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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Too little had happened in the first 8+ hours to make me want to finish. At half way I should at least be invested with the characters but they just weren’t that exciting.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Sisters of Night and Fog by Erika Robuck begins in 1995 with a elderly woman returning to Ravensbruck with some of the other women who made it out of the concentration camp alive at the end of World War II. They have returned to attend a remembrance ceremony. In her first-person narration, she describes how difficult it is to return to the place “about which I’ve barely uttered a word all these years — that almost destroyed me.”
After that brief introduction, the story moves back to 1940-41 with Violette and her young brother escaping France where they have been visiting their aunt who frantically returns them to their parents in London. The Germans have already invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and are advancing on Paris, the city that Violette loves so dearly. She swears that she will return to France to fight the Nazis. Meanwhile, Virginia and her French husband, Philippe, watch refugees march through the village where his cavalry unit is stationed. Virginia has rejected her family’s pleas to return to the United States and safety, vowing to stay with her husband and “live only in the moment” with him. As Philippe heads to the front with his unit, Virginia and his mother begin a fraught journey to his family’s holiday home on the French coast, hoping they can shelter there.
In alternating chapters, Robuck relates the experiences of the two women as the war rages on. Back in London with her parents, Violette is not content to simply wait out the war. She is sickened by France’s surrender to Germany, under the terms of which the Germans will occupy a zone in the north while a new French government operates out of Vichy. She is restless and eager to serve. Just nineteen years old, she falls in love with a French soldier, Etienne, but their happiness is short-lived. He is transported to West Africa to fight while Virginia, and Philippe’s mother and grandmother, are forced from the family home into an adjacent farmer’s cottage by Nazis who occupy the main house on the family estate. Travel is restricted, food and supplies are rationed, and every aspect of their former life is stripped away by the conquering enemy as Virginia can only hope that Philippe is alive and will eventually return to her. Virginia struggles to hide her contempt from the soldiers with whom they must co-exist. Soon she undertakes a dangerous journey to meet Philippe in the Unoccupied Zone where he awaits demobilization since his and other cavalry units are being sent home. It’s only the first of many treacherous treks Virginia will make before the war finally ends.
Meanwhile, Violette works at the London telephonist station, but when the bombing begins, she and her coworkers take shelter underground. London is attacked mercilessly, “lit with fires” on a nightly basis. “Where buildings stood just minutes ago are great holes and mountains of smoking rubble.” And soon there’s only a crater where the telephone exchange building once stood.
Reunited with Virginia, Philippe avoids being forced to work for the Germans by obtaining a farming exemption. He and Virginia are safe at their remote cottage, but for how long? For Violette, bearing a child — a beautiful daughter she names Tania — without Etienne at her side is too much. She suffers from severe depression and is unprepared to meet the unrelenting needs of a newborn. Violette’s fractious relationship with her father, coupled with her pride, makes it difficult for her to accept help, but she finally relents and welcomes her mother’s assistance. Soon, though, she meets a man who will change her life by recruiting her and fulfilling her need to serve in the war effort.
As the war rages on, both Virginia and Violette become actively involved in the Resistance. Violette is determined to extract revenge upon the Germans who widowed her, leaving her to raise Tania without a father. She joins the Special Operations Executive (SEO), a far-flung network of operatives who engage in espionage and sabotaging the enemy. But before she an be dispatched on sensitive missions, she undergoes grueling training in Scotland. She learns to shoot, parachute, and survive brutal conditions, but opts not to accept the cyanide pill that every agent is offered — to be used in the event of capture in order to evade being tortured. Her dedication and fortitude are questioned and tested relentlessly, and her activities must be concealed from her family and friends. Fortunately, she has a dear friend who is willing to care for Tania while she claims to be serving with the First Aid Nursing Yoemanry.
Virginia also grows increasingly restless and, along with Philippe, joins a network of operatives who rescue, conceal, and transport Allied pilots who have been shot down, as well as Nazi fugitives. The Comet Line is an underground network spanning from Belgium to Spain that procures forged documents used to help pilots escape and be reunited with their regiments. Virginia and Philippe bravely take pilots into their home until the documents are prepared and arrangements made to escort them out of France. But as time passes, their missions grow increasingly dangerous as German spies pose as Allied pilots in order to infiltrate and dismantle the Comet Line.
