Susan Tate Ankeny left a career in teaching to write the story of her father’s escape from Nazi-occupied France. In 2011, after being led on his path through France by the same Resistance fighters who guided him in 1944, she felt inspired to tell the story of these brave French patriots, especially the 17-year-old- girl who risked her own life to save her father’s. Susan is a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society, and the Association des Sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés.
This fascinating book follows 230 women, some more in-depth than others, who were imprisoned outside Paris for crimes of resistance activities. I began reading it as research and became captivated by the stories, especially the devotion the women developed for one another. I felt a deep connection to each of the prisoners as I climbed into their shoes, cheering for them to survive while fearing they would not. (The Appendix lists the 49 who survived if you want to know in advance. I didn’t.) It’s difficult to grasp what they endured over an unimaginable period of time. Just the sheer depth of their hunger is something I’ve never come close to experiencing. Moorehead keeps the tone intimate and compassionate. Yes, their suffering could be hard to read, but at the same time, I found inspiration as if they spoke to me from the past of the power of mutual dependency- which for them meant the difference between life and death. These are heroes to emulate and remember.
A moving and extraordinary book about courage and survival, friendship and endurance - a portrait of ordinary women who faced the horror of the holocaust together.
On an icy morning in Paris in January 1943, a group of 230 French women resisters were rounded up from the Gestapo detention camps and sent on a train to Auschwitz - the only train, in the four years of German occupation, to take women of the resistance to a death camp. Of the group, only 49 survivors would return to France.
Here is the story of these women - told for the first…
The Ukrainian author Irène Némirovsky was already a successful author living in Paris when she began working on this novel in the early 1940s. In 1942, she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, and a month later at the age of 39, she was dead. Her daughters took her handwritten manuscripts into hiding and later had the novel published. Many of the events in the story Némirovsky experienced as she, her husband, and their two small daughters fled Paris attempting in vain to evade the Nazis. Maybe it’s for this reason that the story has such a feeling of authenticity. I loved the lyrical, haunting storytelling, the vivid descriptions of people trying to outrun the invading German army as they were thrown together on clogged roads heading south and away from Paris. Some had packed everything they owned in their cars while others carried almost nothing and struggled along on foot. The images are unforgettable, as is the behavior of the refugees. How they chose to help one another, or not in some cases, is a fascinating commentary on human behavior. Némirovsky shines a light on what happens to people, rich and poor, when they become dependent on one another to survive and makes the reader wonder, what would I do?
In 1941, Irene Nemirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through, not in terms of battles and politicians, but by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. She did not live to see her ambition fulfilled, or to know that sixty-five years later, "Suite Francaise" would be published for the first time, and hailed as a masterpiece. Set during a year that begins with France's fall to the Nazis in June 1940 and ends with Germany turning its attention to Russia, "Suite Francaise" falls…
I love stories about little-known heroes, and this one about Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, a young mother who headed the largest spy network in Nazi-occupied France, and the only woman to serve as chief of Resistance, is that and more. The fearless Fourcade, well known for her beauty and glamour, shrewdly expected to be underestimated for being a woman. She escaped capture by the Nazis twice, once by slipping naked through the bars of her cell. The details about what Fourcade achieved and risked are alone worth the read. I enjoy photographs, and there are many spread throughout the book. I hope this action-packed adventure will be made into a movie; it reads like one!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The little-known true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, the woman who headed the largest spy network in occupied France during World War II, from the bestselling author of Citizens of London and Last Hope Island
“Brava to Lynne Olson for a biography that should challenge any outdated assumptions about who deserves to be called a hero.”—The Washington Post
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE WASHINGTON POST
In 1941 a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of a…
Although this book is historical fiction, it was inspired by the life of Caroline Ferriday, a New York city philanthropist who worked at the French Consulate during World War II and helped rescue 35 Polish women from the Nazi concentration camp for women called Ravensbruck. Woven in are the stories of two other women, a Polish teenager whose carefree youth disappears as she begins to assist the Resistance, and a young German doctor who finds herself forced to participate in horrific procedures at Ravensbruck- talk about a great moral dilemma! I love historical fiction about unsung women who changed history but have all but been forgotten. It held me spellbound, unable to stop reading, knowing the three would somehow eventually meet and wondering if any of them would succeed in their struggle to be free.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One million copies sold! Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this remarkable debut novel reveals the power of unsung women to change history in their quest for love, freedom, and second chances.
“Extremely moving and memorable . . . This impressive debut should appeal strongly to historical fiction readers and to book clubs that adored Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.”—Library Journal (starred review)
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new…
War Brides is a work of historical fiction that explores the lives of five young women from differing backgrounds who meet in a small English village in 1939. I love World War II stories about ordinary people on the Homefront. Despite a slightly misleading title, I was drawn to the strong characters who face the horrors surrounding them with the unwavering support of one another. Bryan has done extensive research into the time period and the traumatic effect the war had on British citizens. What sets this story apart is the inspiring friendship the women develop that endures over time despite the challenges of their differences, the terror of bombing raids that cause the deaths of their neighbors and friends, and an unforgivable deception.
A vibrant novel set in postwar America from the New York Times bestselling author of The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary and Sewing Circle
World War II is over, but for three young Australian women who meet on their way to new lives and new husbands in America, the adventure is just beginning. Sheila, Dawn, and Gaynor will need to reacquaint themselves with the military men they swore to love when peace seemed like a lifetime away. But the world that awaits them is filled with new challenges, and each woman will be forced to summon courage and strength she never knew…
It was no secret that the chances of surviving a full twenty-five mission tour as a B-17 bombardier were minimal, and on February 8, 1944, Dean Tate’s luck ran out when his Flying Fortress was shot down in flames over northern France. But that wasn’t the end―Tate was one of four men from his aircraft who not only survived but were saved by the French resistance from capture. Tate spent thirty-seven days being sheltered in enemy-occupied France, passed from person to person until he was finally brought back to England by the escape line later known as Shelburn. What makes this book special is that Tate not only kept in touch with his helpers long after the war ended, but also wrote a personal and highly detailed account of his experiences, and it is that account, together with several years of research, that Tate’s daughter has used to such great effect in producing this highly readable true story. ―Keith Janes, author of They Came from Burgundy and Express Delivery
My book is fantastical historical fiction about two characters who're wrestling with the monstrosity of their grief.
It takes you into London high society, where Ambrose tries to forget about how much he misses Bennett and how much he dreads becoming as cold as their Grandfather. It takes you to the family's country manor house, where Mattie isolates and old ghosts start to come out of the woodwork.
It's a story about loss and depression; it's a story about friends who don't let you walk through the valley of death alone.
Ambrose Bancroft returns to London society with his younger sister, hoping they'll leave ghosts of memory behind. They have only each other left. While Ambrose attempts to draw Mattie out, dragging her to balls and threatening to seek suitors for her, his sister recoils from his meddling. Finally, when Ambrose compels her to attend art class before she's ready, Mattie paints something horrific enough to banish them from society in public disgrace.
At Linwood Manor, Mattie and Ambrose aren't as alone as they think. Taking advantage of Mattie's desperate need to find freedom, a vanishing room lures Ambrose's sister into…
