Book Review: Anja the Liar

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Anja the Liar     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Thomas Moran
Class/Genre:   Fiction   Historical   WW II
Riverhead, Oct 2003, $25.95

In 1945 Anja Wienewska stands inside the fence that contains those refuges from the war with no papers. Former Wehrmact Captain Walter Fass sees her and begins talking to her in Polish, as he believes she is from Poland. Anja ignores him until he speaks in German; she insists she is German and not Polish. Anja is from Krakow, Poland where she betrayed her people to the German occupiers. Under Nazi control, she learned how to lie.

Walter has dark secrets too from his time in Yugoslavia. Needing to atone and appease his conscience and help Anna, he marries her. They travel to his farm where she gives birth to their child as they share a camaraderie. However, as their past surfaces with the appearance of Walter’s war comrade, their fragile relationship seems to go kaput as the war taught both to distrust everyone.

ANJA THE LAIR is a deep look at the cost of a war on individuals trying to survive during the fighting and its aftermath. The story line is incredibly insightful as Thomas Moran paints a gloomy Europe still reeling from the devastation of WW II. Walter and Anja answer the Edwin Starr question of "War, what is good for?" as both have paid with their souls to endure the fight and remain compensating the piper as neither can trust anyone nor give their love to anybody including their spouse. This is a strong late 1940s drama that rips asunder the other psychological costs of war.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner