“The Girl from Krakow” by Alex Rosenberg – Outlasting Evil

World War II, still fresh in the annals of our history, was without a doubt the deadliest and most far-reaching conflict we know of... for now of course, as we have a tendency to constantly outdo ourselves.

In any case, the few years it spanned were some of the strangest and most tumultuous ones, at least in the 20th century, and so it is quite understandable why many authors choose it as the backdrop for their works of fiction, as did Alex Rosenberg in The Girl from Krakow.

Set during historically-accurate events and telling the story of fictional characters, the book introduces us to Rita Feuerstahl, a young woman who just enrolled in the university of Krakow as the Germans set foot in Poland. Quickly realizing the kind of danger the whole country is in, especially the Jewish community, Rita gives her son away to a courier and helps her husband escape to the East.

And so we follow the story of Rita, left to her own devices, trying to survive through the war while assuming different identities and avoiding the horrendous death camps. At the same time she does try to keep a normal, human semblance to her life, adding the sub-plot of her lover, Dr. Sommermann. Last, but not least, Rita also happens to be the possessor of a giant secret... one that could actually change the tide of the war and bring the Third Reich to its knees.

To begin with, it is quite apparent that Rosenberg did his fair share of research into what daily life was like during that time. We are constantly bombarded with historical details, if not about the habits of the people then about the setting itself.

Though it does feel a bit dry at times, Rosenberg nevertheless uses those historical facts to his advantage to recreate a very believable environment that does a fantastic job at drawing you in. From the perspective of accuracy and historical fidelity, there are certainly no reproaches to be made here.

On the other hand, while the story is well-crafted and does keep the reader interested, it falters in certain aspects. To begin with, the character development is rather shallow and feels rushed at times... it almost feels like the author made his characters exactly how he wanted them to end up and forgot to write compelling arcs.

Rita herself doesn't change much through the course of the novel, and though her perspective of the world is very understandable (it is one without beauty, meaning or truth), from a novelistic standpoint it gets very tiring. In addition, the way Rosenberg executed the climax left to be desired as he rushed to bring it all to a conclusion, which in itself wasn't all that satisfying.

And so, while this novel may not be perfect (it certainly has its fair share of flaws no matter how you look at it) that doesn't mean it's not worth reading.

If you are already a fan of historical fiction, especially stories set during WWII, then I believe that ultimately you will gain more than enough enjoyment from the book to justify your purchase. You probably won't be re-reading it anytime soon, if ever, but the ride is indeed worth it.

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Alex Rosenberg Alex Rosenberg is an American philosopher, author, and the R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. In 1971 he received his Ph.D from the Johns Hopkins University, in 1993 won the Lakatos Award, and in 2006 was the National Phi Beta Kappa Romanell Lecturer. Some of his better-known works include Hume and the Problem of Causation and The Atheist's Guide to Reality.