This is a World War II story about a young girl, Magda, who lives on a farm with her parents and brothers in Czechoslovakia. Born with a large birthmark on her cheek, she’s been teased mercilessly her entire life, eroding her self confidence. During World War II, a German family takes over the farm. The sons are forced into the German Army, and Magda is suddenly homeless. Eventually she is hired as a nanny by a Jewish family, the Taubers, who continue to live in the area under special dispensation. When the Gestapo arrests them, Magda hides their new baby until the local resistance rescues him. Magda continues to work with the villa under the harsh thumb of a German family while passing information to the resistance. After she makes a critical error, she escapes but has a price on her head.
Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger gives the reader the story of a remarkable young woman. Magda has a wonderful character arc moving from a simple village maiden who lacks self-confidence, then, as her role in the resistance increases, she realizes her own strength and becomes brave and accomplished at her various positions, whether fighting or nursing wounded soldiers. Lucyk-Berger provides an in-depth look of the roles women played during the war and what they accomplished. Similar books I’ve read show the French resistance at work, but this book looks at the Czechoslovakian resistance, something I’ve never read about before. The horrors of war, neither glossed over nor sensationalized, have enough depth to allow the reader to see them yet not be grossed out.
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The Girl from the Mountains is available through Amazon
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