The Night Sparrow by Shelly Sanders ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

A gripping story of a young Jewish girl who joins an elite Russian sniper unit and embarks on a mission targeting the highest prize of World War II: Adolph Hitler.

 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.   

July 2025; Harper Perennial; 978-0063319226
audio, ebook, print (268 pages); historical fiction

I read a lot of WWII historical fiction, but The Night Sparrow looked at the war from a different direction.  Instead of the normal Allies vs. Germany story, this one looked at the war from a Russian perspective. I found it to be very interesting, and thanks to the intensive research that went into this book, it was very informative.

 In 1941, Elena and her family were sent to the ghetto in Minsk.  Her entire family was soon dead, and she knew that she was next unless she was able to escape.  Her main goal was to avenge the deaths of her family.   In 1942, the Central Women’s Sniper Training School opened in Moscow, and Elena decided that getting trained as a sniper and killing a lot of the enemy was a perfect way to avenge her family.  She became part of an all-female sniper platoon and became friends with several other women in the group, and saw many of them killed.  After she is injured, she is deployed as an interpreter to try to get information from German prisoners.  Though she wanted to continue her war efforts as a sniper, she soon became interested in her new role when she found that her ultimate goal was to help on a mission to find and destroy Hitler.

I found this book to be a very interesting look at war from a female point of view.   Even though being a sniper in the Russian army at this time was a very dangerous role and only 20% of the graduates of the sniper school were alive at the end of the war, the women fighters continued to face abuse from the male soldiers, including sexual abuse from the officers.  This book offers a riveting look at war from a female point of view.

I had a few problems with the book.  At times, the story moved slowly, but I guess we needed the background to add to the storyline.  Also, it jumped back and forth in time throughout the book, and at times it was confusing.  Plus, be prepared for a book about war that is violent and heartbreaking.  Not only were the women snipers fighting the Germans, but they were also degraded by their own officers for being women and especially for being Jewish.

Be sure to read the Author's Notes at the end of the book, where she gives additional information about the Russian female snipers and identifies the characters in the book who were based on real women who put their lives on the line to help their country defeat the Germans.

Buy The Night Sparrow at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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