Robuck seamlessly tells the tense tale of the women’s separate activities in a frank, straight-forward style that befits and enhances its overwhelming inherent power. But still the third-person narrative is imbued with compassion and poignancy, and Robuck believably brings each and every one of the multitude of characters to life. The fear and anguish of wartime is palpable, and Robuck describes the characters’ longing for life to return to some semblance of normalcy in an achingly plainspoken and relatable manner. Four years into the war, Virginia is aghast and exasperated, never having believed that it could drag on for so long, but her determination to save the pilots whose planes are shot out of the sky never wavers. “Her only regret is that she and Philippe took so long to start with the Resistance. If Virginia could have comprehended the utter joy they’d get from subverting the Nazis, she would have sought out ways to start sooner.” Her efforts bring her “a wellspring of peace” that carries her through “the most difficult and dangerous situations.”
Likewise, Violette loves her daughter, but cannot forget what the enemy took from her. She is insistent that she be sent on an extremely dangerous mission after Henri, a fellow agent she has come to deeply care for, is captured. Indeed, she discovers that the network has been destroyed, agents killed, and she is in grave danger. But she is intent on carrying out the mission. Violette never loses sight of what is at stake and remains ready to make the ultimate sacrifice should that be required of her.
One day Virginia encounters a pretty young woman at the train station “wearing a violet kerchief that matches her eyes.” She recognizes that young woman when she sees her again. By then, they are both prisoners. Robuck details how each woman makes a choice — a miscalculation that proves to be a fatal mistake — that results in her capture and curtails her underground activities. But it is rumored that the Allies have landed at Normandy and are advancing. They believe that soon the Nazis will be defeated, so they must endure unspeakable hardship and stay alive because liberation is imminent. But the horrors they witness and experience in the concentration camp are unimaginably terrifying and inhumane. Ironically, because the Germans know they are on the brink of losing the war, they are motivated to inflict indescribable suffering on their prisoners . . . and empty out the camps before the Allies reach them.
After their stories have unfolded, it is evident which one of the two women returns to Ravenbruck on that special day of remembrance forty years later. Tragically, only one of the women survived. And she bore the guilt of surviving, when so many did not. In the days following the war, she asked herself the same question that the rest of the world was asking. “How will we learn to live normally again? Is there any such thing?” No one who lived through that time was unchanged, but, as Robuck illustrates, those who survived found ways to rebuild their lives, even as they carried ghosts with them for the remainder of their days.
Sister of Night and Fog is a beautifully crafted, utterly riveting story based on the actual lives and contributions to victory made by Virginia and Violette. Robuck’s painstaking research is evident on every page of the book, and she was fortunate to connect with living family members and friends of Virginia and Violette whose reflections helped her bring the women to life on the pages. But the book is not easy to read. Robuck has penned a tense, often heartbreaking, and unsparingly realistic portrayal of wartime atrocities.
What Virginia and Violette endured is deeply disturbing, but their story is one of bravery and courageous action in the face of the most despicable and evil campaign for supremacy the world has ever known. Virginia watched hundreds of women die in the camp, but she, along with Philippe, saved the lives of sixty-nine Allied pilots. Violette refused to give up information about the SEO and her colleagues, saving their lives. And she inspired her fellow prisoners to remain strong and hopeful that the Allies would soon fight their way to the camp and set them free.
Robuck aptly observes that “ultimately, the courage of these women shines brighter than any darkness they faced.” And by crafting their story so meticulously and with quiet reverence, she has done justice to the women, their perseverance and spirit, their sacrifices, their humanity, and their legacies. Sisters of Night and Fog is a mesmerizing and towering work of historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
After that brief introduction, the story moves back to 1940-41 with Violette and her young brother escaping France where they have been visiting their aunt who frantically returns them to their parents in London. The Germans have already invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and are advancing on Paris, the city that Violette loves so dearly. She swears that she will return to France to fight the Nazis. Meanwhile, Virginia and her French husband, Philippe, watch refugees march through the village where his cavalry unit is stationed. Virginia has rejected her family’s pleas to return to the United States and safety, vowing to stay with her husband and “live only in the moment” with him. As Philippe heads to the front with his unit, Virginia and his mother begin a fraught journey to his family’s holiday home on the French coast, hoping they can shelter there.
