From the time Ruth and Millie were children, the two sisters were as different as night and day. Ruth is viewed as a cold fish, highly intelligent, and, when being compared to her younger sister, unattractive. Millie, on the other hand, is highly social, sensitive, and beautiful. On the day their parents die, Ruth and Millie make painful choices, choices that will ultimately lead Millie to join Ruth in a Springfield Armory in 1942 with her young son, Michael, as well as a missing husband. As the sisters begin to live together, will they be able to put aside their grudges?
THE WARTIME SISTERS by Lynda Cohen Loigman is a WWII story that I haven't encountered before, and I'm really excited to share why it quickly became a favorite read that I devoured in a few days. The WWII novels I have read have certain plot points that they all seem to hit: a European setting, a strong heroine lead, and involvement with the resistance or concentration camps. Jews are side characters. What THE WARTIME SISTERS offers is different than the standard WWII novels. It's a North American setting and Jews that have been in America for several generations, and the focus is on the everyday life of the men and women behind the war. I also loved the intimate portrayal of Millie and Ruth's complex relationship and of how people are much more than the labels they are given.
THE WARTIME SISTERS isn't a story where things wrap up quickly. It focuses on the relationship between Ruth and Millie and why their relationship soured. Every character within this tale is finely crafted and will long continue to be fondly remembered way past the turning of the last page. In addition to characters, I loved the meticulous research done within these pages as well as the attention to the detail of big and small moments that the women experience while living in the armory.
For a reader looking for a different WWII novel, THE WARTIME SISTERS by Lynda Cohen Loigman does an excellent job of showing another side in WWII, as well as experiencing an amazing portrayal of the USA's efforts and contributions to WWII.
For fans of Lilac Girls, the next powerful novel from the author of Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist The Two-Family House about two sisters working in a WWII armory, each with a deep secret.
Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.
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