by Gwen Strauss
First published 2022
Hélène and eight other young women fight the Nazi occupation across France. Some are only fifteen when they join the resistance. They smuggle weapons through occupied territory, shelter Allied parachutists, and hide Jewish children from deportation. The French police arrest them and send them to a labor camp in Leipzig. In the factory, they sabotage anti-tank weapons while forming bonds that keep them alive. Days before the war ends, guards force them on a death march. Starving and broken, the nine women face their final test. They must choose between certain death and a desperate escape attempt. Their friendship becomes their only weapon against impossible odds.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, war, world-war-ii
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: against-all-odds, found-family
Setting: France, Leipzig
Period: Nazi Occupation
398 pages · Paperback · Meulenhoff Boekerij B.V.
Content warnings: violence, war