In alternating chapters, Robuck relates the experiences of the two women as the war rages on. Back in London with her parents, Violette is not content to simply wait out the war. She is sickened by France’s surrender to Germany, under the terms of which the Germans will occupy a zone in the north while a new French government operates out of Vichy. She is restless and eager to serve. Just nineteen years old, she falls in love with a French soldier, Etienne, but their happiness is short-lived. He is transported to West Africa to fight while Virginia, and Philippe’s mother and grandmother, are forced from the family home into an adjacent farmer’s cottage by Nazis who occupy the main house on the family estate. Travel is restricted, food and supplies are rationed, and every aspect of their former life is stripped away by the conquering enemy as Virginia can only hope that Philippe is alive and will eventually return to her. Virginia struggles to hide her contempt from the soldiers with whom they must co-exist. Soon she undertakes a dangerous journey to meet Philippe in the Unoccupied Zone where he awaits demobilization since his and other cavalry units are being sent home. It’s only the first of many treacherous treks Virginia will make before the war finally ends.
Meanwhile, Violette works at the London telephonist station, but when the bombing begins, she and her coworkers take shelter underground. London is attacked mercilessly, “lit with fires” on a nightly basis. “Where buildings stood just minutes ago are great holes and mountains of smoking rubble.” And soon there’s only a crater where the telephone exchange building once stood.
Reunited with Virginia, Philippe avoids being forced to work for the Germans by obtaining a farming exemption. He and Virginia are safe at their remote cottage, but for how long? For Violette, bearing a child — a beautiful daughter she names Tania — without Etienne at her side is too much. She suffers from severe depression and is unprepared to meet the unrelenting needs of a newborn. Violette’s fractious relationship with her father, coupled with her pride, makes it difficult for her to accept help, but she finally relents and welcomes her mother’s assistance. Soon, though, she meets a man who will change her life by recruiting her and fulfilling her need to serve in the war effort.
As the war rages on, both Virginia and Violette become actively involved in the Resistance. Violette is determined to extract revenge upon the Germans who widowed her, leaving her to raise Tania without a father. She joins the Special Operations Executive (SEO), a far-flung network of operatives who engage in espionage and sabotaging the enemy. But before she an be dispatched on sensitive missions, she undergoes grueling training in Scotland. She learns to shoot, parachute, and survive brutal conditions, but opts not to accept the cyanide pill that every agent is offered — to be used in the event of capture in order to evade being tortured. Her dedication and fortitude are questioned and tested relentlessly, and her activities must be concealed from her family and friends. Fortunately, she has a dear friend who is willing to care for Tania while she claims to be serving with the First Aid Nursing Yoemanry.
Virginia also grows increasingly restless and, along with Philippe, joins a network of operatives who rescue, conceal, and transport Allied pilots who have been shot down, as well as Nazi fugitives. The Comet Line is an underground network spanning from Belgium to Spain that procures forged documents used to help pilots escape and be reunited with their regiments. Virginia and Philippe bravely take pilots into their home until the documents are prepared and arrangements made to escort them out of France. But as time passes, their missions grow increasingly dangerous as German spies pose as Allied pilots in order to infiltrate and dismantle the Comet Line.
Robuck seamlessly tells the tense tale of the women’s separate activities in a frank, straight-forward style that befits and enhances its overwhelming inherent power. But still the third-person narrative is imbued with compassion and poignancy, and Robuck believably brings each and every one of the multitude of characters to life. The fear and anguish of wartime is palpable, and Robuck describes the characters’ longing for life to return to some semblance of normalcy in an achingly plainspoken and relatable manner. Four years into the war, Virginia is aghast and exasperated, never having believed that it could drag on for so long, but her determination to save the pilots whose planes are shot out of the sky never wavers. “Her only regret is that she and Philippe took so long to start with the Resistance. If Virginia could have comprehended the utter joy they’d get from subverting the Nazis, she would have sought out ways to start sooner.” Her efforts bring her “a wellspring of peace” that carries her through “the most difficult and dangerous situations.”
