A moving work about the horrors of the Holocaust.
Maysonave and Goldman’s historical novel, based on a true story, offers an account of one woman’s determination to survive the Holocaust.
Although this is a work of fiction, its protagonist, Hinda Mondlak, was Goldman’s mother, and the suffering she endures in these pages is based on actual events in her life. Just before her death in 1985, she recorded recollections of her experiences, which Goldman kept. He was traumatized by her account of the abuses she suffered at the Auschwitz concentration camp in the 1940s, but he came to believe that her story must be told to others. At the heart of his mother’s narration was a promise made by her father, whom she called “Tatae,” that she would survive to bring her family’s tale to others: “You will live; you will tell,” he’d insisted, just before his execution. In fulfilling this promise, Maysonave and Goldman rely heavily on Mondlak’s testimony, but they employ the techniques of fiction to make her story more accessible to readers. The result is effective and often painful in its detail and emotional force. Many readers will admire Hinda’s devotion to her family and her determination to resist her Nazi captors as they attempt to dehumanize her. Her story effectively reflects the larger pattern of the Holocaust, which included the expulsion of Jewish people from communities in occupied Poland, as well as their ghettoization and imprisonment in labor and death camps. This fictionalized account helps readers to see the impact of these events in intimate, devastating ways. As the story shifts to Auschwitz, the authors not only provide searing accounts of systematic abuses and executions but also offer horrific glimpses into the minds and actions of Nazi officers such as Josef Mengele. At other points, readers see how bonds of love between prisoners gave them the will to live and sustained their hopes for liberation and justice. There’s also a remarkable love story at the heart of this novel—a relationship that will surprise and delight readers for its ability to withstand the most terrible of circumstances.
A moving work about the horrors of the Holocaust.Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781959096962
Page Count: 550
Publisher: DartFrog Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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