Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

 

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly is a novel based on true events and the real life story of one of the three main characters, Caroline Ferriday. In 1939 Caroline Ferriday was an American heiress and former Broadway actress working as a liaison to the French Consulate in NewYork.  The two fictional characters are Kasia, a Polish teenager, sent to the nazi concentration camp, Ravensbruuck, with her mother, her sister and her friend; and Herta, a young German doctor working  at Ravensbruuck. 

Ravensbruuck was a females-only prison which was, to put it mildly, a living hell. That horrifying experiments were carried out on women by other women is unthinkable. The German doctor, Herta, is unhappy that her profession is dominated by males and suffers bouts of depression and anxiety because of the unfairness of her situation; yet, she has no compassion for the women she tortures, the sick women and babies she kills and the prisoners she watches being shot for having committed whatever her nazi bosses deem to be offences, such as being heard to speak any language other than German. The three lives eventually converge and the story goes through to 1959. There are some very interesting photographs in the book, one of the beautiful Caroline Ferriday and others of  some of the survivors of the vile, disgusting, evil nazi camp, Ravensbruuck. 

Obviously, this was not an easy read but stories like this one must continue to be told. Caroline’s goodness, kindness and generosity shine through the story as a counterfoil to the darkness of Hitler’s mad plans for world domination. It was Martha Hall Kelly’s first novel and she did an absolutely magnificent job.

Penguin Books

Published by Random House Australia

The Unwilling, by John Hart (review by Tony Park)

 

Wow.

Just bloody wow.

You know what it's like when  you want to read a book, but you've read everything your favourite authors have written, and there's nothing new from them on the horizon?

I was in that terrible place when one of my readers, Bruce, in the US, messaged me on Facebook and suggested - in fact, practically ordered - that I try 'The Unwilling' by John Hart. I'd never heard of him and I'm rarely sold on other people's recommendations. Bruce, however, added another line to his message: "if you don't like it, I'll cover your costs".

Big call, I thought, and then, wow.

When I say I was hooked from the start, I am talking walking-down-the-footpath-still-reading-bumping-into-pedestrians-and-lamppost addiction.

Jason French is a recently-released convict and Vietnam veteran, returning to his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1972. Jason's twin brother, Robert, was killed in the war and his younger brother, Gibby, has just finished high school and has his draft notice.

Jason's carrying terrible (horrific, actually) secrets from both the war and jail and though he wants to shield Gibby from both, a world of hurt comes hurtling towards the French brothers.  Jason falls foul of the law again (to make matters worse their dad is a detective), and Gibby and his misfit school friend have to turn amateur-sleuths.

This book has it all. There's family drama and a charmingly-penned fledgling romance between Gibby and the smartest, prettiest, poorest girl in school.

There's a baddy, who makes Hannibal Lector look like the Dalai Lama, and a henchman who pushed me to the limit of what I could take as a reader, vis-a-vis violence and scariness.  I don't like horror books and while I do like writing and reading a good shoot-em-up I have a low tolerance for gratuitous gore.  It's the skill of John Hart that he could take me there, to the edge of my limits, and keep me turning the pages (and bumping into people).

Most of all there is beautiful writing.

Former-lawyer Hart is that rarest of cats in the world of authors - someone who can create narrative, dialogue and description to make a literary snob swoon, and yet still produce a cracking good yarn.

Thank you, Bruce, who recommended John Hart to me. Your money is safe, buddy.

Six out of five.

Published by St Martin's Press and Pan Macmillan

Reviewed by Tony Park

The Family Gift by Cathy Kelly

 

The Family Gift is an Aga-saga, Irish style. By ‘Aga-saga’ I mean a novel about a family living comfortably in picturesque surroundings but facing and trying to deal with problems which are of various degrees of seriousness.

Freya is a popular television chef with a loving husband, Dan, and three children, the oldest of whom is 14 year old Lexi, Dan’s daughter from his first marriage but adopted by Freya at age two and loved by her as much as the two younger children, 

The very real and recognisable problems confronting Freya and Dan and their parents, grandparents and siblings include post traumatic stress following a mugging; trying to separate social media life from real life; an adopted child’s need to connect with her birth mother; plans for a happy retirement thrown into disarray by the sudden disablement of a partner, and the heartache of two people longing for children but having to deal with the prospect of  infertility. That sounds like a lot but all the pieces fit together well to make a most satisfying read.

Cathy Kelly always creates thoroughly likeable characters and she writes with warmth, humour and wisdom. It is always a pleasure to read one of her books and The Family Gift was no exception.

Published by Orion.