Publication Date: September 30, 2025
As children in Central Illinois, Kate and Martin were never told much about their mother’s childhood in East Germany. And they rarely asked questions. They were too busy grappling with the heartache left behind by an absent father and the tough love of a mother forced to raise them alone in a country not her own. Decades later, when the Berlin Wall falls, Kate and Martin are faced with a difficult decision: Should they try to reclaim the house in East Germany from which their grandparents fled in the 1950s? They travel to their grandparents’ hometown and meet the couple now living in the house. But a house is never just a house, and the family secrets they discover reopen old wounds, driving the siblings apart just as divided Germany is coming together. Against the backdrop of German reunification, Restitution asks urgent questions that resonate today. What remains when people leave entire lives behind? What happens when personal histories are erased? And what— if anything— can heal these wounds?
With the toppling of the Berlin Wall, displaced Germans were finally able to reconnect with loved ones.
For many, it serves as an opportunity for those born after the turmoil to create a connection with their German roots. For siblings Martin and Kate, it provides a flashpoint in their relationship.
Author Tamar Shapiro serves up a fascinating story combining past and present in Restitution. As they return to their grandparents’ hometown, the past takes on a different light.
For the couple forced to flee their home in the 1950s, is there a way for their relatives to claim the property? The more Martin and Kate learn about the past, the bigger the rift between them grows.
Restitution offers a fresh perspective in healing from generational wounds.
Tamar Shapiro was raised in both the U.S. and Germany and now lives in Washington, DC with her husband, two children, and the world’ s best dog. While writing Restitution, Shapiro attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Summer Program and the Bread Loaf Writers’
Conference in Vermont. A former real estate attorney and non-profit leader, she is a 2026 MFA candidate at Randolph College in Virginia. This is her first novel.
