Day after night

Diamant (The Red Tent, 1997) turns her attention to the period immediately following World War II, when Jewish refugees were making their way to Palestine, many in defiance of the British Mandate blockade. Thousands of the refugees were held at the Atlit detention camp far better than camps they had come from, but an internment camp nonetheless. On October 10, 1945, special forces fighters from the Haganah (the underground Jewish military organization) broke into the camp and released 200 detainees. Diamant relates this history through the eyes of four young women with diverse wartime experiences. Shayndel was a Zionist resistance fighter in Poland. Tedi, a Dutch blond, hid on a farm. Leonie served as a prostitute for the SS in Paris. And Zorah was in Auschwitz. Although the history is compelling, the real interest lies in the way Diamant shows these women learning to go on forming new bonds, rediscovering simple daily pleasures, coming to terms with the past. Fluid storytelling and well-drawn characters make this a sure bet for a wide range of readers.--Quinn, Mary Ellen Copyright 2009 Booklist

Diamant's bestseller, The Red Tent, explored the lives of biblical women ignored by the male-centric narrative. In her compulsively readable latest, she sketches the intertwined fates of several young women refugees at Atlit, a British-run internment camp set up in Palestine after WWII. There's Tedi, a Dutch girl who hid in a barn for years before being turned in and narrowly escaping Bergen-Belsen; Leonie, a beautiful French girl whose wartime years in Paris are cloaked with shame; Shayndel, a heroine of the Polish partisan movement whose cheerful facade hides a tortured soul; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor who is filled with an understandable nihilism. The dynamic of suffering and renewed hope through friendship is the book's primary draw, but an eventual escape attempt adds a dash of suspense to the astutely imagined story of life at the camp: the wary relationship between the Palestinian Jews and the survivors, the intense flirtation between the young people that marks a return to life. Diamant opens a window into a time of sadness, confusion and optimism that has resonance for so much that's both triumphant and troubling in modern Jewish history. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Atlit, an interment camp for illegal refugees near Haifa in what is now Israel (formally Palestine under British rule), is the setting for this engrossing and historically accurate novel by the author of The Red Tent. Here, Diamant gives voice to women who survived the Holocaust and seek freedom in Israel. Her story is narrated by four women with vastly different experiences: Shayndel, a Polish Zionist; Leonie, a Parisian beauty; Tedi, a Dutch Jew who had been living in hiding; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor. As their friendships develop and they struggle to create new lives, the women revisit past horrors of escaping the genocide. Verdict Tragedy and redemption are artfully paired in this stirring novel. Recommended for readers interested in modern Jewish Zionist history and fans of stirring rescue and human-interest stories. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/09.]-Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, MD (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Diamant (The Last Days of Dogtown, 2005, etc.) tenderly portrays four women in transition, from the killing fields of Europe to the promised land of Eretz Yisrael. In August 1945, however, they're stuck in Atlit, a British detention center for illegal immigrants to the Palestinian mandate. "Not one of the women in Barrack C is 21, but all of them are orphans," the author tells us on the first page. Zorah lost her entire family in the first concentration-camp selection. Tedi spent two years hiding in the Dutch countryside, then escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz. Shayndel, a prewar Zionist, fought with the partisans. Leonie was saved from a roundup of Parisian Jews and forced into prostitution. These memories are their constant companions, but people at Atlit avoid talking about the past: "It was all about Palestine." The underground Jewish fighting force plans to break out the detainees and lead them to the kibbutzim. Meanwhile, the camp is riddled with intrigue. The Jewish cook is sleeping with the British commander to gain information, but she also happens to love him. Leonie spots an SS tattoo under the armpit of a crazed new arrival. Shayndel spars with a swaggering Jewish soldier and wonders if all the men in Palestine are this arrogant. Zorah becomes the fierce protector of a Polish gentile who rescued her Jewish employer's son and is raising him as her own. The novel climaxes with the breakout (an actual event), but the real story here is about healing, about being able to love again and to believe in the future. Diamant quietly leads us into her characters' anguish, guilt and despair, then gently shows them coming to renewed life almost in spite of themselves. A moving epilogue traces the four protagonists' paths after leaving Atlit, reminding us that their wartime ordeals and internment were "just the beginning." A warm, intensely human reckoning with unbearable sorrow and unquenchable hope. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.