Pennie Picks LILAC GIRLS
Costco’s influential book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello, selects as her May “Buyers Pick” a debut novel, Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (PRH/Ballantine; RH Audio/BOT; OverDrive Sample). The novel is based on the true stories of three women from vastly different backgrounds who were involved with the Ravensbruck concentration camp during WWII.
The book was a hit with librarians. It was voted a LibaryReads Favorite of Favorites for 2016. Andrea Larson of Cook Memorial Public Library, Libertyville, IL wrote the annotation,
“This is story of the Ravensbruck Rabbits: seventy-four women prisoners in the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Using alternating first-person narratives, the characters relate their experiences from 1939 through 1959. Drawing upon a decade of research, Hall reconstructs what life was like in Ravensbruck. More than a war story, this is a tale of how the strength of women’s bonds can carry them through even the most difficult situations. Lilac Girls is a solid, compelling historical read.”
In an interview in the Costco Connection, Kelly says that after her 10 years writing and researching the book, “I thought I might self-publish and no one would care.” Far from going unnoticed, Kelly gained a contract for it, as well as two more books, prequels to Lilac Girls.
A People magazine pick and an Indie Next selection, it did not fare so well with the NYT, which was merciless in their review, saying that the characters are all “stereotype[s] with no narrative force” of their own, adding the killer line, “it takes some doing to make a concentration camp survivor appear an ingrate.”
Nevertheless, it managed to hit the lower rungs of NYT bestseller list, cresting at #13. It has gone on to do better in paperback and is currently #6 on that list after 8 weeks.
Holds remain active at almost every library we checked with a number still running a triple digit reserve list.