by Libba Bray
First published 2025
Sophie finds a mysterious love letter waiting for her in the famous Bridegroom's Oak in 1940s Germany. The ancient tree supposedly connects soulmates through hidden messages, but Sophie's best friend Hanna uses it for darker purposes as Nazi forces tighten their grip on the small town of Kleinwald. Decades later in 1980s West Germany, American teenager Jenny struggles to belong until she meets Lena, a fierce punk rocker determined to bring down the Berlin Wall, and befriends Frau Hermann, an elderly woman harboring dangerous secrets. In 2020 New York City, high school seniors Miles and Chloe receive an unexpected package from Chloe's grandmother that pulls them into investigating two teenagers who vanished near the Bridegroom's Oak eighty years earlier. As the friends dig deeper into the cold case, they uncover connections spanning generations and discover how love and resistance intertwined beneath the legendary tree's branches.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Germany, West Germany, New York City, Kleinwald
Period: 1940s, 1980s, 2020
471 pages · Hardcover · Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Content warnings: war