Hard to put down, historical non-fiction
Gwen Strauss’s narrative non-fiction, The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women Who Survived the Worst of Nazi Germany, delivers a reading experience that rivals the best historical novels. It’s a gripping survival story of female resistance fighters captured, tortured, sent to a concentration camp, and escaped during a death march.
Strauss tells about each of the women before the war, why they joined the resistance movements and in what capacity, their capture, the character attributes that contributed to the group’s survival, and how their emotional scars shaped their ultimate paths in life. I marveled over the kindnesses, compassion, and extreme acts of solidarity that ultimately led to the group’s survival and shuddered at the incomprehensible horrors they, and so many others, endured.
The book was well-researched and thought-provoking. The book is somewhat of a dense read and tended to veer off on interesting tangents, but I learned a tremendous amount and was never frustrated by the diversion. I especially enjoyed the pictured sprinkled throughout and the characters’ candid descriptions, both positive and not-so-positive. Thank you to BookishFirst and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Strauss tells about each of the women before the war, why they joined the resistance movements and in what capacity, their capture, the character attributes that contributed to the group’s survival, and how their emotional scars shaped their ultimate paths in life. I marveled over the kindnesses, compassion, and extreme acts of solidarity that ultimately led to the group’s survival and shuddered at the incomprehensible horrors they, and so many others, endured.
The book was well-researched and thought-provoking. The book is somewhat of a dense read and tended to veer off on interesting tangents, but I learned a tremendous amount and was never frustrated by the diversion. I especially enjoyed the pictured sprinkled throughout and the characters’ candid descriptions, both positive and not-so-positive. Thank you to BookishFirst and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.