Lana’s War

The daughter of a Russian noble joins the French Resistance in the suspenseful latest from Abriel (The Light After the War). In 1943 Paris, Lana Hartmann witnesses a German officer execute her husband for trying to hide a Jewish child. After suffering a miscarriage, Lana is approached by Henri, a member of the French Resistance, to pose as a White Russian, the name given to former Russian nobles allying with Hitler to defeat Stalin’s regime. Desperate to help save Jewish children from being sent to death camps, Lana travels to Nice under her maiden name and poses as the girlfriend of Swiss industrialist, and French Resistance member, Guy Pascal, whose status helps Lana ingratiate herself with Russian nobility and attract attention from German officers including Alois Brunner, the one who killed her husband. The ever-present danger from their Resistance activities bring Guy and Lana closer as they give in to their mutual attraction, and the plot thickens when Guy reveals the source of his own animosity toward Brunner. While an abrupt conclusion will leave readers wanting more, Lana’s quest to avenge her husband’s death is enhanced by vivid details of the German occupation of France. Abriel’s fast-paced revenge story will please fans of WWII fiction. Agent: Johanna V. Castillo, Writers House. (Jan.)