Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly

                I just finished reading Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly, and I am commenting to anyone who will listen, that with all my years of reading Holocaust novels, I somehow never read anything about the Ravensbrück medical experiments, the young women who were their victims, or the dedicated and courageous Caroline Ferriday who helped restore their bodies and souls. 

                As a teenager, I read the Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. My own teenaged children read Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry and The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, and now young people read The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. Last year I was sobbing over The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah, and recently I re-read Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl. Just last month, I squirmed a little bit out of my normal “type,” and read The Paris Architect, by Charles Belfoure. Goodreads has well over one hundred books on its list of the “Best Holocaust Novels.”  

                Which brings me to this week’s observation. With new characters, a new audience, or a new angle, even the most often-told stories can be written again, with new insights or, as in the case of Lilac Girls, new information from interviews with survivors of the experience.

                Journals and family memories join previously-published works as inspiration for new looks at old stories. And Internet resources are making available previously unpublished memoirs and searchable public records and newspapers accounts.

               Rather than think, “It’s already been written,” I can dig in to the past and discovery a new story.