NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • One million copies sold! Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this remarkable debut novel reveals the power of unsung women to change history in their quest for love, freedom, and second chances. “Extremely moving and memorable . . . This impressive debut should appeal strongly to historical fiction readers and to book clubs that adored Kristin Hannah’s that adored Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.” —Library Journal (starred review)
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.
An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.
USA Today “New and Noteworthy” Book • LibraryReads Top Ten Pick
“Harrowing . . . Lilac illuminates.”—People
“A compelling, page-turning narrative . . . Lilac Girls falls squarely into the groundbreaking category of fiction that re-examines history from a fresh, female point of view. It’s smart, thoughtful and also just an old-fashioned good read.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“A powerful story for readers everywhere . . . Martha Hall Kelly has brought readers a firsthand glimpse into one of history’s most frightening memories. A novel that brings to life what these women and many others suffered. . . . I was moved to tears.”—San Francisco Book Review
“[A] compelling first novel . . . This is a page-turner demonstrating the tests and triumphs civilians faced during war, complemented by Kelly’s vivid depiction of history and excellent characters.”—Publishers Weekly
“Kelly vividly re-creates the world of Ravensbrück.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Inspired by actual events and real people, Martha Hall Kelly has woven together the stories of three women during World War II that reveal the bravery, cowardice, and cruelty of those days. This is a part of history—women’s history—that should never be forgotten.”—Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of China Dolls
“Profound, unsettling, and thoroughly . . . the best book I’ve read all year.”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
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A few chapters in and I couldn’t put down – I had to get the audio so I could listen on my way to and from work! I had a chance to meet the author at an event during the time I was reading it. Hearing her speak about the characters (some were real, some were based on real) took the whole thing to the next level for me. She was passionate in her research and it shows.
Lilac Girls is inspired by real life people and events set against the back drop of World War II. From high society New York to France, Poland and the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women in Germany, this novel follows the intertwined lives of three women. Moving and at times harrowing, this is a story of bravery, compassion and sisterhood.
Whew, this is a difficult book to review. It is very well written and researched, and as a matter of fact, detailed to the point of being emotionally draining. There are in depth concentration camp scenes that give explicit details about the experimental surgeries conducted at Ravensbruck. The book reads like a true story and if you read the author’s note, you learn that a number of the characters are in fact real people and their stories more truth than fiction.
Lilac Girls is the kind of book you cannot put down, yet for me it was a bit too painful – rather like a deadly automobile accident that you pass on the highway, one where you know those are dead bodies scattered across the road and still you crane your neck to catch a glimpse. This is a powerful story, well told but far from what I would consider a pleasant read.
Historical fiction at its very best! Very engaging story and characters. Definitely a page turner.
This book is the poignant story of three women who served completely unique roles during WWII: a doctor, a prisoner and a socialite. It is based on the true experiences of women held in the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck, a young woman doctor assigned there and the New York socialite who brought attention to the plight of the women held captive. I could not put this down.
Knowing ahead of time that it was set during #WorldWar2 and about three different women did absolutely nothing to prepare me for what I would encounter in these pages. There were a few scenes and a few days where I seriously considered not finishing it, because the history depicted was utterly deplorable and unconscionable and I didn’t know if I could handle confronting it. But I’m glad I stayed with it.
One of the main characters is a Polish girl upon whom medical experiments were conducted at #Ravensbruck. Another main character is a German woman doctor doing those operations. The third is a former New York City debutante who turns to humanitarian aid efforts. This character’s thread was the least interesting to me, but I found that I needed it to be interspersed with the other two as a relief from the intensity and suspense.
All three main characters were based on or inspired by real people, but I found it especially interesting that the American portrayed the real person of Caroline Ferriday, whose great-grandmother was Eliza Woolsey. The heroine of my Civil War novel, Wedded to War, was based on Eliza Woolsey’s sister, Georgeanna Woolsey. In my novel, I also had a character based on Eliza. (They were Charlotte Waverly and her sister Alice, in Wedded to War.)
One thing I really appreciated about Lilac Girls is that it tells the story beyond the day the war ended. For a significant part of the book, we get to see the lives of these characters unfold, for better or worse, beyond the war-time trauma. I was so intrigued by the subject matter that I googled some of the names and events and found they aligned impressively well with how the novel portrayed them.
I could have learned the facts from the articles Google led me to. But through the novel, I didn’t just learn, I felt. It was excruciating at times–it was the #Holocaust, after all!–but I’m glad I felt what I did. It was gut-wrenching, but it would have been far worse NOT to feel it, when faced with what happened to those Polish girls at Ravensbruck.
One final note: I listened to the audio version, which was extremely well done. Each main character had a different narrator, and the accents and inflections were done so well, I was very impressed.
