The Resistance Daughter
Anna Kowalski lives with her father and brother, Michal, in German-occupied Warsaw. They are all members of the resistance, Anna’s main task being to guide Jewish children out of the ghetto, through the sewers to the Aryan areas where they are taken in until it is safe to return them to their parents. While on a mission to guide an aircraft to a drop zone, Anna risks her safety to warn the pilot that he is too low, enabling him to gain height.
The pilot is Johnnie Nowak, a Canadian of Polish extraction. On his return towards home, he is shot down over the North Sea, and he and his crew are taken prisoner and sent to a concentration camp. He escapes and is guided to safety by Anna, who he does not know warned him over the drop zone. He walks into an ambush and is recaptured. Anna is also captured and sent to Ravensbrück, where she is tortured by a guard known as The Beast. This is not the real guard who was subject of a recent novel by Angharad Hampshire, although there are similarities. Transferred to Stalag IV-B, she recognises Johnnie in the RAF compound. They establish contact and plan to escape together, an exploit fraught with danger with little chance of success.
The action is frenetic throughout, the plot relying on a number of unlikely coincidences. The novel will appeal to lovers of high-octane adventure. Kormylo has been meticulous in her research. She does not shy away from graphic descriptions of death, hunger, squalor and violence but also shows bravery, friendship, love and loyalty. She is daughter of a WWII bomber pilot and POW. This is her first novel.
