I’m delighted to be sharing Elena’s thoughts about The Girl with the Red Ribbon by Carly Schabowski.
- Category : Historical Fiction
- ASIN : B0D8KC78S4
- Publisher : Boldwood Books (4 Nov. 2024)
- Language : English
- File size : 2987 KB
Inspired by a true story from the author’s own family, comes a heartbreaking WW2 story.
1939, Poland: The teenage girl hears the gunshots before she sees the Nazis approach her home. Ania’s family don’t have time to run, but she does. Hiding nearby, she listens to her sister’s screams, as she strokes the red ribbon she keeps tied around her wrist and begins to plot her revenge…
When she comes across a group of misfits all rejected by the resistance, Ania realizes she alone has the power to unite them. Together, these outcasts will help her destroy each and every one of the people who took everything from her. Starting with a near-impossible plan to liberate prisoners from the notoriously brutal Lublin concentration camp…
The Nazis have no idea what – or who – they are up against. And they’re about to discover that nobody should cross a woman who has nothing to lose.
The Girl with the Red Ribbon Review
This story, set in 1939, is about a girl called Ania who lives in Poland with her father and sister (her mother died in childbirth). The only thing she has left of her is a red ribbon which she wears on her wrist, giving her strength when she needs it. As she watches the Nazis invade her country and eventually killing her father and sister, she vows revenge on them, her determination the force which drives her on from that point on.
Together with a local man, Benjamin, who is in hiding because he’s a Jew, they escape her farm, meeting some others along the way who are also fleeing the Nazis. Hiding in the Polish woods they work on their plan to bring their enemies down.
I love books set in WW2, and have never read one based in Poland so this setting was new to me! I loved the fact that it is inspired by someone in the author’s family. Ania is an intelligent girl who doesn’t understand social cues particularly well which makes her such an interesting character! I rooted for this band of misfits all the way through and enjoyed how the story progressed. It’s genuinely unbelievable that this kind of thing happened in recent history.
The Girl with the Red Ribbon is an enjoyable, heartbreaking and hopeful book.
About the Author
Carly Schabowski is a lecturer and the USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction, including The Rainbow, with translations in over ten countries. She is a former journalist, and is currently an associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, where she completed both her MA and PhD.
Facebook: @carly.schabowski
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Bookbub profile: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/carly-schabowski