Martha Hall Kelly

The runaway bestseller Lilac Girls introduced the real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. This sweeping new novel, set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, features Caroline's mother, Eliza, and follows three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of World War I. It is 1914 and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanov's. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's Imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortuneteller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming she fears the worst for her best friend. From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg to the avenues of Paris and the society of fallen Russian emigre's who live there, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka will intersect in profound ways, taking readers on a breathtaking ride through a momentous time in history.

Two former female spies, bound by their past, risk everything to hunt down an infamous Nazi doctor in the aftermath of World War II--an extraordinary, propulsive historical novel inspired by true events from the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls The year is 1952. It's been over a decade since American Josie Anderson and Frechwoman Arlette LaRue were imprisoned at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. As a pair of spies known as the Golden Doves, they were arrested for working with the Resistance and bound forever when they lost everything--including Arlette's son, Willie. It was here, in the darkest of places, that they created a makeshift family to endure: Josie, Arlette and a little orphan they took in as their own, Fleur. Now thirty and supposedly working for the U.S. Army to bring Nazi scientists to America in a quest to outpace the Russians, Sofie nurtures an undying ember of anger in her heart. She is searching for Dr. Snow: The infamous, enigmatic doctor who did unspeakable things to her mother. Arlette is trying to make ends meet in Paris. She's exhausted all her finances to find her stolen son and works tirelessly to care for shellshocked Fleur. Then, the charming Luc Bouchard arrives in her café. The son of a famous philanthropic family, he invites her to their compound in French Guiana with the promised hope she might find Willie at the orphanage. And yet . . . rumor is it's also filled with absconding Nazis. When Arlette arrives at the secluded Cove House, she finds herself barred from the outside. Soon, she has to rely on her old techniques as a spy to uncover a deep deception that hits close to home. In the meantime, Josie's quest for Dr. Snow leads her from Strasbourg to the Vatican to Brazil, and finally back to Arlette in French Guiana, where the two discover that their lives, and the ones they love, are in grave danger. Martha Hall Kelly has garnered acclaim for her stunning combination of empathy and research into terrors of Ravensbrück. With The Golden Doves, she has once again crafted an unforgettable story about the fates of the Nazi doctors in the wake of WWII, and the unsung females spies who risked it all to fight for justice.

Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this powerful debut novel reveals an incredible story of love, redemption, and terrible secrets that were hidden for decades. On the eve of a fateful war, New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she sinks deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspect neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences. For ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. But, once hired, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power. The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious female-only Nazi concentration camp. The tragedy and triumph of their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, and Germany to Poland—capturing the indomitable pull of compassion to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten. In Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly has crafted a remarkable novel of unsung women and their quest for love, happiness, and second chances. It is a story that will keep readers bonded with the characters, searching for the truth, until the final pages.

Listening Length: 17 hours and 50 minutes Martha Hall Kelly's million-copy best seller 'Lilac Girls' introduced listeners to Caroline Ferriday, an American philanthropist who helped young girls released from Ravensbruck concentration camp. Now, in 'SUNFLOWER SISTERS', Kelly tells the story of her ancestor Georgeanna Woolsey, a Union nurse who joins the war effort during the Civil War, and how her calling leads her to cross paths with Jemma, a young enslaved girl who is sold off and conscripted into the army, and Ann-May Wilson, a southern plantation mistress whose husband enlists. Gerorgeanna "Georgey" Woolsey isn't meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving hem wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York o Washington, DC, to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort. In the South, Jemma is enslaved on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, where she lives with her mother and father. Her sister, Patience, is enslaved on the plantation next door, and both live in fear of LeBaron, an abusive overseer who tracks their every move. When Jemma is sold by the cruel plantation mistress Anne-May at the same time the Union army comes through, she sees a chance to finally escape - but only by abandoning the family she loves. Anne-May is left behind to run Peeler Plantation when her husband joins the Union army and her cherished brother enlists with the Confederates. In charge of the household, she uses the opportunity to follow her own ambitions and is drawn into a secret Southern network of spies, finally exposing herself to the fate she deserves. Inspired by true accounts, 'SUNFLOWER SISTERS' provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience, from the barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City, to the horrors of the battlefield. It's a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty, a story still so relevant today.