I swear I long for Kristins books. She can’t write fast enough for me and with all the research she does for her books it’s amazing she gets one out each year. Again, another fabulous read that will jerk your heart out but at the same time hopefully makes you thankful for all you have today. Such hard times and useless deaths for the Jews. It’s hard to even imagine and Kristin brings so much so vivid. Great character development; I loved Yonah (a favorite name for me) as well as her lady of the forest and so many in his book. You really must read this and all her books, especially if you enjoy historical fiction. . Fabulous writing! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for THE ARC

I could not put this book down. I read it all in two settings! The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a deeply moving story of survival and love in the darkest of times.

Yona is stolen from her German parents when she is only two years old by an elderly woman. She raises Yona alone in the woods in Poland and teaches her how to survive. The old woman dies in the Spring of 1942 where now alone, Yona discovers a group who has fled the ghetto in a neighboring town. Yona is determined to help them survive.

The characters were well written and developed. The story was very well researched. It was so heartbreaking and no matter how many stories I read from WWII, it still astonishes me the horrors of what occurred. I highly recommend to historical fiction lovers out there!

A baby is born to German parents in early 1920s and she is stolen by an old women when she is barely 2 years old. The old women raises her in the deep, dark woods of Poland and she never sees other humans. They forage for food and the old woman teaches Yona survival techniques as well as foreign languages and different religions. This comes in handy during WWII when many Jews fled their villages and ran into the woods to hide from the Nazis. Yona helps many groups survive in the woods for a very long time, but always struggles with her own upbringing and history.

I always love when authors find new ways to tell WWII and Holocaust stories in a new and unique way! I hadn’t heard about the Bielski Brothers previously, the real life family who survived in the woods that was part of the inspiration for this story. Yona is so strong and independent, but she takes on a caring and nurturing role easily. She has such a compassion for others that’s it’s hard for her to understand her parents when she learns the truth about her kidnapping.

This book was wonderful and I really enjoyed our zoom with Kristin. She is such an incredible writer and has a way of weaving a story that will stay with you for a long time. She has a few more that I still need to read. If you are a fan, which of her books is your favorite?

A ninety-two year old woman takes a two year old from her crib based on forest guidance. This woman, Jeruza, believes she needs to prepare Yona for bigger and better things to come. Flashing though time and Jeruza’s death we now see Yona on her own and working with Jewish refugees who ran from the ghettos. Helping these people brings joy to Yona but also shocking questions about her past. The Forest of Vanishing Stars is based on real events, the Bieleki brothers, and Kristin Harmel does their story justice.
Kristin Harmel writes a beautiful and passionate story set in the 1900’s. Although this story dragged at the beginning, this is one that I will recommend to any historical fiction reader.

Kristin Harmel has again given us a story that flows with feelings and descriptions and leads us into thoughts and ideas we wouldn't otherwise have. Great read!

“She thought she was teaching them how to live, but now she realized that in many ways, she had been the student all along."

I’ve read two of Kristin Harmel’s other WWII novels: The Room on Rue Amelié and The Book of Lost Names, both of which are worth reading. This one is no different.

Part wilderness survival, part love story, The Forest of Vanishing Stars has a unique take on the typical WWII historical fiction we read. (Which speaks to her ability as an author seeing as WWII novels are a dime a dozen)

Most of this book takes place in a forest. There is no espionage or grand escape from occupied Germany.

It is just the daily grind of Jews surviving in the forest.


I’ll insert here the inspiration for this story. The forests around Poland are vast and many people fled to them to hide and wait out the Nazis. One particular group grew quite large— 1200 strong— led by the Bielski brothers. It was basically a settlement in the Nalibocka wilderness that largely survived the war and attempting many missions to thwart the Germans.

[Their story is depicted in the 2008 movie Defiance that is streaming on Netflix right now and appears to have good ratings. I plan to watch.]

Though The Forest of Vanishing Stars is about a fictional group (not the Bielskis) their experiences would be similar.


Yona is our protagonist. Stolen from her home in Berlin at the age of 2 by an elderly woman, Jerusza, she grew up in the forest. Jerusza claimed she was rescuing Yona. She made it her mission to teach Yona all the things: reading, math, science, history, self-defense… but most importantly— how to survive in the wilderness.

When Jerusza dies and Yona unexpectedly encounters a Jewish refugee in the forest, Yona goes against the principle of isolation Jerusza drilled into her and, compelled by compassion, decides to offer them her assistance.

This is the story of how Yona helps a growing group of Jewish escapees survive years in the Nalibocka Forest, and develops a romantic relationship with one of them.



However, it is not a story void of danger, violence, and heart-wrenching loss. One example of what a Nazi did to a woman’s baby is seared into my brain. I don’t think we can ever read a WWII novel without feeling the immense cruelty, hardship, and losses suffered.

Harmel included this shocking statistic in the informational author’s note at the end: More than 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland— the highest percentage of Jews anywhere in Europe. Between 2.8 and 3 million Polish Jews were murdered during the war, amounting to between 84% and 91% of the entire Jewish population of Poland. I can’t get over this devastation.

I read Where I End at the same time as this book, and this quote below speaks to such tragedy:

“Sin makes no sense. To explain and come to an understanding of sin is to justify it, to reconcile what can never be reconciled. Sin is illogical, irrational, impossible, absurd by creational categories. It is humanity unhinged, humankind decisively breaking from the One who gave them life, the One who has only ever sought to bless His created with every good gift. And we are deep in it. The darkness, the sadness, and wickedness is felt from without and within.”


