Genre: Historical
Published: 2016
Pages: 476 plus bonus material
In WWII and beyond, three different women's lives intertwine. At the heart of their circle is Caroline, a former Broadway actress working for the French consulate in the USA, struggling to help French orphans while maintaining a new relationship. Kasia is enjoying her life in Poland until she begins working for a resistance movement and is captured. There is also Herta, an aspiring doctor who ends up taking a position at one of the women's camps.
Life only gets harder for Kasia when she is subjected to one of Herta's brutal medical experiments. She finds herself bonding with other women in the camp then, including her own mother and sister, as well as other girls who are victims of cruel experiments who will become knows as the Rabbits. Once she is out in the real world, it seems like life will never return to normal after war has affected much of Europe. Then Caroline's story about the experimental subjects gets out and Kasia has the opportunity to find justice against those who have hurt her.
This story is supposed to be based on a true one. Going into it, I wasn't sure how that could be the case. Kasia alone was based on two historical figures, plus hundreds more. The people and events are based on real ones, yes, though some aspects of the actual story are fictional. Most importantly, the things that Caroline did are not.
I had heard many complaints of the inclusion of a love story that was ridiculous. My first thought was, oh no. If there's anything that I don't like in books, it's a love story that brings focus away from the story itself. This time it may have been necessary. Caroline's story takes a long time to intertwine with the other women's. And I can see why the author didn't just want to wait to introduce her in the last 1/3 of the book when it finally does, either. She had to tell some story about Caroline in the meantime. Its a traditionally classic and fancy love story, a story that one's grandmother might recount in her old age. Fortunately, it sets up her background well. The reason that Caroline gets together with Paul in the first place is because she recruits him for a charity event. From there, they struggle with their love (Paul has a wife) amongst the backdrop of war. (Though, I didn't understand why Caroline was so irritated after his wife came back in the picture. It's not like she was worried about the affair before she disappeared...) At least this love story not corny and doesn't ruin the narrative like another Holocaust book I read recently. Maybe that's why I was fine with Kelly including it.
My one complaint about Caroline's story will actually be about the long, drawn-out gala scenes. These people are rich. We get it. And how many descriptions of fancy French clothing can one take? Of course, there were the necessary scenes of Caroline dissing her fancy, snooty acquaintances and realizing how shallow they really are as she goes on to champion her cause. I could have done without some of those.
Moving on. In telling their stories, Kelly reveals aspects of World War II that many readers might not be as familiar with. Kasia actually attended Catholic school and was punished for working for an underground resistance movement, rather then being Jewish- though she had her heritage. She was also part of a group of women used for terrible medical experiments, known as the Rabbits, that readers learn more about. From a personal perspective, Kasia struggles with the loss of her mother well into adulthood, and maintaining the relationship with her sister. Not many of these books touch on the post-WWII struggles like Lilac Girls does. Once escaping from the camp, life continues to offer hardships. Loss and living in postwar Poland are among those challenges, and so is mild PTSD. Kasia sometimes wakes in the night thinking she is back in camp.
Then again there's Herta's story, one perspective that isn't often heard from...one of the camp authorities. One of the reasons I originally looked at this book was because I was interested in her perspective and what went on with the medical experiments. You can see that she wants to say no to the job that she takes at first, and then eventually becomes brainwashed by her patriotism and need to make money. You almost want to sympathize with her at points, especially her original longing to be a doctor and help others. Although she'd done some terrible things, Kelly makes her human in that way.
And then in part 3 of the novel is when Caroline comes into play again. She does a great job of bringing their story to the States, and eventually a trip to the States for some of the women. It wasn't quite as intertwined as I'd expected with a three-narrator style, but it worked better that way, and told the real story.
Obviously this book contains some tough material. But readers will find reason to be inspired as well. The way the Rabbits supported each other and made sacrifices was an incredible testament to girl power everywhere. Even the girls walking to their execution displayed bravery. This is a must-read for any historical fiction fan. Not just because it's a well-done story, but because it provides fresh perspective on times that are often written about.
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