Sisters of Night and Fog by Erika Robuck ~ a Review

by Donna Huber

Set across the European theater of WWII, Sisters of Night and Fog tells the story of two women whose clandestine deeds come to a staggering halt when they are brought together at Ravensbrück concentration camp.

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

March 2022; Berkley; 978-0593102169
audio, ebook, print (480 pages); historical fiction

I loved Erika Robuck's The Invisible Woman, which is about a female American spy with a prosthetic leg during WWII. I also enjoyed her Prohibition Era novel, The Last Twelve Miles, but not as much as the WWII novel. I often recommend The Invisible Woman when people ask for WWII historical fiction, and now I will also be recommending Sisters of Night and Fog. 

The novel focuses on two women who participated in the resistance effort in France during WWII. Violette is British but since her mother is French she is living with an aunt in France when the war breaks out. She barely makes it back to England on one of the last ships evacuating British citizens before the German invasion. Virginia is an American who married a French man and fully embraces her French citizenship. Though she could have repatriated to the U.S. at the beginning of the war, she couldn't bear to be separated from her husband and his family.

Violette finds her way into the SOE and parachutes into France to coordinate the efforts of the invasion following D-Day. Virginia and her husband join the local resistance effort and help downed Allied pilots flee France.

Their stories come together when they are both captured and imprisoned.  (This is not a spoiler since 1. it is mentioned in the summary of the book and 2. the book opens at a remembrance ceremony at Ravensbrück - though we don't know which woman is there.) Even though Violette was part of the British Armed Forces, women in the clandestine service were not recognized as soldiers and therefore not treated as POWs and protected by the Geneva Conventions.

I love these stories of women who served during WWII that we never learned about in history class and are just now seeing in movies and documentaries. Robuck always does extensive research, so we really get to know the characters on a personal level. Be sure to read the author's note at the end, as she covers some of the details that she had to take creative liberties with for the sake of the narrative.

If you love WWII fiction as much as I do, then this is a book you don't want to miss.

Buy Sisters of Night and Fog at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.

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