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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Jenoff, P. | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Jenoff, P. 2014 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
A stirring novel of first love in a time of war and the unbearable choices that could tear sisters apart, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan's Tale
Life is a constant struggle for the eighteen-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbor against neighbor. Though rugged, independent Helena and pretty, gentle Ruth couldn't be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats the war brings closer to their doorstep with each passing day.
Then Helena discovers an American paratrooper stranded outside their small mountain village, wounded, but alive. Risking the safety of herself and her family, she hides Sam--a Jew--but Helena's concern for the American grows into something much deeper. Defying the perils that render a future together all but impossible, Sam and Helena make plans for the family to flee. But Helena is forced to contend with the jealousy her choices have sparked in Ruth, culminating in a singular act of betrayal that endangers them all--and setting in motion a chain of events that will reverberate across continents and decades.
Originally published in 2014.
Don't miss Pam Jenoff's new novel, Code Name Sapphire, a riveting tale of bravery and resistance during World War II.
Read these other sweeping epics from New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff:
The Woman with the Blue Star
The Lost Girls of Paris
The Orphan's Tale
The Ambassador's Daughter
The Diplomat's Wife
The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach
The Kommandant's Girl
Author Notes
Pam Jenoff was born in Maryland and raised outside Philadelphia. She attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Cambridge University in England where she earned her master's degree in history. She then was appointed as Special Assistenat to the Secretary of the Army. She worked helping victim's families of Pan Am Flight 103 secure their memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and observing recovery efforts at the site of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Following her work at the Pentagon, Pam moved to the State Department. In 1996 she was assigned to the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland. It was during this time that Pam developed her expertise in Polish-Jewish relations and the Holocaust, working on matters such as preservation of Auschwitz and the restitution of Jewish property in Poland. Pam left the Foreign Service in 1998 for law school and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She worked for several years as a labor and employment attorney and now teaches law school at Rutgers.
Pam is the author of The Kommandant's Girl, which was an international bestseller and nominated for a Quill award, as well as The Winter Guest, The Diplomat's Wife, The Ambassador¿s Daughter, Almost Home, A Hidden Affair and The Things We Cherished.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
An 18-year-old Polish girl falls inlove, swoons over a first kiss, dreams of marriageand, oh yes, we are in themiddle of the Holocaust.Jenoff (The Ambassador's Daughter,2013, etc.) weaves a tale of fevered teenage love in a time of horrors in theearly 1940s, as the Nazis invade Poland and herd Jews into ghettos andconcentration camps. A prologue set in 2013, narrated by a resident of theWestchester Senior Center, provides an intriguing setup. A woman and apoliceman visit the resident and ask if she came from a small Polish village.Their purpose is unclear until they mention bones recently found there: "And wethink you might know something about them." The book proceeds in the thirdperson, told from the points of view mostly of teenage Helena, who comes uponan injured young Jewish-American soldier, and sometimes of her twin, Ruth, whois not as adventurous as Helena but is very competitive with her. Their fatheris dead, their mother is dying in a hospital, and they are raising their threeyounger siblings amid danger and hardship. The romance between Helena and Sam,the soldier, is often conveyed in overheated language that doesn't sit wellwith the era's tragic events: "There had been an intensity to his embrace thatsaid he was barely able to contain himself, that he also wanted more." Jenoff,clearly on the side of tolerance, slips in a simplified historical frameworkfor the uninformed. But she also feeds stereotypes, having Helena note that Samhas "a slight arch to his nose" and a dark complexion that "would make himsuspect as a Jew immediately." Clichs also pop up during the increasinglycomplex plot: "But even if they stood in place, the world around them wouldnot."Romance and melodrama mix uneasilywith mass murder. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Jenoff (The Ambassador's Daughter, 2013) specializes in stories of forbidden love with dramatic wartime settings. Here, twins Helena and Ruth live in the small Polish village of Biekowice. The Nazi invasion is looming, and with their father dead from drinking and their mother dying in a Jewish hospital in nearby Krakow, the two young women are raising their three younger siblings on their own. The bond between the two sisters has deteriorated as they have taken on different roles Helena as the provider and Ruth as the nurturer and the schism deepens when Helena discovers an injured American soldier in the woods near their home. A young Jewish American man named Sam, he was trying to get a message to the local resistance fighters when his plane crashed, and as Helena cares for him, the two fall in love. Afraid of endangering her family or Sam, Helena tries to keeps him secret. Helena is a resourceful and brave heroine with a bit of a lucky streak, while Ruth shows her mettle in the novel's heart-pounding ending. Brisk, romantic, and emotionally satisfying.--Donohue, Nanette Copyright 2014 Booklist