On a September day in Manhattan in 1939, twenty-something Caroline Ferriday
is consumed by her efforts to secure the perfect boutonniere for an important
French diplomat and resisting the romantic advances of a married actor.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish Catholic teenager, is
nervously anticipating the changes that are sure to come since Germany has
declared war on Poland. As tensions rise abroad – and in her personal
life – Caroline's interest in aiding the war effort in France grows and she
eventually learns about the dire situation at the Ravensbruck all-female
concentration camp. At the same time, Kasia's carefree youth is quickly
slipping away, only to be replaced by a fervor for the Polish resistance
movement. Through Ravensbruck – and the horrific atrocities taking place
there told in part by an infamous German surgeon, Herta Oberheuser – the two
women's lives will converge in unprecedented ways and a novel of redemption and
hope emerges that is breathtaking in scope and depth.
From New York to Paris, and Furstenberg to Lublin, Martha Hall Kelly captures
the powerful pull of human compassion, strong enough to stretch across
continents and capable of triumphing over the grim evils of war. This is a
striking story of an unsung heroine and her resolute will to right what
is wrong.
Author Biography
MARTHA HALL KELLY is a native New Englander, now transplanted in Atlanta,
Georgia, where she spends her days filling legal pads with stories and reading
WWII books. This is her first novel.