Emma's Review: The Resistance Sisters by Anna Stuart

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Hana’s home has gone up in flames; the little bakery at the heart of the city is no more. Smoke curls into the sky and the buildings around her burn. But Hana has already lost far more – her blue-eyed fiancé was wrenched from her arms at the start of the war and her brave father was murdered by the Nazis. She’s determined to protect her younger sisters but every day more people are being killed…

Hana realises that one person alone won’t win the war and she has to accept her sisters are playing their own part in the resistance. Fiery Zuzi is working as part of a secret all-female combat unit while gentle Orla is a nurse in the underground hospital. As the women of Warsaw plan to rise up against the enemy, Hana risks her life to navigate the dangerous streets. The torn piece of paper she clutches in her hand has the potential to save her precious family.

It’s time to fight back. But when the moment they’ve been waiting for comes, will Hana and her sisters finally win back their freedom? Or will they lose their own lives as they fight for their futures…? 

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Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Resistance Sisters to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.

The Resistance Sisters is the fourth book in Anna Stuart’s Women of War series which focuses on an incredible trio of sisters, the Dabrowska’s. This book is developed from the previous books and I could see the connections emerge the further I delved into the story. Some familiar characters are featured or simply named but still this new story can easily be read as a stand-alone book. I’m not certain if this to be the last book in the series but there was an air of finality about it in the last few chapters and if this is to be the end then it was a fitting conclusion.

I loved the way the themes all interflowed throughout the books with women and their strength and tenacity in the face of adversity and untold horrors being at its centre. I will admit it took me some time to get into this book but I think that was more to do with my state of mind at the time of reading rather than any fault with the plot or the writing. But once I did settle into it I found this to be an absolutely fascinating account of the Warsaw uprising in August 1944 which was supposed to last only a day or two until support arrived from the Russians which ultimately turned into a month long struggle to survive resulting in no other option but to surrender.

The prologue set in November of 1939 is stark and hard hitting. The Dabrowska sisters, Hana, Zuzi and Orla, are forced along with their mother Magda and young brother Jacob and grandmother Kamilla to witness the execution of their father as the Germans have take over the city of Warsaw. They are getting rid of anyone with any cultural, political or intellectual influence. Their father was a baker and town councillor and they are distraught at the events that are unfolding. But he is insistent that they should not weep but continue to live, love and fight and boy that is what these remarkable women do. The story then moves to the summer of 1944. It’s been many long years of war and occupation but the underground resistance has grown and when the time is right and they are given the signal they will rise up and fight. All three young women have joined the AK army in various capacities and have remained true to the parting words from their father and it is this sentiment and advice that they will hold close to their hearts in the struggles ahead.

Each chapter is told from a different sisters viewpoint and this worked very well throughout the book. They are all completely different with different personalities, viewpoints and capabilities. Hana is the oldest and works as a liaison girl delivering underground messages between the AK army. She is secretly continuing her degree in architecture which will prove fruitful further on in the book. Her beloved fiancée Emil, a Polish fighter pilot, is away flying for the Allies and she misses him desperately and fervently hopes that he will make it through the war. Hana is brave and indomitable as are her sisters, mother and brother but when she witness’s romance blossoming for her sisters she feels left out and that love will never come calling for her again, that the worst will befall Emil. Her strength wavered with regard to this but never when it came to her work. The role she played was crucial as without her messages and important information would not have gotten through. When the signal to commence the uprising is given it is she who sets the wheels in motion and throughout that long month she puts herself in precarious situations time and time again.

Zuzi is the sister full of fire and grit. She is the wild child who can’t be tamed but why should she be? You need someone like this when you about to revolt against the most powerful and destructive force at the time. She is a member of the Minerki, a band of women part of a sapper unit who trained in explosives. There were so many cogs to the overall wheel that was to make up the moving parts of the uprising and I was so glad that the author showed us them all. Zuzi had a very dangerous job and I was fearful that every time she went on a mission that the worst would befall her. She was not a woman prone to giving herself over to love. She was rough and ready around the edges and was even though Jacob was just a young teenager I felt she was like him always wanting to be front and centre in the thick of things no matter how dangerous the situation was. I loved her as a character because she was strong and determined but later on she shows her vulnerability and that perhaps she can open her heart to love.

Orla is the youngest sister who would much rather there was no war and that she could marry a man and start a family. She is the most caring of the sisters and has volunteered her services as a nurse. She questions herself as to whether she can she cope with ravages of war and the results of fighting and bombing when they land on a table at the makeshift hospital. The details of some of the wounds and what has to be done were horrific but definitely needed to be included in the book and it made the story all the more impactful as did the details of all the various stages of the uprising. Orla did want to excel in her role and stay true to what her fathers last words were but she doubted herself and her capabilities of which she had many she just presented them in a different way to her sisters.

As it soon becomes clear there is a distinct lack of support from those that promised it, the situation for the situation for the AK and the Warsawians becomes dire. Here is were the author has excelled herself in taking a moment in time which is often given a mere paragraph or two in the history books and giving it the spotlight that it so rightly deserves. I felt as if I was taken on a detailed and engrossing history lesson where the sheer determination, courage, resilience and the endurance of those that tried to take back their city from the Germans was given a platform. The voices of all those people who rose up in defiance of their occupation radiate from the pages. They may be gone but they are not forgotten for the brave battle and brutal siege that they endured. Clearly, the author undertook in-depth research and wanted her readers to get the full experience of the time. Even the historical end notes where fantastic and readers should take the time to read them as they gave such an interesting account of a complex situation which in turn explain the bigger picture as to why the uprising failed and what subsequently happened. I did think the end chapter was a bit rushed. I thought things can’t wrap up like this but an excellent epilogue made up for this and here is where I really felt that this perhaps would be the last book simply because of the way the epilogue was written.

The Resistance Sisters was very different from what I had been expecting prior to reading and I mean this in a very good way. It’s a raw, powerful and impressive read. Throughout it all the love and unity of family stood out. That once you have love you can battle through anything and the community spirit of endurance and working together shone through with every turn of the page. Not once did they give up, always having a clear end goal in mind and they remained loyal and steadfast to the memory of their father carrying his wishes out until the bitter end. This was an important read that will leave a deep and lasting impact on many readers.