Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Disclosure: I was given this book by NetGalley.com for an honest review.
Wow. Just, wow!
History is basically that: HIS story. Why aren’t women documented through the years? Because women take on the man’s name then disappear. But there were women. All through the ages, all through all the wars. Notice that even what we call ourselves is a derivative of ‘men’: wo’men’, or fe’male’. The word ‘ladies’ became a word for the prostitute. So what are we? What can we call ourselves that shows we are people, too.
But there are people who are doing their best to bring this other side of humanity’s past to life, by documenting lives of ours sisters
This book, though fiction, still pulls facts from things that happened because of and to our sisters. Ms. Martha Hall Kelly has done her research and it shows through without loss to the story itself. Yes, Fems were involved in WWII. On all sides! And the Lilac Girls dives into some of these lives and bit by bit we learn how they end up in very different places.
All the characters seem realistic as they grow from girls to women. They all have families and friends, and since they are of that age there are significant others that come into their lives. But this isn’t a sappy romance novel. This is about people heading into and through a war and how their lives change.
I am a pacifist. So reading about war isn’t my thing any more than romance. But I think there are many important lessons to be learned as we relive this horrid piece of HIStory. And yet through these Lilac Girls we see what happened.
I think books like this are very important with all the deniers out there that Hitler and his minions didn’t happen, that the camps didn’t exist, here is a book, based on fact to guide us through all of it from very personal perspectives.
I look forward to reading more by this author.
Darswords 