I don’t recall why any longer, but the other day something sent me down a Kindle rabbit hole search for a specific Karen Robards book. There was a point in time when Ms. Robards was an automatic purchase for me – if I saw a new book on the rack at the grocery store or at Barnes & Noble, in the basket it went. Like many authors from the late 90s and early aughts for which I had this habit, she kind of fell off of my radar when I made the transition to Kindle.
It was during this search that I came across a book by Robards that I had never heard of: The Girl From Guernica. There were actually several that I didn’t recognize, but for whatever reason, this one caught my eye. It had better than a four-star rating on both Amazon and Goodreads after more than a thousand reviews. I decided to go ahead and break my Kindle Unlimited only rule (the only thing that keeps me out of the poorhouse!) and make the purchase.
I’m so glad I did! It starts in Guernica in the years just prior to World War II, when Spain was at war with itself and the nations that would become Allies were all “observing” but no one was intervening. Sibi and her mom and sisters have been in Guernica for close to a year. Her mother is from there, and they have all returned to Guernica to deal with her grandmother’s passing. Sibi also has strong suspicions that her mother is leaving her German father, just not saying anything. Sibi’s three younger sisters have always relied on her to deal with whatever problems life puts in their way; they adore their mother, but recognize she just doesn’t have that inner strength to deal with problems. She’s more like a butterfly, forever flitting from one thing to the next.
Robards has done an amazing job of making Guernica real and vivid, with the atmosphere of forced gaiety and fear radiating from the page. The residents of Guernica know the Spanish civil war is inching ever closer and that their small town is no longer a safe place to be, but they also know that there is no truly safe place to which to flee. So, they tell themselves that since the Red Army has left, the White Army will follow them and the war will simply flow around Guernica like it’s not even there. Sibi tries to convince her mother it’s time to leave and go home to Germany, but is unsuccessful.
Every time I come across a new World War II piece of media consumption, I kind of roll my eyes a little. How many new stories can there possibly be left to tell at this point? Well, with The Girl From Guernica Robards has succeeded in just that. At least for this American. I had some hazy ideas about what was happening around the Mediterranean in the days leading up to the War, but no real grasp on details. Do I now claim to be some sort of expert? Of course not. But I do feel like I got a peek into a corner of the war that I had not previously experienced.
What happens next is as inevitable as it is tragic. I’m not going to go into any further detail – I want you to read this one for yourself. There is a hero’s journey, redemption, personal growth, and a bit with a dog, all set within some truly terrifying circumstances. Do yourself a favor and read this one if you like historical fiction, spy craft or suspense. It’s well worth the price tag.
4 of 5 stars.
