The Woman At The Wheel by Penny Haw.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
Book Synopsis
Inspiring historical fiction based on the real life of Bertha Benz, whose husband built the first prototype automobile, which eventually evolved into the Mercedes-Benz marque.
"Unfortunately, only a girl again."
From a young age, Cäcilie Bertha Ringer is fascinated by her father's work as a master builder in Pforzheim, Germany. But those five words, which he wrote next to her name in the family Bible, haunt Bertha.
Years later, Bertha meets Carl Benz and falls in love—with him and his extraordinary dream of building a horseless carriage. Bertha has such faith in him that she invests her dowry in his plans, a dicey move since they alone believe in the machine. When Carl's partners threaten to withdraw their support, he's ready to cut ties. Bertha knows the decision would ruin everything. Ignoring the cynics, she takes matters into her own hands, secretly planning a scheme that will either hasten the family's passage to absolute derision or prove their genius. What Bertha doesn't know is that Carl is on the cusp of making a deal with their nemesis. She's not only risking her marriage and their life's work, but is also up against the patriarchy, Carl's own self-doubt, and the clock.
Like so many other women, Bertha lived largely in her husband's shadow, but her contributions are now celebrated in this inspiring story of perseverance, resilience, and love.
My Review
Before reading this book, I had heard of the manufacturer we know as Mercedes-Benz, but I knew nothing about the history behind the name.
This historical fiction novel shares the story of Mercedes-Benz from the perspective of Bertha Benz the wife of Carl Benz and their work on designing and bringing to reality the dream of the horseless carriage.
I recommend this novel to those readers interested in women in STEM and books featuring women in history that we know very little about. I enjoyed the characters in this novel that supported Bertha and her involvement and role in the work to design this automobile.
I did find there were a few moments when the story dragged a bit in the pacing and focused a bit too much on details that didn't seem overly important for so much time to be spent on them. I did find this to be a bit more repetitive in the novel than was needed to get the point across to the reader. I feel the novel focuses and repeatedly reiterates the difficulty that was faced by Bertha and Carl in getting support and interest in their vehicle and that the difficulty was a greater proportion of the story than the successes. I found the ending to be kind of abrupt without any indication what was to come next for the family. I did enjoy the feeling from the novel that Bertha changed the future for more girls and young women in the future with interests similar to hers in the areas of STEM. Overall The Woman At The Wheel was an interesting read.
My Rating: 4/5
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Book Details
Author: Penny Haw
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publication Date: October 3, 2023.
Genre: Historical Fiction. Fiction. History. Women in STEM.
Edition: Paperback.
Pages: 320.