The Women In the Castle by Jessica Shattuck

In 1944, in a Bavarian castle, Marianne von Lingenfels makes a promise.  Her husband, good friend Connie, and other Resisters are all part of a plot to kill Hitler.  Recognizing the risk, the men charge organized, competent Marianne with keeping the wives and families safe if it should all go wrong.  The plot fails, the men are all hanged and the war goes on.  At the end of the war Marianne goes in search of the women left behind.  She finds two of them.   Benita, the beautiful and apolitical wife of Connie is living in the bombed out ruins of the city.  Marianne is also able to reunite her with her young son, living in a nearby orphanage.  Also seeking refuge in the castle is the enigmatic Ania and her three children. The castle and the surrounding community have suffered greatly in the war as did the women who have returned to the castle. Each carries with her secrets of the past - some they can leave behind - others they cannot.  Their stories continue through 1991 providing various perspectives of the people who lived through the war and then struggled to define who they were knowing what they had done to survive.  Readers who loved The Nightingale will love this as well.