What the administration doesn't know is that Clara has no intention of making any kind of difference. In fact, in 11 months, when the rest of the witches flee from the forthcoming total solar eclipse, she plans to stand in the shadow of the moon and cut off her connection to the sun, which will strip her of her magic. While Clara's teachers believe her magic might be able to "single-handedly restore stability in the atmosphere," Clara knows it comes with "a death sentence." Her magic is too big for her to control--"it builds and builds and builds, and when the pressure is too great, it searches for another means of escape," targeting those with whom she has an emotional connection. More than once, her magic has killed people she loves--first her parents, then her best friend, Nikki. Clara despises and fears her magic. p> 11. Among the heroes in the book were the archivists, such as Odette Pilpoul, who at great risk to her own life kept the record for future gen­er­a­tions. Why is her con­tri­bu­tion to record­ing his­tor­i­cal­ly mar­gin­al­ized voic­es so impor­tant, not just then but even more sonow? A] narrative of unfathomable courage... Ms. Strauss does her readers—and her subjects—a worthy service by returning to this appalling history of the courage of women caught up in a time of rapacity and war." —Wall Street Journal It is difficult to give a rating to a book like this. The story of these strong women and their ability to face unthinkable horrors deserves an infinite number of stars. Unfortunately, the actual writing does not get the same high praise.

A compelling, beautifully written story of resilience, friendship and survival. The story of Women's resistance during World War II needs to be told and The Nine accomplishes this in spades."?Heather Morris, New York Times bestselling author of Cilka's Journey p> 1. The Nine opens with the moment of escape, and with each chap­ter that fol­lows, the author focus­es on one of the women. Occa­sion­al­ly, the read­er learns about the author’s research and detec­tive work to uncov­er the sto­ry. How do the dif­fer­ent sto­ry­lines work togeth­er to tell acom­plete sto­ry? How impor­tant was each thread to build­ing that picture? According to Strauss, Hélène had more or less permanent leg and hip pains as she walked but, as an engineer who spoke five languages, she became the group’s unofficial leader. Another of the women was suffering from diphtheria and they almost all had bleeding feet and blisters. Yet the notion of separating into smaller groups was never entertained. The women pooled their resources and believed that their friendship was vital to survival. Fifty-eight years later, during our interview in her apartment, where Hélène had allowed me to record her story, she said, “Angers stays in my memory as the symbol of suffering itself.” This haunting account provides yet more evidence not only of the power of female friendship but that the often unrecorded courage and resilience of ordinary women must be honored and celebrated. It’s a most inspiring read...Utterly gripping." —Anne Sebba, author of Les ParisiennesThere was a sense that if you were a woman and you had been in a concentration camp it was not something you were supposed to talk about,” says Strauss. Hélène was twenty-three years old when she joined. On a break from her physics and mathematics studies at the Sorbonne, she had taken a significant job as a chemist in a lamp company. But as her Résistance activities grew in importance, she left that job to work full-time in the struggle against the fascists. She lied to her parents about what she was doing. Her nom de guerre was “Christine,” and in the Nazi records she is recorded with that name.1 She would always be known by the group of women who escaped together as Christine. When Hélène protested that he was her superior officer, he said, “Yes, we are soldiers, but please, let me also be a gentleman.” She nodded, because he was right. Her pride and discomfort had gotten in the way of her thinking. Many people were in hiding and did not have access to ration cards; they were hungry. This money would help them. She needed to pull herself together. She took a deep breath.

I'd tell my younger self this: "Your sensitivity is a gift. It's a strength, not a weakness. You're strong because of it, not in spite of it. And it's your sensitivity that will lead you to your dreams." After the war, she married first Jacques Henri Fourcaut on 16 January 1947. They divorced in 1958. Then she married Daniel Léonce Ungemach in 1960 in Asnières, France.The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Fourth Annual Collection (Ellen Datlow and Teri Windling, eds., Endicott) (1990). From 2005 to 2007 Strauss was Director of the Lacoste Campus ( Lacoste, France) of the Savannah College of Art and Design ( SCAD). Hélène looked around. Their column was overextended. There were gaps between the rows and the sections. There were no guards in sight. It's 1985, and 30-year-old substitute teacher Una is languishing in Reykjavík when she reads a seductive ad: "Teacher wanted at the edge of the world." She lands the winter-term-only job, which brings her to the remote village of Skálar, population 10 per the last census. The job includes accommodations in the home of Salka, a single woman on the local council, and Salka's seven-year-old daughter, one of the two kids Una will teach. The job is a cakewalk, although Una wishes the villagers weren't quite so obvious with their opinion of her as an interloper, and she could do without the intermittent confrontations with a ghostly presence at Salka's house. When tragedy strikes at the village Christmas concert, Una must deal with the obfuscating darkness of both Skálar in winter and its citizens. A compelling, beautifully written story of resilience, friendship and survival. The story of Women's resistance during World War II needs to be told and The Nine accomplishes this in spades." — Heather Morris, New York Times bestselling author of Cilka's Journey

An incredible story about the power of friendship and the faith in humanity in one of the darkest times in history." — Lee Woodruff Lon reassured her that they were hidden from view. In any case, the marchers had passed so many corpses along the way that this heap of women at the bottom of a ditch probably looked just like another pile of dead bodies. What Clara also needs is "to be seen by another person," and that person is Sang. Over the course of Clara's training, Clara and Sang's relationship develops into a beautiful and imperfect amalgam of gentle intimacy, raw emotion and love. The relationship develops organically and doesn't feel rushed, and the way Griffin describes their moments together is poetic and tangible. Clara is Sang's "magnificently disruptive force," while he is her sun. Tales such as this one never fail to haunt and surprise me. I find myself learning new things every time.

Strauss] gets her facts right... A breathless story of almost superhuman heroism and suffering with a (mostly) happy ending." —Kirkus The second is that I love nature. I have a deep connection to it, and when I saw that tree and thought about the seasons, it instantly came to me: What if there was a girl who changed with the seasons? The Nine is poignant, powerful, and shattering, distilling the horror of the Holocaust through the lens of nine unforgettable women...Gwen Strauss melds a poet's pen and a decade of research into a tale of friendship, courage, and indomitable will." ?Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author I've always been fascinated by the natural world. As I got older, that fascination turned into a deep love of the earth, but I didn't learn about climate change until I was an adult. Like an army unit, they had a band of brothers feel about them. They were from different social classes, different countries, but somehow they became a unit.”