The Resistance Between Us: Ingrid's Wars: Book One: Ingrid's Wars: Volume 1 - Softcover

Libby, Phyllis Kimmel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0998744107 ISBN 13: 9780998744100

Publisher: Mistral Editions, 2017

Synopsis

The Résistance Between Us is written in the first person. The full intimacy of the protagonist’s personality: her open heart, and the immediacy of her feelings, reach the reader directly. It is a tough, realistic account of a conscientious life ultimately well-lived. It is serious fiction, far closer to the literary vein of Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Française than any of today’s World War II fiction novels, and not unlike the visual integrity of the film, The Saving of Private Ryan. The narrator/heroine, Ingrid de Vochard Fellner, is an alluring, wealthy widow, a philanthropist, who lives in the small, fictional town of Duchamps, along the Doubs River, at the heart of a small part of Occupied France, located somewhere near the real city of Besançon, and within sight of the Jura Mountains. As the book opens, the Doubs River delivers two dead bodies to Ingrid’s riverbank one morning, and she discovers them, a young couple with yellow stars on their coats. An encounter there with the coordinator of the local Résistance compels her to join the group. She shields Jews and political refugees in her basement while they wait to pass to Italy and Switzerland. She entertains the enemy upstairs to guarantee the safety of her Old Testament visitors downstairs. Ingrid hides the agony she lives with as Gestapo stop by on covert raids. Her neighbors and friends suspect she’s a collaborator because the Nazis come to visit; they hate her for it, and gossip widely. She lives through lessons that assault her body, mind and soul. We know what she’s lost in this clandestine battle; we enter her world and applaud any success over the monsters who stalk and rape her. Her home yields no comfort; she doesn’t need tranches: her body is her battlefield. She does all the things she said she never, ever, would. Liberation comes at book’s end. However, Ingrid stands alone in a courtroom, head shaved, tondue and pariah—charged with Treason.

About this title

Review:

“This literary work is fiction, but the facts are real, and shape a world I have not experienced in other WWII accounts. The author uses the direct first person to connect readers with Ingrid, a heroine whose complexities and courage are enhanced by the secret fears she shares with you. This book stays in the forefront of your imagination every second you are away from it. Taking care of mundane chores, loving your children, and putting away groceries become privileges. You bless everyone in your family with gratitude while you reflect on the horrible quandary Ingrid faces, as did those who lived through the Holocaust and French Occupation. Ingrid becomes a friend and role model. Sometimes you want to shake her and other times you want to defend her, but you always admire her fortitude. The Résistance Between Us is an excellent example of how literary fiction at its best reveals a higher truth.”

Elizabeth Hurd, Special Correspondent, The Daily Oklahoman, www.okartsceneandhurd.com

“Ingrid’s thrilling story is a scary ride, expressed sharply as she maneuvers herself and her life forward creatively, using her education and high-born class. Sensing her destiny she hides much muscle behind her mirror.”

Karen Krause, artist, photographer, NYC

“In The Résistance Between Us, the reader is immediately drawn into the scene and mindset of its main character, Ingrid Fellner. The textures, smells, and nuances of her surroundings are palpable. One becomes caught up with this woman and what she faces moment by moment as her journey unfolds. Like a canvas where each brushstroke has its place for the painting to succeed, each word, phrase, and chapter of this historical novel is carefully placed and layered to create a truly beautiful literary work of art.”

Corinne Didisheim, artist, www.cdidisheim.com MO

“It was a great read. It has been a long time since I enjoyed a book this much. I did not want to put it down. Historical fiction is something I always love. The characters came alive in my mind. I was right there with Ingrid during WWII. The depth was real and passionate. The twists and turns of the plot kept me guessing and hoping things would turn out well for Ingrid and her daughter. Like so many women she gave completely of herself out of pure love . . . a courageous woman in a horrific time in our history.”

Shelby McGuire, Myrtle Beach, SC

“An exciting journey of personal growth and sacrifice as well as a raw look into the French Résistance. This read prompted memories of my dad’s stories of his military experience—captured in France and sent to a German POW camp with Russian soldiers in WWII.” Michael Mooney, Pinckney, MI “The Résistance Between Us resonates with our desire to be part of something greater than ourselves. Ingrid’s saga was deeply introspective for me . . . a much-needed eye opener about WWII and its stark reality for my parents’ generation.”

Nancy Mooney, Pinckney, MI

“A gripping story of a French World War II heroine who hid Jews in her basement who were en route to safety. The story unfolds in such vivid detail that the reader can almost see and feel the action firsthand, and the characters come alive on each page. The dialogue is filled with historically accurate facts and covers the gamut of human emotion and experience. I couldn’t put this book down! It is historical fiction at its best, and so brilliantly written.”

Grace Schuler, Personnel Consultant and Entrepreneur, Philadelphia, PA

About the Author:

Phyllis Kimmel Libby, visual artist and writer, has taught home-based Neuro-Developmental therapy to families of brain-injured children in Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Australia and Japan since 1977. Her family: Odessa Jews, Czech Catholics and Hungarian Lutherans, were musicians, sculptors, goldsmiths, teachers, visual artists, farmers and writers. She embraced their harrowing stories and those of her WWII survivors: her late husband, the French who kept secret about Jews in hiding, and saw Oradour-Sur-Glane a few hours after its infamous massacre-and many of her readers of international backgrounds. She spent days living with a Jewish woman who survived Auschwitz. Phyllis's long-standing friendships with families and colleagues across the globe have given her a lifetime of insight into the human heart.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mistral Editions
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0998744107
• ISBN 13: 9780998744100
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 514
• Editor: Cooper Mary Ellen Redmile
• Illustrator: Libby Phyllis Kimmel