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Review
`a hybrid of history and multiple biography, movingly chronicles the women's ordeal... [it] bears eloquent witness to the moral and material ruin of collaborationist in France.' --Seven
`It is a harrowing book, not always easy to read, with two dozen or more main characters to follow; but it is fascinating, and important.' --The Independent
'A story of stunning courage, generosity and hope.' `They risked their lives to defeat Fascism, by printing subversive literature, hiding Jewish friends or, in the case of one girl, simply insulting a French youth because he had decided to co-operate with the Nazis. The price they paid for their bravery was terrible. A Train in Winter could have been a sad, almost morbid book. In Moorhead's expert hands it is a triumphant one.' --Mail on Sunday
'a remarkable and deeply affecting book' --Oxford Times
'Compassionate, meticulous and compulsively enthralling...this book is essential reading.' --Daily Mail
`A multiple biography and a detailed anatomy of the nature of friendship... A Train in Winter is a powerful and moving book; its significance is in bringing to a wider, non-French readership the particular and terrible fate of a group of women whose only crime was to love their country and to wish to do something to defend it, at a time when its government chose craven obedience to the occupier, with terrible consequences for so many of its people.' ----Natasha Lehrer, Times Literary Supplement
`a clear sighted, distressing and unforgettable book.' ----Stephanie Cross, The Lady
`It is an exceptional achievement on the author's part to have reconstructed these obscure lives that so often ended in sordid misery and to have restored their dignity and honour'
--Literary Review, Patrick Marnham, January 2012
`It is a harrowing book, not always easy to read, with two dozen or more main characters to follow; but it is fascinating, and important.' --The Independent
'A story of stunning courage, generosity and hope.' `They risked their lives to defeat Fascism, by printing subversive literature, hiding Jewish friends or, in the case of one girl, simply insulting a French youth because he had decided to co-operate with the Nazis. The price they paid for their bravery was terrible. A Train in Winter could have been a sad, almost morbid book. In Moorhead's expert hands it is a triumphant one.' --Mail on Sunday
'a remarkable and deeply affecting book' --Oxford Times
'Compassionate, meticulous and compulsively enthralling...this book is essential reading.' --Daily Mail
`A multiple biography and a detailed anatomy of the nature of friendship... A Train in Winter is a powerful and moving book; its significance is in bringing to a wider, non-French readership the particular and terrible fate of a group of women whose only crime was to love their country and to wish to do something to defend it, at a time when its government chose craven obedience to the occupier, with terrible consequences for so many of its people.' ----Natasha Lehrer, Times Literary Supplement
`a clear sighted, distressing and unforgettable book.' ----Stephanie Cross, The Lady
`It is an exceptional achievement on the author's part to have reconstructed these obscure lives that so often ended in sordid misery and to have restored their dignity and honour'
--Literary Review, Patrick Marnham, January 2012
Book Description
A moving and extraordinary book about courage and survival, friendship and endurance - a portrait of ordinary women who faced the horror of war together
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Caroline Moorhead's remarkable book `The Train in Winter' relates the story of 230 women of the French Resistance who were captured, rounded up from Gestapo detention camps and then sent on a train to Auschwitz in the winter of 1943. The youngest was a young girl of fifteen and the eldest was a woman of sixty eight years; among these women were: writers, teachers, chemists, sales assistants, housewives and schoolgirls.
The first part of the book begins with the collapse of France in the summer of 1940, when the Germans invaded Paris and where most French citizens were so stunned they just waited to see what would happen, fearing the same inhumane treatment that had been delivered to the Polish people during the German invasion of Poland. The German soldiers were very surprised by the passivity of the French as they handed in their weapons and initially accepted the conditions offered to them. However, there was one group of citizens not prepared to accept defeat and this was the French Communist Party, already trained in opposition and ready to become the main focus of resistance. Most of the women we come to know in this book were Communists but, in general, men and women who joined the Resistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society. The women of the French Resistance carried messages, printed and distributed newspapers, collected and concealed weapons, hid escaping Jews and some worked as `passeurs', helping people to escape across the demarcation line between occupied and unoccupied zones. Their contribution to the work of the Resistance was immensely important but was also incredibly dangerous - they risked not only their own lives but the lives of their families.
Caroline Moorhead's book tells the amazing stories of these women - about who they were, how they became involved with the Resistance, how they were captured and how they were treated by the French police and the Gestapo once they had been caught. These women were brutally treated; they were practically starved and were regularly beaten but their bravery, determination, mental endurance and, not least, their strong sense of camaraderie kept them alive - for a time, anyhow. Of the 230 women only 49 survived to return to France.
