The Devil Comes to Bonn

'A literary treasure of masterful storytelling.' - Midwest Book Review


Two women’s psychological endurance is tested to its limits. A literary novel about moral ambiguity set in contemporary and World War II Germany.


1941. Hildegard needs a job. Interviewing for a hotel post, she does not realise she is about to collide with the sinister Fuhrer. She is thrust into the role of maid to Hitler in the infamous Room 106 in a hotel he visited more than 70 times.


2015. Stella, a historian, comes to Bonn, Germany for a World Heritage conference. Life at home is tense, but she pretends all is well until she is assaulted over a trivial matter by another delegate. Bewildered, Stella descends into obsessed stalking. When she meets the elderly Hildegard, she is drawn into her wartime story, little seeing the similarities to her own.


In this dual-timeline story, Stella and Hildegard face questions of survival, identity, love and meaning as they juggle moral ambiguities.