The Rest Is Memory

Tuck (Sisters) draws on the true story of a Polish Catholic girl who died in Auschwitz in her unflinching latest. The reader first meets Czeslawa Kwoka shortly before the German invasion in 1939. She lives on a rustic farm with her hardworking, “tired and too thin” mother, Katarzyna, and father, Pawel, where she tends to the family’s livestock and is smitten with an older local boy named Anton. In 1941, the Nazis implement Hitler’s Germanization plan and seize land from local farmers. When her father and uncle protest, they’re killed by Nazi soldiers. The following year, Czeslawa, now 14, is sent with Katarzyna to Auschwitz, where they are interned alongside camp photographer Wilhelm Brasse, whose images of Czeslawa and other children in the camp inspired Tuck to write the novel. Tuck also chronicles Anton’s escape from the Nazis and subsequent capture by the Russians, who imprison him in Siberia. With graphic imagery and lyrical prose, Tuck vividly evokes Czeslawa’s innocence and resilience, as she tries to hold out hope by imagining Anton in Auschwitz with her. It’s an unforgettable portrait of buoyant youth in the grimmest of places. (Dec.)

Correction: A previous version of this review mischaracterized the reason why the protagonist’s father and uncle were killed. The review has also been updated for clarity.