Three Sisters

May 1, 2021

In Sisters of the Great War, Missouri Review Editors' Prize winner Feldman crafts the story of ambitious young American Ruth Duncan--she wants to be a doctor--and her shy sister, Elise, who volunteer their services in war-torn 1914 Europe and discover love, nurse Ruth with an Englishman in the medical corps and Elise with another woman in the ambulance corps (50,000-copy first printing). In The Book of Magic, which concludes Hoffman's "Practical Magic" series, three generations of Owens women and a long-lost brother attempt to break the curse that has bound their family since Maria Owens practiced the Unnamed Art centuries ago (200,000-copy first printing). Launched with lots of in-house love, multi-AP-award-winning Miller's The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven features a young man who seeks adventure by moving to an Arctic archipelago in 1916, then withdraws further to an isolated fjord, where he's sustained by a loyal dog and letters from home until the arrival of an unexpected visitor (50,000-copy first printing). In a follow-up to Morris's multi-million-best-selling The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey, Three Sisters--Livia, Magda, and Cibi--survive Auschwitz and escape the Germans during the 1945 death march from the camp (500,000-copy first printing). In Saab's debut, Polish resistance fighter Maria is imprisoned in Auschwitz and forced by brutal camp deputy Fritzsch to play chess for his entertainment--and her life; the war's approaching resolution brings Maria closer to The Last Checkmate and a chance to avenge the deaths of her family (150,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing). Following up The Wicked Redhead with The Wicked Widow, Williams zigzags between 1925 New York, where brassy, flashy flapper Geneva "Gin" Kelly happily settles into a high-society marriage to (of all things) a Prohibition agent, and 1998, with troubled Ella Dommerich relying on Gin's ghostly help when her aunt pushes her to discover anything nasty she can about an old family enemy running for president (75,000-copy paperback and 30,000-copy hardcover first printing).

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Starred review from August 30, 2021
Morris (The Tattooist of Auschwitz) follows the real-life Meller sisters, who all survived imprisonment at Auschwitz-Birkenau and a winter death march during WWII, in her extraordinary latest. In 1942 Slovakia, Livi Meller, 15, is rounded up with other teens for what is described by the Nazis as “work detail.” Livi’s sister Magda, 17, is protected by her doctor, who admits Magda to the hospital for a slight fever. Cibi, 19, returns from a training camp in the forest for future immigrants to Israel to accompany Livi. But Cibi and Livi are taken to Auschwitz, where they endure more than two years of near starvation, abuse from SS guards, and manual work that includes loading bricks into carts and rummaging through prisoners’ belongings for valuables. In 1944, Magda is also sent to Auschwitz, where she is reunited with her sisters; when the war ends, the sisters wander through Germany before returning to find squatters in their home and glaring anti-Semitism. After a harrowing journey to Israel in 1948, the narrative continues with their new life as survivors, as they build families while often struggling with emotional wounds. Morris skillfully chronicles the lives of the sisters from childhood to old age, balancing fictional invention with extensive research and immersion into the Mellers’ lives. Readers will be greatly inspired by this story of resilience.

Starred review from October 1, 2021

The finale of Morris's "Tattooist of Auschwitz" trilogy (after Cilka's Journey) follows three Slovakian Jewish sisters who survive the Nazi genocide of Jews and are strengthened by a promise made to their father. Having been separated from each other and the rest of their family during the Slovak State's deportation of Jews, eldest sister Cibi, middle sister Magda, and youngest sister Livi end up together in Auschwitz and endure its terrible conditions and ever-present threat of death. Against all odds, the sisters survive and immigrate to Israel after the end of World War II. There they make new lives for themselves while keeping their promise to their father, contending with secrets they've kept from one another, and communicating the horrors of the Holocaust to their descendants. Based on a real family, Morris's novel delves into Auschwitz's daily routines and violence without romanticism. VERDICT Readers of historical and World War II fiction will be gripped by the conclusion to Morris's trilogy.--Pamela O'Sullivan, SUNY Coll. at Brockport Lib.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.