Author: Martha Hall Kelly
Publication Information: Ballantine Books. 2023. 528 pages.
ISBN: 0593354885 / 978-0593354889
Rating: ★★★
Book Source: I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.
Opening Sentence: "I wake at dawn, facedown on the sofa, thinking I'm back in Block Ten."
Favorite Quote: "Just a pigeon... That's a dove... Same thing. You even think the best of pigeons.. She beautiful and strong and whatever we call her, she's free now."
Ravensbruk was a Nazi concentration camp for women. Estimates state that over 132,000 women were in the camp over the course of war. Forced labor, death chambers, and medical experiments on the women were the reality of this camp.
Many books have been written about World War II history, about the concentration camp, and about Ravensbruk. Martha Hall Kelly has written about the camp and the medical experimentation in Lilac Girls, which tell the story of the Ravensbruk "rabbits." That debut novel by Martha Hall Kelly was a compelling and emotional tale that will stay with me for a long time.
This book also picks up on the atrocities of Ravensbruk but come forward in time to the controversial United States Operation Paperclip, a secret United States program that ran from the end of World War II to the end of the 1950s. The goal was two-fold - to add to the knowledge that could be used for US defense development and to keep that knowledge from being incorporated into the (then) Soviet Union as the Cold War era emerged. The operation involved bringing about 1,600 German professionals to the United States with resettlement, housing, and jobs with the government. Several of those brought over were former Nazis.
This book is the story of two survivors of Ravensbruk, who have taken different paths since the war. Yet, the pull of the past brings them together in a united mission albeit with very different goals. The story begins in the United States, traverses Europe, and goes all the way to French Guiana.
Josie Anderson is American. Arlette LaRue is French. I bring this up because this characterization is a key feature of these two women and their motivations and actions are attributed to this national background. Josie is an US intelligence officer tasked with acquiring an "asset" for Operation Paperclip. Arlette is living on the hope that her son - wrested away from her at Ravensbruk - may be found.
Given the history, the book should be moving and emotional. Unfortunately, this book does not compel or draw in the way that Lilac Girls did. Given that it is the same author and the same historical context, the comparison is unescapable throughout the book.
The story travels through a lot of time and place. Unfortunately, the characters and the choices made in the "spy" portion of the story are at times hard to fathom and hard to empathize with. That breaks the emotional tie of this book, rendering it a much less engaging read than Lilac Girls.
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