The Medallion

The Medallion is outstanding! The primary setting of WWII Warsaw is eye-opening, the characters strong in their faith and well-defined. The plot is complex and amazing, bringing to life challenges and horrors beyond what we could imagine. The writing style is excellent and compelling, and led this reader so deeply into the story that I could feel the struggles, fears, and joys of the men and women. There are times it tore my heart, and other times it served up a blessing. The lives of two couples from Warsaw are inextricably intertwined. They didn’t know each other before or during the war, but three of the four were brought together by a beautiful, loving little girl in postwar England. Itzhak Dunovich married Rosa; they lived in Vilna, Lithuania with his parents. When receiving word of her father’s murder by the Gestapo in 1939, they went to help Rosa’s mother Marya in Warsaw, Poland. During the time they are there, Marya begins to heal, unlike Europe. Poles are restricted and their food is rationed; those who are Jewish, as Itzhak, Rosa, and Marya are, had to move into the Jewish ghetto, separated from the rest of the population. As an electrician, Itzhak has been blessed to find work, even though most homes are without power. After the birth of his beautiful daughter Ania, he feels he must return to Lithuania to bring his parents to Warsaw. He thought he would only be gone for a month, but that month multiplied until, even sharing the apartment with others, they were out of money. Sophie and Janek were happily married before he left to serve in the Polish military, except Sophie hadn’t been able to carry a baby to term. She worked in the library until the bombing in 1939 took out power and water to most of Warsaw. Sophie went to her apartment building to find the entire street gone and half of the building she lived in torn away. What this would mean for the tiny child she carried that Janek didn’t yet know about, she could only trust God for. One thing a neighbor had told her frequently was to “remember the Red Sea”, that Adonai will make a way. She lived with the godfather to Sophie and Janek, Pan Gadomsky, and his daughter Terri. When the Germans began to kill academics, Jews, and families of Polish fighter pilots, Pan Gadomsky obtained new identities, jobs, and apartments for Terri and Sophie. Sophie wants to work with those in the underground to help other Poles as well as Jews in the ghetto, choosing to risk her life as others risked theirs to help her. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe this novel. We follow the prayers of the primary characters, both Jewish and Christian, which is one aspect I appreciated. I can’t imagine the devastating research the author did for this novel. She shares who in the novel were real people that were shining lights in the darkness of their moment in history. Real or fictitious, the characters are three-dimensional and engaging. For those who like WWII fiction or want to learn more about it, this is a great historical read. Those who came through these terrible years were strong and determined to trust the Lord who makes a way through the impossible. I highly recommend it. From a thankful heart: I received a copy of this from CelebrateLit and the publisher, and this is my honest review.