Synopses & Reviews
They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives; a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, secreted Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of fifteen who scrawled "V" for victory on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer's wife in her sixties who harbored escaped Allied airmen. Strangers to each other, hailing from villages and cities from across France, these brave women were united in hatred and defiance of their Nazi occupiers.
Eventually, the Gestapo hunted down 230 of these women and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, education, profession, and class, as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.
In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.
A Train in Winter draws on interviews with these women and their families; German, French, and Polish archives; and documents held by World War II resistance organizations to uncover a dark chapter of history that offers an inspiring portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and survival—and of the remarkable, enduring power of female friendship.
Review
“Heightened by electrifying, and staggering, detail, Mooreheads riveting history stands as a luminous testament to the indomitable will to survive and the unbreakable bonds of friendship.” Booklist (starred review)
Review
“As chronicled by Moorehead with unblinking accuracy, their agonies are appalling to contemplate, their stories of survival and friendship under duress enthralling to hear.” More magazine
Review
“By turns heartbreaking and inspiring.” Caroline Weber, New York Times Book Review
Review
“Compelling . . . Moorehead weaves into her suspenseful, detailed narrative myriad personal stories of friendship, courage, and heartbreak.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“As Moorehead delves deeply into the womens fight for survival, her narrative seamlessly comes together in order to share a significant part of history whose time has come to be heard.” Meganne Fabrega, Christian Science Monitor
Review
"A compelling account of human suffering and courage in the face of appalling brutality. And by the careful use of detail, and an almost obsessive curiosity, Ms. Moorehead has succeeded in frustrating one of the main aims of the Nazis'...the memory of 'le Convoi des 3100' has not disappeared." Patrick Marnham, Wall Street Journal
Review
“Haunting account of bravery, friendship, and endurance.” Marie Claire
Review
“[Moorehead] traces the lives and deaths of all her subjects with unswerving candor and compassion. . . . In Mooreheads telling, neither evil nor good is banal; and if the latter doesnt always triumph, it certainly inspires.” Elysa Gardner, USA Today
Review
“The first complete account of these extraordinary women and, incredibly, over 60 years later we are still learning new and terrible truths about the Holocaust. . . . An important new perspective. . . . Careful research and sensitive retelling.” Buzzy Jackson, Boston Sunday Globe
Review
“An extremely moving and intensely personal history of the Auschwitz universe as experienced by these women. . . . A powerful and moving book.” Natasha Lehrer, Times Literary Supplement (UK)
Review
“[A] moving novelistic portrait. . . . An inspiring and fascinating read.” Meredith Maran, People (3½ stars)
Review
“A necessary book. . . . Compelling and moving. . . . The literature of wartime France and the Holocaust is by now so vast as to confound the imagination, but when a book as good as this comes along, we are reminded that there is always room for something new.” Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
Review
“Even historys darkest moments can be illuminated by spectacular courage, such as courage that Caroline Moorehead movingly celebrates in A Train in Winter. . . . Moorehead has created a somber account, sensitively rendered, of yet another grim legacy of war.” Judith Chettle, Richmond Times-Dispatch
Review
“A miraculous story about friendship and the will to overcome extraordinary cruelty, heartache and loss.” The Jewish Journal, "Best Books of 2011"
Synopsis
In January 1943, 230 women of the French Resistance weresent to the death camps by the Nazis who had invaded and occupied theircountry. This is their story, told in full for the first time—a searing andunforgettable chronicle of terror, courage, defiance, survival, and the powerof friendship. Caroline Moorehead, a distinguishedbiographer, human rights journalist, and the author of Dancing to the Precipiceand Human Cargo, brings to life an extraordinary story that readers ofMitchell Zuckoffs Lost in Shangri-La, ErikLarsons In the Garden of Beasts, and Laura Hillenbrands Unbrokenwill find an essential addition to our retelling of the history of WorldWar II—a riveting, rediscovered story of courageous women who sacrificedeverything to combat the march of evil across the world.
About the Author
Caroline Moorehead is the New York Times bestselling author of A Train in Winter and Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. An acclaimed biographer of Martha Gellhorn, Bertrand Russell, and Lucie de la Tour du Pin, among others, Moorehead has also written for the Telegraph, the Times, and the Independent. She lives in London and Italy.