June 8, 2019
Lilac Girls is the selection for the 2019 Nashua Reads: One City, One Book program.
- Meet author Martha Hall Kelly on Sunday, September 29, 2019. Click here to buy tickets online.
- Check out other Nashua Reads events.
About the book
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate. But her world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland—and then sets its sights on France.
Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her youth disappearing as she becomes a courier for the resistance. In a tense atmosphere of suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
For young German doctor Herta Oberheuser, a government medical position seems to be a ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three are set on a collision course when Kasia is sent to the notorious Ravensbruck concentration camp. Their stories cross continents as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.
Read an excerpt
You can read an excerpt of the book here.
About the author
Martha Hall Kelly has spent most of her professional life writing for major advertising agencies, including J. Walter Thompson, McCann-Erickson, and BBDO.
Martha Hall Kelly
Photo credit: Jeff Mosier
While raising her children, she became captivated by the story of fellow Connecticut resident Caroline Ferriday’s fight to help the 50 Polish survivors of Ravensbruck known as “The Rabbits.” The search for the true story took Martha across the globe, to Caroline’s archives in Connecticut, Washington, D.C., and Nanterre, France.
Lilac Girls is Martha Hall Kelly’s debut novel. Its first prequel, released in April 2019, is Lost Roses, and tells the story of Caroline’s mother’s fight to help Russian refugees displaced by the revolution there. Martha is working on a second prequel, about Caroline’s ancestors, the philanthropic Woolsey women, staunch abolitionists who tended to wounded soldiers on the Gettysburg battlefield during the Civil War.
Get your copy now
The library has over 100 copies of Lilac Girls, including print, large print, e-book, audio on CD, and downloadable audio versions. So reserve your copy; read it; talk about it with your friends, coworkers, and neighbors; and then come to the Nashua Public Library to meet the author this fall.
Our sponsors
Martha Hall Kelly’s appearance is sponsored by:
- The Friends of the Nashua Public Library
- The Ella Anderson Trust
Questions?
For more information about Nashua Reads, contact Carol Luers Eyman at (603) 589-4610 or carol.eyman@nashualibrary.org. For more information about Martha Hall Kelly please visit www.marthahallkelly.com.
About Nashua Reads: One City, One Book
The goal of the One City, One Book program is to get as many Nashuans as possible to read the same book and talk about it with friends, coworkers, and neighbors. The Nashua program is now in its 17th year.
The idea of community reading programs originated in 1998 when the Washington Center for the Book sponsored “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book.” In the years since, similar programs, under names like “One City, One Book,” “The Big Read,” and others, have been held throughout the US.
Previous Nashua Reads Books
2018: Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
2017: Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh
2016: The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg
2015: Euphoria by Lily King
2014: The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro
2013: The Widower’s Tale by Julia Glass
2012: When Madeline Was Young by Jane Hamilton
2011: Song Yet Sung by James McBride
2010: We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
2009: Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian
2008: The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
2007: Zorro by Isabel Allende
2006: In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
2005: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2004: Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
2003: Empire Falls by Richard Rousseau