My Enemy's Cradle (Hardcover)

Starred Review. Children's-book author Young (who, as Sara Pennypacker, penned the celebrated Stuart series) makes a stunning adult debut with this beautifully told and heart-wrenching novel set in WWII Europe. Cyrla, half-Jewish, is no longer safe hiding in the home of her Dutch relatives under the increasingly harsh Nazi occupation. When cousin Annika, whom Cyrla closely resembles, becomes pregnant by a German soldier, Annika's father enrolls her in a Lebensborn, a birthing center for Aryan children, where the slogan is Have one baby for the Führer. In a tragic turn of events, Cyrla discovers her only chance of survival is to hide in plain sight: she must assume Annika's identity and live in the German Lebensborn until rescued. Within the Lebensborn's walls, mothers-to-be receive proper nutrition and medical care until their children are taken from them for adoption into Aryan families The horrors Cyrla witnesses are softened only by her resounding optimism and strength. (Jan.)
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"Tenderly and fiercely felt, Young''s tale of a young Jewish woman trapped in the sinister web of the Nazi Lebensborn program is that true find, a story truly never before told. And yet, through emotions we know -- that a mother must cherish her child, that hope will refuse despair, that passion will deny even mortal danger -- it immediately becomes our own." (author of The Deep End of the Ocean )

"As her spirited heroine Cyrla navigates the treacherous labyrinth of the SS breeding nurseries, Sara Young shines a powerful flashlight on one of the lesser-known Nazi atrocities: the thievery of children from their mothers. Young''s research is so scrupulous that when devouring this novel, you''ll swear you''re reading a genuine survivor account, and you''ll hold your breath as Cyrla attempts to find and found her own family." (author of Those Who Save Us )

"What a story! MY ENEMY''S CRADLE offers intrigue, suspense, compassion, heartbreak and joy. Sara Young writes with the intelligence and authority of an historian, but also with the sensitivity, precision, insight and grace of a poet. I was hooked from page one, and found the ending to be one of the most satisfying I''ve read in a long time. " (author of Talk Before Sleep )

"MY ENEMY''S CRADLE has everything: It is a page turner full of twists and turns. It is a love story. It is a war story. It reveals a dark piece of history. There is only one caveat to this novel: you will want to read it straight through. So put aside absolutely everything, and begin." (author of The Knitting Circle )

"By populating her book with complex and vibrant characters, Sara Young succeeds in bringing this previously little known aspect of World War II history to life. Young explores with an unwavering voice the timeless, universal and yet intensely personal themes of love, loss, morality and the choices that shape our lives." (author of The Kommandant's Girl )

"In this compelling first novel set against the little known Nazi Lebensborn program, Sara Young creates a heroine the reader will not easily forget - Cyrla, a young woman trying to keep her infant safe while hiding a dangerous secret. MY ENEMY''S CRADLE goes to the very heart of hope and how it can survive in even the darkest and most dangerous of times." (author of Entering Normal )

"Secrets of betrayal, love, and honor drive the plot in this riveting historical novel about a young woman caught up in the Nazi Lebensborn program.... Cyrla''s intimate, first-person narrative reveals the horrific history through unforgettable individual experience of guilt and sacrifice. Readers will be haunted by the intricacies of friends and enemies in a story that has been seldom told." (Booklist )

"Young's youthful characters -- especially her heroine, Cyrla -- are utterly believable, their longings, fears and hopes etched with an authenticity and sense of urgency that make this story vibrate on the page...The fact that Young has drawn on a relativity obscure bit of World War II history makes Cradle even more intriguing...intensely romantic in a way that only wartime fiction can be. And it invokes, with a bit of an ache, Anne Frank''s optimistic belief in happy endings."