The Warsaw orphan

Rimmer's latest (after Truths I Never Told You, 2020) is a bleak depiction of Nazi-occupied Poland, tracing the interconnected fates of Roman, a Jewish boy whose family is suffering in the Warsaw ghetto, and Elzbieta, a girl who befriends a nurse smuggling Jewish children to freedom. The two meet when Roman's parents are faced with the agonizing choice of whether to send their newborn daughter away to safety; for Roman, the trauma of this decision and his parents' subsequent exile to a concentration camp motivates him to join the rebellion, never expecting that he will live to see any success. Elzbieta, meanwhile, has secrets of her own, and even as she finds herself drawn to Roman, his zeal for justice frightens her, and she worries that they will never be able to find any sort of peaceful future together. The narrative is compelling and emotional, and the historical context is well researched, but the excessive amount of violence on the page (including sexual assault) means that this is best suited for readers with a high tolerance for grim wartime tales.

Rimmer's gripping latest (after Truths I Never Told You) captures the harrowing risks faced by two teenagers whose families live on opposite sides of the Warsaw Ghetto wall in Nazi-occupied Poland. In 1942, 16-year-old Roman Gorka has survived almost two years in the ghetto with his parents, younger brother, and three other families crowded into their apartment. His new baby sister, Eleonora, complicates matters, and Roman, who works a factory job, struggles to feed the family. Meanwhile Elzbieta Rabinek, 14, has moved to Warsaw with her adopted parents and uncle to an apartment nearby. Elzbieta soon becomes involved in smuggling Jewish children out of the ghetto and offers to do the same for Eleonora. The family agrees once the Germans begin the daily deportations from the ghetto and rumors circulate of mass slaughter. As the story unfolds, with Roman caught up in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he forms a close bond with Elzbieta. Rimmer does a great job of bringing WWII Warsaw to life, particularly the clandestine efforts of nurses to rescue Jewish children. There's no shortage of novels that travel similar terrain, but this one easily stands on its own. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency, LLC. (June)

Inspired by Irena Sendler, the real-life Polish nurse who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, Rimmer's latest features Elzbieta Rabinek. Elzbieta learns of the horror unfolding behind the ghetto's walls and uses the credentials of a nurse on her apartment floor to help the family of Roman Gorka, falling in love with him in the process. With a 150,000-copy paperback and 10,000-copy hardcover first printing.