Crossroads of Granite

CROSSROADS OF GRANITE
This book leapt right to the top of Mt. TBR; I was that eager to rejoin Nora, Lisa, and Christiaan, and I was completely caught up in their ongoing struggle against the Nazis. Fiction based so accurately on real events is powerful, in some parts horrifying, but not half as horrible as the reality. Life may have had no value in the eyes of those who ran Mauthausen and other camps, but the courage and care shown by prisoners is inspiring, as is the kindness and courage of strangers. Ignaz and Barbara Friedmann were real! There should be statues and memorial tributes to them and others like them.
The insights into support and organizing behind the lines is fascinating also. Preceding D-Day, false information sent out regarding a planned landing at Calais helped deflect Germans from the Normandy landing. Unsung heroes.

An amazing and harrowing look at the 2nd world war through four Dutch people, two women and two men. While the two women fight in England and with the American Army, Christiaan is a prisoner at Mathausen, his brother Floris learns what it truly meant to support the Nazi Reign of terror. I’m glad the author decided to use a concentration camp in this story other than Auschwitz.

In this third and final installment of the Orphans of war series, alternate chapters describe life for Christiaan, Lisa and Nora after we left them in “They bled orange.”

Once Christiaan returned to the Netherlands to restart the Resistance he was captured. Since he refused to reveal he was a spy he was taken to Mauthausen, a camp where prisoners were worked to death, murdered, and tortured. There he meets Floris, now an SS guard. Floris believes Christiaan is the ticket he needs to return to his former life of power and will make sure Christiaan reveals the secrets he didn’t reveal when he was first captured.

As Christiaan struggles to survive the mental, physical, and emotional stresses of Mauthausen he believes Lisa and Nora are safe. He doesn’t know Lisa is headed to the front lines with General Patton’s army, nor that Nora was captured when she returned to the Netherlands. With both Christiaan and Nora in concentration camps, and Lisa on the front lines, life becomes even more dangerous for them as the noose begins to close around the German army.

I read the book in one sitting, as the action had me eagerly turning pages to find out what would happen next to Lisa, Christiaan, and Nora. The Author’s notes explain how the events in Mauthausen were based on true accounts from prisoners and from the story of David Hersch, a Hungarian Jew imprisoned there who escaped two death marches.

Recommended for Adults.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.