From the Bookshelf of Bound Together…

Lilac Girls (Woolsey-Ferriday, #1)

Martha Hall Kelly

Start date: December 1, 2023

Finish date: December 31, 2023

Discussion: 2025 December

Why we're reading this: December 1 thru 31, 2023
Thanks Kimberly
[close] December 1 thru 31, 2023
Thanks Kimberly

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What Members Thought

Jan 05, 2016 ☮Karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2016, netgalley, favorites, war-wwii

A moving, emotional WWII novel that was simply a pleasure to read because of the expert writing and handling of some difficult storylines. Coincidentally, while reading this, I was listening to A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France, a nonfiction account of French women deported to Auschwitz and then Ravensbrück, with many similar accounts of the depravity and horror taking place at these camps, during the same time periods. The bo A moving, emotional WWII novel that was simply a pleasure to read because of the expert writing and handling of some difficult storylines. Coincidentally, while reading this, I was listening to A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France, a nonfiction account of French women deported to Auschwitz and then Ravensbrück, with many similar accounts of the depravity and horror taking place at these camps, during the same time periods. The books complement each other, but I have to say the fictionalized Lilac Girls was my preference over the two as it put me more deeply into the characters' heads and personal experiences.

Here we have three main characters:

Caroline Ferriday, based on a real person, she is a New York socialite in love with a married man who is a French actor gone home to his war torn country, and to his estranged wife. Caroline had a real backbone and savvy survival instincts (and not just that she sold her mother's silverware whenever some extra cash was needed).

Kasia is a headstrong Polish teen who was sent to Ravensbrück after failing at her first job helping the Polish underground. At the concentration camp, she and her sister Zuzanna were two of the 74 Rabbits, girls whose legs were experimented on by surgeons; ie. with the removal of bones and muscle tissue and the insertion of all sorts of bacteria and foreign matter. This is something I had heard very little about before, and was captivated by the shocking revelations.

Third is another real person, Dr. Herte Oberheuser, a medical doctor at Ravensbrück, not a character we get to know as well as the others and not at all likeable, of course, seeing as how she becomes involved in the surgeries. She goes from an aspiring young doctor to a willing participant in the Nazi nastiness with apparent ease.

When the stories finally converge, I was brought to tears many times.

It took me longer than usual to read Lilac Girls as I chose to savor just 2-3 chapters in a sitting, plus the book is a long one. This is definitely one of the best WWII books I have read, and my shelves are full of them as it's my favorite time period. I see a promising future for this book and this author.

An ARC from NetGalley and the publisher.
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May 03, 2016 Pat rated it it was amazing

Beautifully researched and written! Not easy to read about the atrocities against Polish women in concentration camps, but it has been documented how forming friendships during these horrid times were the only salvation for them. To this day it is told over and over about how their "sisters" helped them through the worst of times. Good first historical novel, Martha Kelly! I loved it and look forward to your next book! ...more

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