The Woman with the Blue Star

March 22, 2021
Jenoff’s spellbinding latest (after The Lost Girls of Paris) follows a Jewish family hiding from the Nazis in Kraków, Poland. Famished 18-year-old Sadie Gault’s parents insist she hide in a crawl space of their ghetto apartment in 1942, to spare her from grueling forced labor. A year later, facing intensifying raids, the family escapes into the sewer system with help from a worker who explains the tunnels and brings them food. Sadie bonds over books with the 20-something son of another family hiding with them, and their friendship blossoms into romance. Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative, a young Catholic woman named Ella Stepanek dreams of marrying her boyfriend and yearns to flee from her cruel Nazi collaborator stepmother. While running an errand at the market, Ella happens to glance down at a sewer grate in the street and sees Sadie looking up at her. Thus begins a lifesaving friendship in which both young women discover great inner resources neither one knew she possessed. Jenoff drew on a true story for this harrowing narrative, and shapes it with precise details of the subterranean world and of the city’s churches, markets, and cafes. This moving tale of young women’s will to survive on their own terms will appeal to readers of all ages. Agent: Susan Ginsberg, Writers House.

April 16, 2021

In 1942 Poland, 18-year-old Sadie Gault and her pregnant mother flee the Nazi's liquidation of the Krak�w ghetto and take refuge with another family in the city's sewers. Ella Stepanek's life could not be more different; she and her stepmother, a Nazi collaborator, live in relative wealth, and all Ella can think about is her fianc�'s return from the front. One day Ella accidentally spies Sadie underneath one of the sewer grates, and they form an unlikely friendship. As the war starts to go poorly for the Axis powers, each of the girls will need to find the strength to make decisions that will either allow them to survive or condemn them to death. VERDICT An inspired-by story centered around Sadie and Ella's friendship, Jenoff's latest book (after The Lost Girls of Paris) takes place entirely in Krak�w and moves back and forth between the perspectives of the two young women as they navigate war, love, loss, friendship, and family. This is a heartfelt, emotional tale about human connection, hope, survival, and struggle during one of humanity's darkest moments.--Laura Hiatt, Fort Collins, CO

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2021
In Nazi-occupied Krak�w, a friendship between two young women, one Jewish and one Polish, alters the destinies of both. The present-day prologue introduces an unidentified 70-something woman who is visiting Poland, trying to work up the nerve to make contact with a 90-ish Krak�w resident. The novel proper alternates the first-person narratives of Sadie Gault and Ella Stepanek, both 19. A mass deportation of Krak�w's Jews in 1943 drives Sadie's father to take desperate measures to avoid the camps. With the help of Pawel, a Polish sewer worker, Sadie and her parents escape into Krak�w's sewer tunnels, but Sadie's father drowns along the way. To avoid capture, Sadie and her mother--who's pregnant--must hide in a small chamber inside the sewer system along with the Rosenbergs, a more devout family. Meanwhile, Ella's father died defending Poland, and her stepmother, Ana, is now welcoming German officers to Ella's family home (where she lives at Ana's sufferance). Then one day, walking through a market, Ella spots Sadie through a grate, and they make eye contact. She returns the next day, and gradually the acquaintance between the young women warms into friendship. Sewer living gets even more challenging when Pawel, sole source of food and supplies, is arrested. Ella, aided by her resistance fighter boyfriend, smuggles food to the refugees. Sadie and young Saul Rosenberg overcome their religious differences and fall in love. After Sadie's mother gives birth, the infant's wails force the fugitives to make a terrible choice. All these well-drawn characters have too few options, which they debate endlessly and repetitiously. The description of how the sewer dwellers exist for months in a small, bare, filthy space is sketchy. The book's timeline can feel vague--the main action is happening in 1943, but the historical circumstances suggest 1944. There are continuity glitches. At the beginning of the book, Ella notes that her father left no will, but much later, the will turns up with no comment. Contemporary parlance creeps in: "we can do this," "a few months tops." Still, there are gripping scenes, particularly toward the end, and a poignant epilogue. Powerful but in need of a polish.

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April 15, 2021
Best-selling Jenoff's latest mesmerizing and meticulous WWII novel, following The Lost Girls of Paris (2019), charts the intersecting lives of two young women. In 1942 in Krakow, 18-year-old Sadie lives in the Jewish quarter, longing for a life beyond the walls of the ghetto. When the Germans arrive to round up the community, Sadie and her parents flee down into the sewers in a harrowing, ultimately devastating escape. Although this was meant to be a temporary hiding place, they are stranded there for weeks, a predicament further complicated by Sadie's mother's pregnancy. After losing her father, well-off Ella, 19, is living in Krakow with her conniving stepmother. One day Ella spies Sadie through a grate in the street, and the two form an unexpected friendship, offering respite from the escalating dangers. As days continue to pass, however, each is forced to make heartbreaking choices. Alternating between Sadie's and Ella's points of view, Jenoff creates a rich drama from her compelling characters' connection, growth, and perseverance despite unimaginable horrors.

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