The Girl From Krakow: A Novel

by Alex Rosenberg

Overview

It’s 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store—marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war. Living by her wits among the Germans as their conquests turn to defeat, she seeks a way to prevent the inevitable doom of Nazism from making her one of its last victims. Can her passion and resolve outlast the most powerful evil that Europe has ever seen?

In an epic saga that spans from Paris in the ’30s and Spain’s Civil War to Moscow, Warsaw, and the heart of Nazi Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows one woman’s battle for survival as entire nations are torn apart, never to be the same.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477830819
Publisher:	Amazon Publishing
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Pages:	452
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Alex Rosenberg is an American philosopher and the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. Rosenberg has written many books, including The Atheist’s Guide to Reality. The Girl from Krakow is his first novel. It is based on the experiences of several individuals through the 1930s and World War II.

Editorial Reviews

07/20/2015
Rosenberg’s debut novel focuses on Rita Feuerstahl, a blond-haired Polish Jew who enters adulthood as the Nazis have secured their grip on Germany. The story follows her through World War II, struggling to hide her identity to avoid being deported to a death camp, all the while searching for her lost young son, Stefan. A subplot involves her lover, Tadeusz Sommermann, a doctor who escapes the Nazis by moving to Stalinist Russia. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that Rita knows that the British have broken the Nazis’ secret communication code, not to mention the novel’s philosophical digressions and sex. The book is a page-turner with a focus on how ordinary people cope when trapped in totalitarian systems. Rosenberg has done his homework on wartime Poland, Russia, and Germany, so that rather than using the period as window dressing, he vividly brings to life what it might have felt like, day to day, to navigate this distorted world. Combined with its strong characters, Rosenberg’s novel is a winner. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A sweeping novel encompassing 1930s Paris, the slums of Krakow, war-torn Spain, and Nazi-occupied Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows Rita Feuerstahl through good times and bad. Well researched and well imagined, the novel expands historical data into full, vivid scenes. Delicate issues and situations are faced head-on and unapologetically, a testament to Rosenberg’s abilities. Fans of historical fiction or readers looking for something new after finishing Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See (2014) will enjoy Rosenberg’s story of reinvention, self-discovery, the power of personal connections, and the kindness of strangers.” —Booklist

“[The Girl from Krakow] is a page-turner with a focus on how ordinary people cope when trapped in totalitarian systems. Rosenberg has done his homework on wartime Poland, Russia, and Germany, so that rather than using the period as window dressing, he vividly brings to life what it might have felt like, day to day, to navigate this distorted world. Combined with its strong characters, Rosenberg’s novel is a winner.” —Publishers Weekly

“When a prominent philosopher like Alex Rosenberg turns his mind to writing a novel, there is reason to celebrate. With vivid, fast-paced storytelling verve, Rosenberg sweeps us across Europe during a morally fraught decade in a novel that is as sure to make you think as to feel.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction

“Rita’s story of survival will appeal to aficionados of historical, Holocaust, and war fiction.” —Library Journal, Audio Book Review

From the Publisher