The Warsaw Sisters

September 11, 2023
In this earnest yet undercooked historical from Barratt (Within These Walls of Sorrow), Polish sisters find their way into the anti-Nazi resistance movement even as the war threatens to pry them apart. It’s the eve of the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland when Antonina and Helena Dąbrowska’s father leaves to serve in the military, promising to return home soon. But with the arrival of the Germans, the sisters’ lives crumble: the family’s home is flattened in the bombings, and the girls’ aunt is executed. What’s more, the two begin drifting apart as Helena starts working as a secretary for a German official and Antonia joins resistance efforts to smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, forcing her to vacate the apartment the sisters share due to fears that Helena’s associations may compromise her mission. Though Helena is later driven by a “love of homeland” to join a separate resistance cell, it may be nearly impossible for the sisters to restore their closeness, and doing so will require a faith that’s been all but extinguished by the atrocities of war (“I had stopped believing God listened, and if He did, it would not be to me,” Antonina muses). The story suffers from a lack of realism—Antonina slips in and out of the ghetto near-frictionlessly, and Helena somehow avoids arrest by slapping a German policeman across the face. Still, the poignantly rendered relationship between the sisters is a saving grace. This has heart.

Starred review from November 1, 2023

Sisters Antonina and Helena Dąbrowska vow to always watch out for each other as their father marches off to defend Poland from the Nazis in 1939. Neither one anticipates the depth of suffering they will face as German oppression deepens each month. Things are especially difficult for Antonina's Jewish friend Marek. With no word from their father for years, their aunt murdered in cold blood by Nazi soldiers, and Marek's family cut off from the city in the Warsaw Ghetto, the sisters each take different paths. Unbeknownst to the other, they each wind up working for the Polish resistance in different ways. Every time they think things can't get worse, Warsaw is dealt another unimaginable blow. But this is their city, and the Dąbrowska sisters will rise and fall with her. VERDICT Barratt (Within These Walls of Sorrow) is a superb researcher, making readers feel as if they are living in World War II Poland fighting for freedom, for life, and for love of family. This is a hard but important read that will tug on heartstrings.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2023
As rumors of the war spread throughout Warsaw in 1939, twin sisters Antonina and Helena Dąbrowska feel safe in the assurance of having one another. After their Polish city is attacked and invaded by Nazis, the sisters navigate their new and increasingly violent world, realizing the unpredictable horrors are just the beginning. In a moment of betrayal when facing the impossible choice between love and survival, Antonina's fiery passion clashes with Helena's quietude, and the sisters separate. They both end up fighting in the resistance, one as a smuggler and the other as a soldier, each searching for purpose, hope, and each other. Barratt presents a stunning novel of sisterhood, the multifaceted force of fear, and the bravery of two women who do right in the face of evil. Spanning the five years that Warsaw was occupied by German forces during WWII, this is an unfiltered, sometimes graphic dive into the atrocities of war, with poignant and timelessly relevant themes of freedom and free will. Highlighting the dangerous efforts to move children from occupied Jewish districts to safety and the Polish resistance, The Warsaw Sisters is captivating, heartbreaking, and beautifully necessary.

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