April, 1940. Kate McCarthy or Sister Marie-Laurence returns from Monroe, Louisiana to Béthune, France and she’s a member of the order of the Franciscan Sisters of Calais and these nuns are nurses.

Sister Marie-Laurence meets two women, mechanic and mother Sylvette Leleu and café owner Angele Tardiveau, they along with others join the resistance and are involved in helping French and British prisoners of war, hiding them and organizing their escape. They put themselves in danger and the network gets larger, Sister Marie-Laurence is arrested, and she spends months locked in various cells, the Germans make people vanish, it creates fear and uncertainty (night and fog) and hopefully stops others from joining in acts of rebellion.

November, 1944. Sister Marie-Laurence arrives at the gates of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, in the last four years she has been in over eight different prisons, she has been interrogated by the Gestapo, starved and beaten, and she’s suffering from oedema in her lower limbs.

In Ravensbrück the nun’s faith is tested, every day she and the others are forced to line up to be counted in the rain and snow, do manual labour, face being picked in a selection and sent to the gas chambers.

I received a copy of The Nun of Ravensbrück by Cathi Fleming from NetGalley and Hachette Books Ireland in exchange for an honest review. I’m not sure how many times Sister Marie-Laurence was asked “if there is a god why is he allowing this to happen” and I thought the same thing.

Based on a real person and a story about overcoming adversity, tyranny and the darkest of times and even when her body was failing her and she was sick Sister Marie-Laurence didn’t give up and be grateful for the sacrifices made by a remarkable woman. Five stars, despite not being an easy novel to read and I highly recommend doing so.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it to be incredibly inspiring. I thought the writing style was fantastic and I have already recommended this book to my friends, 5 stars from me!

A novel based on a nun’s true-life experience in a Nazi concentration camp. I’m not religious but this story is inspiring in the way nun Kate tried to help fellow sufferers in Ravensbruck. It’s told with sensitivity as the women prisoners take small acts of resistance and try to care for the sickest of their comrades. Very moving. The Afterword at the end was an interesting summary of what happened post-war to people mentioned in the book.

I am in awe over this story. It is a WWII story of an Irish nun who is also a resistance leader. Her strength encourages my own faith. I realize it is fiction based on facts, but it really touched me. Highly recommend!

A remarkable story made even more because it is based on a real person and this is Sister Kate's story. Another example of how brave women and men were during the dark days of WW2 in France and other countries. People who fought and stood up for others even though their actions could cost their life. it amazed me how lucky Kate was during the story as a wrong turn here or a different decision there and she would have perished at the hands of the Nazi's. I recommend you carry on with the book and read the epilogue and post war details of all of the real people who feature in the book. It's gratifying to read that many of those who survived went on to live long lives despite their dreadful experiences.