Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly Narrated By Cassandra Campbell, Kathleen Gati, Kathrin Kana
Available in house and from
Library2Go in both Ebook and Audiobook
Synopsis from Good Reads:
Inspired by the life of a real World War II
heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that
were hidden for decades.
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her
hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon.
But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in
September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.
An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a
Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper
into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense
atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have
dire consequences.
For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta
Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a
desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a
male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three women are set on a
collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück,
the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross
continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia
strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.
Susie’s Review of the
Audiobook
This book is fabulous and I highly recommend the audio
version to truly bring these women to life!
I have read a lot of books on concentration camps and have
even visited a few but this was a learning experience for me I had never heard
of the Ravensbruck Rabbits, you hear so much about Mengele’s experiments on
twins but I never knew about the experiments these women went through in
Ravenbruck.
As with any book on concentration camps this one is
heartbreaking; however there is so much hope in this book because a large part
of the book is about the survivors and the after effects that there is hope and
hope’s name is Caroline Ferriday. She
truly saved these women years of pain by getting them to the US and getting
them surgery to fix the atrocious things that were done to them.
I enjoyed the
different storylines told by Caroline, Kasia one of the survivors and Herta one
of the doctors at the camp which was an interesting storyline because you just
couldn’t like her no matter if she felt bad for what she was doing or not. I
also enjoyed the addition of Kasia’s sister Suzanna (sp audio) who is a doctor
and also a survivor of Ravenbruck.
CAROLINE, read by Cassandra Campbell…KASIA, read by Kathleen
Gati….HERTA, read by Kathrin Kana the narration on this book was so fantastic I
can’t even come up with enough words to tell you to listen to the audio version
of this book. These 3 narrators brought these women to life for me and I
believe enhanced my enjoyment of this book.
I could go on and on about this book and I think this will
be in my top books of the year this year. So I’ll just say if you enjoy
historical fiction or WWII fiction you need to read this book!
5 Stars
The Authors website
A little background on Caroline Ferriday
Author Elizabeth Wein has a comprehensive page about the
Ravensbruck Rabbits
