Once the Deed Is Done

“Rachel Seiffert’s novel explores a time in Germany which we often forget. In Once the Deed is Done readers are faced with the dilemmas of ordinary Germans, not all of whom by any means were Nazis or supported Hitler, in the face of German defeat, plus the plight of the millions of workers forcibly displaced to prop up Hitler’s war machine. Readers will be asked: What is complicity? What is survival? What does ‘returning home’ mean when your homeland has been traded as part of the war’s ‘hazardous, dirty backwash’, in the Guardian’s memorable phrase? Like all first-class novelists, Rachel Seiffert embraces the difficult questions through the characters she creates and the scenes she sets.” Read more...

The Best Historical Fiction of 2026

Katharine Grant, Historical Novelist