“Jerusza’s mother...used to tell her that the knowing of impossible things was a gift from God passed down through maternal blood of only the most fortunate Jewish women. Jerusza,....was certain at times that it was a curse instead, but whatever it was it had been her burden all her life to follow the voices that echoed through the forests.”
I’m Betty Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and those are some lines from the beginning of Kristin Harmel’s historical novel The Forest of Vanishing Stars.
The story begins in 1922 when eighty-two year old Jerusza steals a two year old girl from her German home. Jerusza has seen visions of both the Second World War and the role that the child Yona will play.
Jerusza raises her in an Eastern European forest teaching her how to live off the land, how to heal with herbs, how to hide from people, how to kill with her bare hands. She steals books from villages to educate Yona on a variety of topics to prepare her for the role she will play.
Jerusza dies at the beginning of WWII when Yona is twenty-two. Six months later, Yona comes upon eleven starving Jews who are fleeing Nazi persecution and trying to survive in the forest. Yona, although leery of living with others, agrees to join them and teach them all she knows. When she’s betrayed by one of them, she goes off on her own and stumbles into a Nazi occupied village and a harsh reminder of her first years of life.
This is a well researched novel based on historically accurate places and events.
If you’re looking for an engrossing WWII novel that bears witness to the resilience of the human spirit, then you must read The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel.
