Synopsis

A story of courage and a fight for survival like none you have ever read. Guaranteed!

Inspired by a previously untold true story.

Following the Nazi invasion of Poland, 13-year-old Helena is imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto, a squalid hellhole rife with disease and starvation. Yet, although the Nazis have destroyed her home, her life, and her future, they haven’t destroyed the only thing that truly matters — her family. Helena might be just a child, but she’s a fighter, and she’ll do whatever it takes to help her loved ones.

Making sacrifices no child should ever have to make, seeing horrors no child should ever have to see, Helena bravely battles on as her world crumbles amid random killings, slave labor, and deportations. And through it all, her compassion helps to protect her family. But then the Nazis unleash new horrors.

With the ghetto a raging sea of flames, explosions, and gunfire, Helena runs for her life only to hurtle straight into an unimaginable hell from which there seems no escape. And the Nazis are closing in. Can her love for her family give her the strength to survive?

Inspired by a heartbreaking true story of unbelievable courage, resilience, and the strength of the human spirit, The Ruins in Which We Bleed reveals that, even in the darkest of times, one person can make a difference through the greatest power of all — love.

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Review

While fiction, this novel is based on the true story of Helena, a teenager in Warsaw, and what she endured during WWII, living in the Ghetto. Life was not easy for anyone, especially a Jewish person, at this time. They are forced to endure tragedies, and so much more.

The story flips between 1942 and 1945. We see Helena with her family when she was 13 and then at 16, when her family’s life declines.

While Helena is a teenager, sometimes her actions and words are those of someone younger. Perhaps she was sheltered most of her life, or maybe she was allowed to do what she wanted, but that was not helpful for her in the end. But at the same time, I admired her spirit in the face of this war and how Jewish citizens were treated.

I have enjoyed many of this author’s books, and this one is no different. He discovered Helena and created a world for us to fill in the gaps since so little is known about her.

This does not have a happy ending, but how many Holocaust stories do? But it does remind us that all people are human and worth celebrating.

We give this book 4 paws up.

About the Author

Apart from animals and writing, Steve’s passion is travel. He’s visited 60 countries and enjoyed some amazing experiences, including cage-diving with great white sharks, sparring with a monk at a Shaolin temple, and watching a turtle lay eggs on a moonlit beach. He’s explored Machu Picchu, Pompeii, and the Great Wall of China, yet for all that, he’s a man of simple tastes — give him an egg sandwich and the TV remote control, and he’ll be happy for hours!

He lives in the North of England with his partner, Ania, and two black cats who arrived in the garden one day and liked it so much, they stayed. Graciously, the cats allow Steve and Ania to stay in ‘their’ house.

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