheet of music which has a code showing the location of hidden diamonds intended to fund the guerrilla war waged by the Werwölfe against the Russian occupation. Ruth flees for her life to the relative safety of West Germany.Some two decades later, the consequences return to threaten Ruth’s daughter Katya and shatter her hitherto ordered existence. Facing danger at every turn, Katya must seek out the diamonds and follow her mother’s wishes by returning them to their rightful owners. Expertly evoking the post-war world of a divided Germany, The Shape of Her novel is a thrilling and fraught journey across a country haunted by its brutal past where secrecy and double-dealing hold sway.

Dr Anne Lauppe-Dunbar is the director of the MA in Creative Writing at Swansea University, Wales, and editor of the Swansea Review. Her novel Dark Mermaids was shortlisted for the Cross Sports Book Awards, the Impress Prize and the Rubery Book Fiction Award. It tells the story of the doping scandal in the former German Democratic Republic through a young woman’s search for home. She has also published short stories and poetry.