Rose Under Fire

While flying an Allied fighter plane from Paris to England, young American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and amateur poet Rose is captured by the Nazis and sent to a women's concentration camp. In this horrifying environment, she finds hope through her friendships with fellow prisoners, and through her poetry. But will that be enough to help her endure what is to come?

Elizabeh Wein follows her acclaimed Code Name Verity with another engrossing and deeply moving historical novel set during World War II. Based on the true stories of the women at the Ravensbruck concentration camp, forced to become the subjects of brutal medical experiments, it provides a powerful insight into this dark chapter of European history. Rose is a beautifully realised character, with a strong  narrative voice that brings her vividly to life as we follow her journey from innocence and ignorance, to a terrible awareness of the realities of war. Stark and unflinching in its descriptions of concentration camp life, there is some content here that may be distressing for sensitive readers, yet this heartbreaking tale of friendship, hope and triumph over adversity is also an uplifting one.