Un romanzo che lascia nel lettore l’amarezza delle giovani vite andate incontro a un destino spietato e la gratitudine per quegli eroi che si immolarono per la salvezza di tanti. An investigation in 2013 starts the book and then the story unfolds as one of the characters remembers the events, but at the end I didn't really see the significance of this investigation and why it was a big deal. There were other things that could have been investigated that might have had a more emotional response from the readers. I loved this story because it features two equally strong women as its protagonists, something less often seen in historical fiction than I would like. Jenoff is an excellent historical storyteller; her novels truly capture the hardships faced by mostly ordinary people in wartime. In particular, the overwhelming hunger comes across throughout her writing in this book. Reading this story made me consider the plight of the Polish community during the war, a country sometimes forgotten in history.

Then Helena discovers an American paratrooper stranded outside their small mountain village, wounded, but alive. Risking the safety of herself and her family, she hides Sam—a Jew—but Helena’s concern for the American grows into something much deeper. Defying the perils that render a future together all but impossible, Sam and Helena make plans for the family to flee. But Helena is forced to contend with the jealousy her choices have sparked in Ruth, culminating in a singular act of betrayal that endangers them all—and setting in motion a chain of events that will reverberate across continents and decades. Il dubbio la combatte nel cuore, ma gli eventi della guerra travolgeranno comunque le loro giovani vite ponendoli di fronte alla scelta di agire o sottrarsi all’occhio del nemico aspettando l’inevitabile fine del loro fragile equilibrio. An 18-year-old Polish girl falls in love, swoons over a first kiss, dreams of marriage—and, oh yes, we are in the middle of the Holocaust. An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale. A stirring novel of first love in a time of war and the unbearable choices that could tear sisters apart, from the celebrated author of The Kommandant's Girl.Their lives and relationship are about to be altered forever when Helena stumbles upon a downed American airman, Sam, in the forest, who she takes to shelter and secrety tries to help with food and clothing. Gradually they build up a relationship and the story becomes one of a first, deep love which must be kept hidden for their own safety. My main gripe about the book is that Sam is an American airman, serving for the US armed forces. But, the book is set in December 1940, a full year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor which brought the Americans into the war. It could not have happened! He would not have been there! A stirring novel of first love in a time of war and the unbearable choices that could tear sisters apart, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan’s Tale The setting is key. Isolated from the rest of the country, like many rural Poles, Helena and Ruth struggle for daily survival among food rationing, suspicious neighbors, and the looming threat of winter. Their mother lies dying in a Jewish hospital in Krakow — the only place that can care for her — and stalwart Helena makes the long trek to the city every week to visit her, while introspective Ruth stays behind to tend the children, nursing a recent heartbreak. Then Helena stumbles upon an injured American paratrooper in the woods and decides to hide him; this act of mercy sets the stage for a passionate affair and betrayal that changes the sisters’ lives forever. La mamma è molto malata e ricoverata a Cracovia, mentre il padre è morto travolto da un carro; ora sono le ragazze a dover portare avanti la famiglia e a fare da padre e da madre ai piccoli.

Un paracadutista, l’americano di religione ebrea Sam, atterra con il suo aereo tra i monti sopra la piccola casa.One would think that with a storyline like this it would be a really emotional and interesting read. Unfortunately it was flat and emotionless. The conversation were dull and the actions were slow. Some of the events that happens deserved a better reaction from me but I just didn't feel. I couldn't feel the romance or any sympathy towards the characters, except maybe for Helena at times. There was something dangerous about him. There was something enigmatic about him that made her want to follow him into his strange unknown world.’ Set in 1940, The Winter Guest is a hauntingly evocative tale of two sisters – twins – who are struggling to care for their three younger siblings in rural Poland at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. Their father is dead, and their mother is ill in a hospital in Krakow, and the two girls, Helena and Ruth, are trying to fulfil their mother’s last wish by keeping the family together and keeping them all safe. But with severe food shortages, and the ever-present threat of the encroaching German army, life is tough and getting tougher. Then, when an IRA ambush goes terribly wrong, Maud Prendeville, eldest daughter of Lord Kilcolgan, is killed, leaving the family reeling. Yet the IRA column insist they left her alive, that someone else must have been responsible for her terrible fate. Captain Tom Harkin, an IRA intelligence officer and Maud’s former fiancé, is sent to investigate, becoming an unwelcome guest in this strange, gloomy household. Life is a constant struggle for the eighteen-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbor against neighbor. Though rugged, independent Helena and pretty, gentle Ruth couldn't be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats the war brings closer to their doorstep with each passing day.

She's a daddy's girl who discovers, completely by accident, that she's got more in common with the Jewish Sam than she imagines. And I don't mean just falling in love with him. She fights with her twin sister, Ruth, a lot. Mostly about Sam. Fighting between sisters is believable, absolutely. Ms. Jenoff excels in her vivid portrayal of the deprivation and corrosive fear that afflicted those dwelling under Nazi aggression. The sisters are inherently different, convincingly drawn within the paranoia and seething anti-Semitism coursing under their village’s façade. Their claustrophobic insularity, however, can dampen the narrative at moments - until Helena awakens to possibilities beyond those she has known during her increasingly disquieting trips to Krakow. Her discovery of a secret and the tragic events that ensue shatter her confidence; as she fights to find meaning in a world descending into darkness, The Winter Guest proves compulsive in its race to a desperate denouement. The finale offers a moving testament to the suffering that so many endured during the war. Life is a constant struggle for the eighteen-year-old Nowak twins as they raise their three younger siblings in rural Poland under the shadow of the Nazi occupation. The constant threat of arrest has made everyone in their village a spy, and turned neighbor against neighbor. Though rugged, independent Helena and pretty, gentle Ruth couldn’t be more different, they are staunch allies in protecting their family from the threats the war brings closer to their doorstep with each passing day.Perhaps a lukewarm or even an aimless plot can be excused if were to be redeemed by another facet of the novel. This, however, was not the case. The writing is hardly refined artistry; in fact, it’s amateur. The girls are close – as twins often are – but there are lots of resentments bubbling under the surface, too. Helena resents Ruth for being their mother’s favourite, while Ruth envies the fact that Helena gets to escape their small dwelling every so often. It’s not that Ruth particularly wants to be out trudging through the forest on the weekly visit to the hospital, or out in the cold chopping firewood, it’s more that she is jealous of that little bit of freedom and time to herself that Helena has at those times. Don’t miss Pam Jenoff’s new novel, Code Name Sapphire , a riveting tale of bravery and resistance during World War II. There are bad things happening and Helena witnesses them, yet there's so little emotion here that even things that should have been frightening just fell flat. Example: the hospital. You hide under the bed while a nurse is raped on top of it and it warrants a mere three or four sentences? Then it's never mentioned again? I would think the trauma of that would evoke a lot more reaction. As I said above, there's a lot more emotion when it comes to the sisters hating on each other or blabbering about their family history than actual traumatic events. Vita dura, cibo scarso e tanta fame danno poco spazio alle due giovani donne che lottano con le unghie e con i denti per tenere uniti i loro cari.