Author Bio:
Elaine Stock writes Historical Fiction, exploring home, family and friendships throughout time. She enjoys creating stories showing how all faiths, races, and belief systems are interconnected and need each other.
Elaine’s grandparents, on both sides of her family, narrowly escaped World War II by immigrating from Poland and Austria to the US. Fascinated by the strong will of people to overcome the horrors from this era, she wrote We Shall Not Shatter, Book 1 (out in May 2022) of the Resilient Women of WWII Series, inspired by her deaf great aunt who was left behind as a teenager in Poland and perished in the Holocaust, while her other deaf siblings were permitted to enter the US when their young ages helped them to circumvent medically-revealing exams. Other extended family members also remained in Poland to lose their lives in the Holocaust.
Although multi-published in award-winning Inspirational Fiction, and a past blogger and online magazine contributor, Elaine now pens novels for the General reading audience. She is a member of Women’s Fiction Writers Association and The Historical Novel Society. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she has now been living in upstate, rural New York with her husband for more years than her stint as a city gal. She enjoys long walks down country roads, visiting New England towns, and of course, a good book.
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Book Blurb:
An unforgettable story of friendship, family and hope as two courageous young women face one of history’s most horrific tragedies
Brzeziny, Poland, 1939 Zofia’s comfortable lifestyle overturns when her husband, Jabez, who monitors Nazi activity, has gone missing. Rather than fleeing the country with her young son, as she had promised Jabez who is fearing retaliation, she decides to stay. She cannot possibly leave her friend, Aanya. Since their childhood they have amazed fellow Brzeziners that it does not matter that Aanya is Jewish and deaf, and that Zofia is Catholic and hearing. Now, more than ever with war looming, Zofia will do whatever is necessary to protect her family and Aanya.
As both love and war approach their Polish town, Zofia and Aanya must make choices that will change the meaning of family, home, and their precious friendship. The journey, decisions and the no-going-back consequences the women face will either help them to survive—or not—as Hitler’s Third Reich revs up its control of the world.
Inspired by the author’s paternal heritage from Brzeziny, this is a heartbreaking yet beautiful story of two women who are determined to remain united in friendship and to live freely despite the odds.
"The story and its characters will linger in the reader’s heart for days... perhaps forever."
— Patricia Bradley, Author of the Logan Point Series, Memphis Cold Case Novels, Natchez Trace Park Ranger Series
Book Buy Link: https://amzn.to/3KW8i7K
Editorial Review:
...to obey Hitler’s orders meant to enthusiastically enjoy corruption and wickedness. It was as if a dam had broken open and measures of control and self-constraint no longer mattered.... “Why were no questions asked about how this horror came to be?” Aanya had bit down on her lip. “For the sake of survival it’s easier to be both blind and deaf.”
Inspired by the author’s own family, We Shall Not Shatter tells the story of two friends who are more like sisters. From a very early age, they formed an attachment to each other, speaking their special ‘sign language’ created between the two of them after Zofia discovers Aanya’s deafness. For anyone who loved ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ by Anthony Doerr, this is another beautiful journey of not just one woman’s story through the turbulent times of Nazi Germany, but two.
Zofia is Catholic, and Aanya is Jewish, yet their vastly different upbringing does not hold them back from forming an incredible friendship; of looking beyond the barriers of their faith and relying on the love they feel for each other as ‘sisters of the heart’.
They grow up in Brzeziny Poland, and with the threatening shadow of Hitler’s Nazi Germany looming over the horizon, both Zofia and Aanya find themselves in very trying situations. Zofia’s husband has joined the resistance movement (or at least, that is what she suspects after he fails to show up from work one night, and stays hidden for months while she takes care of their son); and Aanya, whose mother is suffering from a terrible cancer, happens upon a German deserter fleeing from the Nazi army and from those horrific things he witnessed at Buchenwald.
While Zofia deals with being alone and separated from the love of her life, Aanya discovers love while hiding the soldier in a barn behind her house. All the while, the anger and hatred towards the Jews grows in Poland, turning neighbors into enemies, as more and more radio announcements declare Hitler’s intentions to swarm through Poland. Both Zofia and Aanya must try to make a life, a semblance of normality in this mad world, linking their arms in a bond of friendship even as they face the onslaught and threats from those siding with Hitler.
When the war creeps closer and closer to home, they form a united front, moving in together as one big family – Zofia, Zofia’s son, Zofia’s husband’s relatives, Aanya, Aanya’s new love and soon-to-be husband, and a little orphaned girl who also suffers from deafness.
A horrid nightmare tormented Aanya. Smoke filled the air, but rather than billowing outward, it sucked pieces of life into its gray grip like a monstrous tornado. Furniture. Food. Animals. Breath. Words. Human life. She couldn’t sign, couldn’t talk, couldn’t scream. All she could do was watch in silence as her world burned and disappeared.
But despite this wall of support, the loneliness Zofia feels without her husband, and the pain their son experiences without his father are the intimate consequences wrought upon her life. And then, when a brief moment of happiness bursts into their life with Aanya’s wedding day, just as quickly is the joy replaced with more hardship as Zofia honors her husband’s request to flee Poland and go live with family in New York. Knowing that she must now think of her son’s future, she leaves Aanya behind, sure that her new husband will protect and care for her; and sure that her husband’s family, both Catholics, will be all right. After all, the rumors of what Hitler is doing can’t be true, can they?
While Zofia carves out a new life for herself and her son across the ocean, her thoughts turn to Aanya, and she continues to write letters, even though she never hears anything about her friend. In Poland, Aanya and Artur discover another level of horror as the Nazi’s occupy Poland and round up all the Jews into the Ghettos, forcing them to live in squalor and adding to their suffering when all of the children are taken from their mothers. Aanya almost succumbs, but with Artur’s strength and remembrances of her strong friend, Zofia, they fight on.
Still, as time wears on, with no word to Zofia of her friend’s survival, even after the war, or what has happened to her husband (no spoilers)... this story truly gives you a glimpse into the heart and soul of two people’s lives in the midst of all the chaos. Ms Stock brings her own story and her own heart into the development of these characters and the storyline, allowing the reader to connect with her as an author and with very believable characters. My only question is what is next? I hope there is more!
A story which will touch your heart, and perhaps bring a few tears to wipe away, showing how love does indeed break barriers and sees beyond human labels and disabilities. You will absolutely fall in love with Zofia and Aanya, and how strong friendships were forged in the heat of oppression from Hitler’s Germany despite their different faiths.
That was the funny thing about love; rather than staying stagnant and limiting its capacity, the human heart knew no bounds.
*****
We Shall Not Shatter earns five stars from The Historical Fiction Company and the “Highly Recommended” award and was a long-listed semi-finalist in the 2021 Book of the Year contest at HFC.
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