Pam Jenoff, The Winter Guest, Harlequin Books, ISBN 978-0-7783-1596-4, 341 pages, $14.95
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – The setting: a mountain village outside of Krakow, Poland. The time World War II. Twin sisters of marriageable age are raising their three siblings together. Their father is dead. Their mother, a patient in a mental hospital, rarely recognizes anyone.
Believing themselves to be Christians, the twins don’t realize that these are the good times. Poor like everyone else in the village, they have developed a workable routine. One twin, Ruth, mainly stays home with the children. She is the prettier of the two, but her heart has been broken by a former suitor who didn’t want to take on the responsibility of raising the three youngest children.
The other twin, Helena, who considers herself plain, takes responsibility for outdoor tasks, whether they be gathering edible plants, or travelling by foot, and without a Nazi-issued pass, to visit their mother.
They are a couple, bound together by the ties of common destiny and responsibility as tightly as any married couple. However, the strength of the special relationship that they have shared, since birth, as twins will be tested after Helena discovers an injured American from the Army Air Force, whose plane crashed while he was trying to get supplies and encouragement to partisans resisting the Nazis. Helena secretly begins to nurse the gentle and kind man – who is Jewish – back to health. But she avoids sharing her secret with Ruth.
The romantic tale follows the sisters, and their wards, through the war. While simplistic, it is a story that should be well received by its intended audience of young adults.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com