Emma, the main character in the book is a young Jewish woman, who has only been married to her husband, Jacob, for three weeks when Nazi’s begin to occupy Poland. Jacob is forced to go into hiding leaving Emma in a Jewish ghetto. The resistance movement in Poland is strong and they help Emma sneak out of Poland to live with Jacob’s Catholic cousin, Kyrisa. Emma takes with her a young Jewish boy, whose looks are not those typical of a Jewish person. As part of the plan to get Emma out she takes on a new identity, Anna Lipowski. Kyrisa is part of the resistance movement but has to keep up appearances and therefore holds dinner parties for many who are Nazi’s or support them. Emma (now Anna) is introduced at a party to Nazi Kommadant Richwalder. The Kommadant really likes Emma and asks her to come work for him in his office as his personal assistant. Emma agrees only to help gather information that will further help the resistance movement. Throughout the book Emma becomes more involved with the Kommadant in the hopes of gathering information.
While I'm not sure if I would teach it, it is a book I would definitely recommend to any student in 11th or 12th grade.
This sounds really good, but the book looks long. How long did it take you to read it?
ReplyDeleteI think it's about 350ish pages. I was really into this book so I think it only took me 3 or 4 days to read. You won't regret wasting all your time reading it though, I promise!
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