It’s really difficult to believe that this is Martha Hall Kelly’s first novel. Her gift of storytelling is that of a seasoned author with dozens of books under their belt. Lilac Girls is loosely based on real life events of Ravensbrück, a concentration camp for women and the life of Caroline Ferriday, an little known New York socialite during WWII.
A coworker told me about this novel and I have to admit that I was horrified by the content she was describing. As if the known atrocities of the Nazis during WWII were not enough, this book details an experiment performed on healthy Polish women imprisoned during this time. The novel takes the reader through the lives of three women over the course of twenty years: Caroline in New York, Kasia, a prisoner at Ravensbrück, and Herta, a doctor at Ravensbrück.
It’s amazing to see how all of their lives are impacted by the same event. The author does an amazing job giving each woman their own voice based on her research. Even though “Kasia” is not a real person and only based on a former prisoner, the author makes her come alive on the pages. I highly recommend this emotional and thought provoking read.
I read a great deal and my interests are pretty wide, but my reading often wanders towards World War 2 fiction. I’ve read many stories of the resistance, but none like this. I had no idea of the extent of the horrific Nazi experiments or that they were conducted on non Jews too. The women depicted in this story are/were heroes and I think Martha Hall Kelly did a good job shining a well deserved light upon them.
This book was so good because each character had an interesting storyline. I also
learned about the horrible medical experiments that were performed on the poor women who were in the concentration camps. Most importantly I learned about
what a difference one woman made in improving the lives of all those women that were abused in the medical experiments. Kindness is a beautiful thing to write about.
Very good book about concentration camp during WWII. Follows the lives of 3 main characters which relate to each other. Historical fiction…based on true facts and real people.
This was a book I had been wanting to read for quite some time, so I was excited when it was picked by our book club for our next read. Wow! what an amazing book, Be prepared for an emotional roller coaster ride, from sad, horrified, shocked and even joy.
What we found the most surprising, was that the character, Caroline was based on an actual person. I highly recommend visiting the author’s website for further reading about this amazing woman who did so much for the Polish women that suffered under the realm of Hitler.
The author did extensive research for the book and it shows in her writing. An outstanding debut novel told in the first person from the view of three courageous women. What these women went through was absolutely horrifying and it makes you realize just how lucky we are today and in all honesty, we should have nothing to complain about.
What we all favored most about the book is that it went on to tell about the post-war transition of these incredible women. The recovery and after effects that they endured and what Caroline did will bring tears to your eyes.
Having said this I do have to say that I did struggle with the book in some parts. I found it hard to keep track of the characters sometimes because each chapter was the voice of one of the women and it tended to jump around a little too much for me. But other than that we thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you love historical fiction, this book is a must-read.
Magnificent!
Martha Hall Kelly has combined an evil piece of history and a tribute to a humanitarian in Lilac Girls.
I was captivated with the perspective of the Herta and the perseverance of the Kasia to survive. I appreciated the well researched details of life in the camp and after the war but I thought the revelation of the emotional havoc that continued to burden the Kasia was excellent.
Caroline Ferriday is certainly a person to admire and applaud. She deserves accolades for her humanitarian deeds, but the life and influence of the NY socialite was hard to swallow while reading about Ravensbruch.
Lilac Girls was not an easy novel to read. It puts a human face on a painful, ugly part of 20th century history. I didn’t know going in that the characters in the story were real people or based on real people. Not knowing made me wonder how on earth the author would redeem the German viewpoint character in my eyes. Turns out she (the author) didn’t have to. And the American and Polish viewpoint characters owned my heart from almost page one. If you like WWII fiction or fiction based on fact, you won’t want to miss Lilac Girls. I’m very glad Goodreads recommended it to me.
This is a fictionalized account of yet another horror perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II. Two of the three main characters and many of the secondary characters are real, and the author has done extensive research to keep as true to their stories as possible. As disturbing a tale as this is, we need to remember that these events happened in order to prevent them, or events like them, from happening again. History too often has a way of repeating itself.
What an incredible tale! This book is perfectly balanced, brilliantly researched, and beautifully written.
Loved this book! You fall in love with the characters! Based on true events and real people. You connect with the characters and empathize with the good and bad.
A difficult read because the story is so heart breaking – and true. I put it down a number of times because the horror was too real, but always picked it back up again. we need to remember the stories of how cruel people can be to each other so that we won’t let it happen again.
Three women from vastly different backgrounds live through WW2. The events that these amazing women endured are heart breaking, terrifying, brutal. So well written, this book was difficult to put down.
Based on a true story this book about the women who survived the Nazi’s is heartbreaking while showing courage and hope.