An emotional and inspiring World War Two time-slip novel of danger and courage. This is a story inspired by true events and stories of Irena Sendler and the women of the Polish Żegota.

It’s the worst time in humanity and yet there is still light in the darkness…

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1942, Warsaw

Young Zofia finds herself leading a double life when she is enlisted to help the fearless Irena Sendler save hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Every night, Zofia risks her life to shepherd the children to safety. But when the worst happens, she is forced to make her riskiest journey yet to keep Irena’s mission alive.

Now, Seattle

After yet another miscarriage, heartbroken Lizzie returns to the comfort of her childhood home, where she stumbles upon a hidden photograph of her great-grandmother among a mysterious group of people.

On a quest to discover more, Lizzie uncovers a buried past darker and more dangerous than she could ever have imagined…

A sweeping and heartbreaking story of two remarkable women, generations apart, each finding courage when all hope is gone. Perfect for fans of The Midwife of Auschwitz and The Woman Outside the Walls.

My Review

In 1978 I accompanied my father to Poland to visit his family. He hadn’t returned since 1939, when he joined the Polish infantry at the age of 16 and was captured by the Russians and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp north of Siberia. When we arrived, one of his older half-sisters had died four hours before we got there and another was in nursing home suffering with dementia. No, she didn’t have any good days, unlike Magda in the book. During our visit staying in a small town quite close to Wroclaw (I got very excited when Zofia goes there), my father had a reunion with his nephew and his best friend from school. They reminisced, and laughed and drank a lot of brandy (not vodka), and got very drunk and cried. I mention this, because there is a scene where Lizzie finds a missing relative and they drink vodka and celebrate and I was immediately reminded of that night with my dad in Poland.

In fact so many times during the book I was reminded of my family connections. We did actually visit Warsaw and I kept thinking ‘we went there’, but we didn’t visit the site of the Jewish ghetto, because my father wasn’t Jewish (my mother was – but that’s a whole other story).

I finished reading the book at 1.15 in the morning and it’s now 1.30 am and I am writing this before I forget. I feel such a connection with my heritage and my Polish family, just like Lizzie. She can’t speak Polish, neither can I, because my mother spoke Romanian and they never conversed in any other language than English. I guess that’s what it was like for Lizzie after Magda emigrated to America and was not part of a Polish community. It just dies out. More important to speak the local lingo for school, work etc.

There were tears in my eyes at the end, for those we lost, for the inhumanity of it all, and for those we found again after so many years. Daughters of Warsaw is heartbreakingly sad at times, but there is also so much courage and hope in the face of adversity. Zofia is an inspirational hero, helping her friend Irena Sendler to bring hundreds – maybe thousands – of Jewish children out of the ghetto, where they would either die of disease or starvation, or perish with their parents in Treblinka concentration camp.

This book has had a profound effect on me. It reminded me that I am a daughter of Poland (if not actually Warsaw) and without people like Zofia and Irena, my family would not be free.

Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of the #DaughtersOfWarsawBlogTour.

About the Author

Maria Frances was born in London and grew up in the UK and Germany. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and a PhD in Psychology from the University of Durham. She works as a writer and translator and lives with her husband and four children in Berlin. She is the author of five novels which she writes under her real name, Juliet Conlin. Her first German-language novel is also publishing in 2023. Daughters of Warsaw is her first book with Avon.

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