Likewise, Violette loves her daughter, but cannot forget what the enemy took from her. She is insistent that she be sent on an extremely dangerous mission after Henri, a fellow agent she has come to deeply care for, is captured. Indeed, she discovers that the network has been destroyed, agents killed, and she is in grave danger. But she is intent on carrying out the mission. Violette never loses sight of what is at stake and remains ready to make the ultimate sacrifice should that be required of her.
One day Virginia encounters a pretty young woman at the train station “wearing a violet kerchief that matches her eyes.” She recognizes that young woman when she sees her again. By then, they are both prisoners. Robuck details how each woman makes a choice — a miscalculation that proves to be a fatal mistake — that results in her capture and curtails her underground activities. But it is rumored that the Allies have landed at Normandy and are advancing. They believe that soon the Nazis will be defeated, so they must endure unspeakable hardship and stay alive because liberation is imminent. But the horrors they witness and experience in the concentration camp are unimaginably terrifying and inhumane. Ironically, because the Germans know they are on the brink of losing the war, they are motivated to inflict indescribable suffering on their prisoners . . . and empty out the camps before the Allies reach them.
After their stories have unfolded, it is evident which one of the two women returns to Ravenbruck on that special day of remembrance forty years later. Tragically, only one of the women survived. And she bore the guilt of surviving, when so many did not. In the days following the war, she asked herself the same question that the rest of the world was asking. “How will we learn to live normally again? Is there any such thing?” No one who lived through that time was unchanged, but, as Robuck illustrates, those who survived found ways to rebuild their lives, even as they carried ghosts with them for the remainder of their days.
Sister of Night and Fog is a beautifully crafted, utterly riveting story based on the actual lives and contributions to victory made by Virginia and Violette. Robuck’s painstaking research is evident on every page of the book, and she was fortunate to connect with living family members and friends of Virginia and Violette whose reflections helped her bring the women to life on the pages. But the book is not easy to read. Robuck has penned a tense, often heartbreaking, and unsparingly realistic portrayal of wartime atrocities.
What Virginia and Violette endured is deeply disturbing, but their story is one of bravery and courageous action in the face of the most despicable and evil campaign for supremacy the world has ever known. Virginia watched hundreds of women die in the camp, but she, along with Philippe, saved the lives of sixty-nine Allied pilots. Violette refused to give up information about the SEO and her colleagues, saving their lives. And she inspired her fellow prisoners to remain strong and hopeful that the Allies would soon fight their way to the camp and set them free.
Robuck aptly observes that “ultimately, the courage of these women shines brighter than any darkness they faced.” And by crafting their story so meticulously and with quiet reverence, she has done justice to the women, their perseverance and spirit, their sacrifices, their humanity, and their legacies. Sisters of Night and Fog is a mesmerizing and towering work of historical fiction.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
The beginning was a slog and I understand because Robuck wanted to tell both stories and needed to provide the appropriate background. About halfway through I nearly gave up, but then Violette was recruited so I expected action to speed up and it did. The truth of the story was another factor that kept me going. These stories aren’t told enough and each needs to be.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
sad
medium-paced
I admired the lives of these two women (who were real people!)
Virginia is an American wed to a Parisian man living in France. When war starts, her husband begs her to leave for America but she vows to stay with him and to do what she can to help the Allied war efforts.
Violette marries and loses her husband in the war and becomes an agent with the SOE.
They both were so brave in their individual missions. My heart just broke reading about them being captured and sent to Ravensbrück camp.
Virginia is an American wed to a Parisian man living in France. When war starts, her husband begs her to leave for America but she vows to stay with him and to do what she can to help the Allied war efforts.
Violette marries and loses her husband in the war and becomes an agent with the SOE.
They both were so brave in their individual missions. My heart just broke reading about them being captured and sent to Ravensbrück camp.
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, War