“Lilac Girls” by Martha Hall Kelly

“Lilac Girls” is a beautifully written debut novel by a New England native. The story begins in 1939 and follows three women for twenty years during WWII. Caroline, a former actress turned consulate worker, lives in the United States and does all she can to support the people of France as Hitler invades the country. Kasia is living in Poland working for the underground when she is arrested and imprisoned at Ravensbrook, the only all female concentration camp. Herta, a German doctor, finds her beliefs being drastically numbed at the camp she is assigned to work at until she is completely swept up in the experimental atrocities spearheaded by Dr. Karl Gebhardt. While Kasia’s character is based off a fictional experience at Ravensbrook, Caroline and Herta were in fact real people. The author used letters and journals these women kept to add in much of their own voices to the story. Some chapters ended in significant cliff hangers that made me want to skip ahead to see what happened next. A must read for fans of historical fiction.

Pick up a copy of “Lilac Girls” here.