This book is primarily about friendship between women; it is about how they cared for and about each other; it is about generosity, intimacy, courage, dignity, determination and human endurance. It is about life and death. It was a harrowing read and I will admit to being in tears several times throughout the reading of this book, but I learnt things I didn't know - for example, I had no knowledge about the `Brigade Speciales', a section of the French police who worked closely with the Nazis, becoming an almost parallel Gestapo, with their own manual in French informing them what forms of torture they could use - however most importantly I learnt about a group of amazing women who would not surrender to the Nazis. This is one of those books that you don't actually enjoy reading, but you feel the better for having read.
5 Stars.
The first part of the book begins with the collapse of France in the summer of 1940, when the Germans invaded Paris and where most French citizens were so stunned they just waited to see what would happen, fearing the same inhumane treatment that had been delivered to the Polish people during the German invasion of Poland. The German soldiers were very surprised by the passivity of the French as they handed in their weapons and initially accepted the conditions offered to them. However, there was one group of citizens not prepared to accept defeat and this was the French Communist Party, already trained in opposition and ready to become the main focus of resistance. Most of the women we come to know in this book were Communists but, in general, men and women who joined the Resistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society. The women of the French Resistance carried messages, printed and distributed newspapers, collected and concealed weapons, hid escaping Jews and some worked as `passeurs', helping people to escape across the demarcation line between occupied and unoccupied zones. Their contribution to the work of the Resistance was immensely important but was also incredibly dangerous - they risked not only their own lives but the lives of their families.
Caroline Moorhead's book tells the amazing stories of these women - about who they were, how they became involved with the Resistance, how they were captured and how they were treated by the French police and the Gestapo once they had been caught. These women were brutally treated; they were practically starved and were regularly beaten but their bravery, determination, mental endurance and, not least, their strong sense of camaraderie kept them alive - for a time, anyhow. Of the 230 women only 49 survived to return to France.
This book is primarily about friendship between women; it is about how they cared for and about each other; it is about generosity, intimacy, courage, dignity, determination and human endurance. It is about life and death. It was a harrowing read and I will admit to being in tears several times throughout the reading of this book, but I learnt things I didn't know - for example, I had no knowledge about the `Brigade Speciales', a section of the French police who worked closely with the Nazis, becoming an almost parallel Gestapo, with their own manual in French informing them what forms of torture they could use - however most importantly I learnt about a group of amazing women who would not surrender to the Nazis. This is one of those books that you don't actually enjoy reading, but you feel the better for having read.
5 Stars.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An excellent book, should be read by all. By the end of the book, with the roll call of all those died, murdered or perished, I was utterly speechless.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
for me this is one of the great books, the story of these women is unbelievable, and a total inspiration.
Also the background to Vichy France and the lives of the french at the start of the war is fascinating.
Caroline Moorhead is to be congratulated on a wonderful piece of research which as turned out as an incredibly moving testatement to the strength of what friendship can do and survive.
An amazing moving book.
Also the background to Vichy France and the lives of the french at the start of the war is fascinating.
Caroline Moorhead is to be congratulated on a wonderful piece of research which as turned out as an incredibly moving testatement to the strength of what friendship can do and survive.
An amazing moving book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Really good, really hard book
This book is excellent. But be warned, the material covered makes it a very hard, and very difficult read. The stories are so sad, then also uplifting. Highly recommended.
Published 2 months ago by Reamonn P. Lydon
Makes you think
Thought provoking account of the lives of people caught up in difficult times.
Makes you think - what would I have done?
Makes you think - what would I have done?
Published 3 months ago by Ms Alison E Smith
Engrossing
A brilliant read, well written and a new incite into the lives of French women and girls during WW2.
All their stories should be read and not forgotten!
All their stories should be read and not forgotten!
Published 3 months ago by Mata Hari
A must read
This book is a "must read". You won't "enjoy" it but as a part of history it is a story that needs to be told. Read more
Published 3 months ago by K8P
Transfixed by a compelling story
A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead
Caroline Moorehead has brilliantly recreated a story of compassion, survival, brutality and justice. Read more
Caroline Moorehead has brilliantly recreated a story of compassion, survival, brutality and justice. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Dr Neil MacNeill
Brave women, but...
It's an interesting fact that the women in the French Resistance have always had a stronger hold on the imagination than the exploits of the men. Read more
Published 4 months ago by S. Ramsey-Hardy
Remarkable
This is a remarkable book and a truly amazing story. I couldnt put it down and was moved to tears by some of the experiences of these incredible ladies. Read more
Published 5 months ago by kitty2352
Poignantly, despairingly wonderful.
Perhaps it's me but, looking at other reviews, I find it strange and not-a-little disconcerting that anyone could begin to write of this book; "OK its a bit slow to start but good... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Gerry Mac
A train in winter
.OK its a bit slow to start but good ending a very well written,we must not forget how these people suffered and my heart goes out to all those that are remembered in this book.
Published 6 months ago by chris
A fascinating read
Great book to handle in terms of size, font size and the fact it's a hardcover. The story is fascinating and as a result read it too quickly! Read more
Published 6 months ago by Mrs Channy
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