For Maria

Title: FOR MARIA

Author: Bruce Judisch

Publisher: OakTara

September 2012

ISBN: 978-1602903258

Genre: Historical

Thousands of Jewish "hidden" children disappeared into the vortex of a horrific war. And Madeline, a freelance journalist, is driven to find two of them...her long-lost aunts.

December, 1939. When the Gestapo haul Izaak and Maria Szpilmann away to Ravensbrück, their twin infants are left behind to die. Instead, neighbors Gustaw and Ròsa Dudek rescue the babies and flee occupied Poland. They are never heard from again.

Today. Maria Szpilmann has survived Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. Now she is grandmother to Madeline Sommers, a young journalist who, despite the odds, passionately clings to the belief that the lost twins are still alive. Her single-minded mission is to find them-and reunite them with her failing grandmother-before it's too late.

FOR MARIA is the sequal to Katia, which I didn’t read. This is the first book by Mr. Judisch that I have read. The story is engaging. Written in Madeline, and her husband’s, Brendon’s points-of-view as they struggle to balance work, family, and their marriage while Madeline searches for relatives she never met.

The story is sweet, at times poignant, and bittersweet. It is a horrific time period, but evident that Mr. Judisch did his research. If you are interested in WWII and the effects of it, FOR MARIA is a book that should be on your to-be-read list. Recommended. $16.95. 348 pages.