Tag Archives: park row

The Ventriloquists by E.R. Ramzipoor

The Front de l’Indépendance is determined to print the truth free from Nazi control in 1943 Belgium. After being threatened by Gruppenfuhrer August Wolff, journalist Marc Aubrion and colleagues agree to put out a pro-Nazi issue of Nazi propaganda La Soir. Instead, they intend to put out an anti-Nazi satire issue, a “Faux” Soir, effectively condemning them to death. Based on a true story, this novel is told from the perspective of the street urchin chosen as gopher and pet by Aubrion, who gives Helene, a girl pretending to be a boy for safety sake, missions for her fellow street urchins to support their endeavor. Helene’s perspective oversteps her boundaries of knowledge throughout the book, making Dear Reader wonder why the author chose her as the 1st person narrator. Ramzipoor does brilliantly include a Nazi government official in the Faux Soir caper, with the inevitable question of where his loyalty lay, and credible gay characters, one of whom outshines the main character. The twist at the end feels delayed—it seems as though that information would have been given right up front, making the timing awkward and the twist a bit anti-climactic. Despite its flaws (unrealistic dialogue, over the top characters) in the craft, Ramzipoor is a natural storyteller, and in choosing a unique tale from the oft-drawn-from well of the WWII era, she has presented an unforgettable story of unexpected heroes where the lesbians survive. I was fortunate to receive this fascinating debut novel from the publisher Park Row through NetGalley.

The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick

After disagreeing with their father over her interactions with a traveling gypsy family and his indiscretions, Luella disappears, so Effie finagles her way into the House of Mercy, a home for wayward girls, but doesn’t find Luella there. Instead she discovers that she is trapped there, because no one believes wayward girls. Born with a hole in her heart in the early 20th century, her family has considered Effie to be living on borrowed time her entire life. Now she struggles to breathe while working hard labor, since the nuns at House of Mercy are unaware of her condition. A girl with a vague past named Mable plots escape with her, and Mable’s heart-rending story then intertwines with Effie’s. Burdick carefully lays out the challenges in Effie’s family and the obstacles of a misogynistic society that conspired to place her in such an undesirable and dangerous situation. The author provides further information on these mislabeled prisons for girls whose sexuality or unwanted status placed them there, and she also addresses the controversial use of “gypsy” as a historical reference that people in that era would have been most familiar with and used themselves. I received a digital copy of this excellent historical fiction from the publisher Park Row through NetGalley.