Eighteen year old Sadie Gault believes it can't get much worse than living in the cramped conditions of the Jewish ghetto of Krakow with her parents, until the day that her family must escape the Germans by rushing into the sewer system beneath the city. The original plan to simply travel through the sewers to another location is no longer safe so they, along with another Jewish family, must remain in the sewers in order to stay alive.
Ella is living a somewhat comfortable life in Krakow, though she doesn't agree with her stepmother consorting with the Germans. Her stepmother has always been cruel to her and Ella hopes to soon receive travel papers for Paris so she can join her older brother there. During an errand for her stepmother, Ella captures a glimpse through the sewer grate of a young woman in the sewers. This chance encounter will change both Ella and Sadie's lives forever.
The atrocities suffered by the Jews in Krakow, Poland during World War II were heartbreaking, and Pam Jenoff's latest novel delves into that world with a completely different perspective. The descriptions of life in the sewer are so detailed that they truly give you a feeling of what that experience would have been like for those families. The author develops characters that you bond with over the course of the novel and it goes without saying that this is an emotional read.
I received this book courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Ella is living a somewhat comfortable life in Krakow, though she doesn't agree with her stepmother consorting with the Germans. Her stepmother has always been cruel to her and Ella hopes to soon receive travel papers for Paris so she can join her older brother there. During an errand for her stepmother, Ella captures a glimpse through the sewer grate of a young woman in the sewers. This chance encounter will change both Ella and Sadie's lives forever.
The atrocities suffered by the Jews in Krakow, Poland during World War II were heartbreaking, and Pam Jenoff's latest novel delves into that world with a completely different perspective. The descriptions of life in the sewer are so detailed that they truly give you a feeling of what that experience would have been like for those families. The author develops characters that you bond with over the course of the novel and it goes without saying that this is an emotional read.
I received this book courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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