To change gears—I am not one for wilderness survival stories. I read My Side of the Mountain in grade school and kinda feel like I got all the distressing wilderness hypotheticals, skinning rabbits, hollowed trees, and berry-foraging that I need. So I thought this story would be a bit boring for me.

But while the pace is indeed slow, I still found it to be a captivating story!

I think knowing it is based on real experiences during real events, I don’t view it as a distressing hypothetical but both an act of sharing in their grief and witnessing their triumph. For, as we read, to survive is the best kind of revenge.


I don’t have much to critique of this book, just these bits: Harmel incorporating the slight supernatural element of “visions” and “premonitions” of approaching danger didn’t do much for me. Jerusza predicted the years of both of their deaths—what am I supposed to do with that? I don’t know how I was supposed to feel about Jerusza—Yona didn’t either. Was she good or bad? Or just odd? I just feel like the premonitions take away from the characters and diminish their other qualities. But at the same time, I can recognize its place in the story; I just didn’t really like that part.

The other bit came in the author’s note when Harmel relates some of her conversation with an elderly Aron Bielski to us. She had asked him what message he would like to share with the world today and it began “Be nice if at all possible…” Harmel emphasizes this part suggesting if we all did this every day we could be the change in the world. It’s a nice sentiment and I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt anything, but I don’t think this is the true change we need to see in the world.

Aron does mention that there is too much hate, and that is closer to the target, in my opinion. ‘Being nice’ is artificial and disingenuous if we still hold contempt for people or people groups in our hearts— no ‘intersection’ gets a pass. We need to start seeing every person as an image-bearer of God. A created being by the Creator. Failure to recognize this leads to contempt which leads to every kind of evil. Jen Wilkin talks about this in her book Ten Words to Live By. This bit doesn’t affect the quality of this book at all, but was a relevant message the author gave in the end that I wanted to counter here.


I did think it was interesting how much Harmel included of the people questioning God and displaying their faith even in the midst of such tragedy.

Yona questions: “Was faith futile in times like these? Where was God in all of this, in this world where people starved to death or perished at the hands of cruel and heartless men? Where was God when neighbors turned against each other?”

We can’t help but ask ‘Where is God?’ when we encounter such evil. And we don’t always get the answers we want. Evil doesn’t make sense. But we do have this answer: God was there. He doesn’t always share the why’s with us, but he promises his presence, his love, his peace. However hard it is to grasp sometimes.


The Forest of Vanishing Stars, in beautiful title, is both literal and metaphorical. The tiny beacons of light high in the sky shadowed by the towering trees of the forest. And the light of the men, women, and children, branded with stars and forced to flee. The struggle of darkness and light.

I recently read this verse and thought it fitting.

“Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.”
Isaiah 40:26

The tragedy was real. The answers are scarce. But each vanishing star was created, named, and not forgotten. The sovereign, loving Lord is in control and he sees and he has the final word.



Stupid sidenote: This book cover confuses me. The red coat seems more significant here than it did in the book. And there were no relevant planes… I would have liked to see a cover with a more ominous forest on it. Just sayin.

**Received and ARC via NetGalley**

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of THE FOREST OF VANISHING STARS by Kristin Harmel.

An old lady steals a baby from parents who are new members of the Nazi party in Berlin. The baby grows up in the forest with the old lady, learning several languages and learning to read books. Baby Inge becomes Yona, who learns how to live in the forest. After the old lady dies, Yona continues to live in the forest and she encounters a Jewish family who barely escaped the Nazi Germans who were going to kill them.

This novel reminded me a bit of Grimm's tales with the historical background of German occupied lands during the Second World War.


Wonderful writing. Very viivid descriptions. Not for the faint hearted. This story is heart wrenching.

Content warning: Killings of babies, Killings of children, Graphic descriptions of how the Nazis kill people

I'm 54% of the way through this book and I just can't continue. The Forest of Vanishing Stars sounded super intriguing. I was excited to read a WW2 era historical fiction novel featuring a different story than I'm used to. Unfortunately, I just cannot get into this book. The first part was very weird . . . the whole Jerusza stealing the child (Yona) away because of a feeling? Just strange. Then the book was just boring. And way to religious-faith based for me to enjoy.
I also felt no connection to any of the characters. Yona is a fine protagonist, I just don't connect to her or really even care about her. I want to care about her, but it's just not there.
I hate not finishing books, but unfortunately I have to. There's just too much to read to keep trudging through a book I'm not enjoying.

3.5*
Once again Harmel returns to the era of WWII. In this book her main character Yona has a most unusual upbringing. She is stolen from her family in Berlin and raised in the woods of Poland. She has no contact with the outside world except for Jerusza, the elderly woman who kidnapped her. Yona is trained by the octogenarian to survive in the forest. Not only does she learn about living with nature, but she learns multiple languages, learns about the Jewish faith, becomes an avid reader and can even kill a man with just her hands. Jeusza has had a premonition that Yona will need these skills and instills in her an instinct to survive, along with a wariness of others.

Once you get past Yona’s upbringing, the story moves along more steadily. Yona is now a young woman who has buried Jerusza and is continuing to survive with the methods drilled into her. The forest is her only home and she is surprised to find some escapees from a Jewish ghetto hiding in the woods. These forest interlopers are not prepared for living in the wild, nor are they cognizant of the danger they are in, with German soldiers swarming the countryside. Yona puts her training to use and helps them, and the only way to survive is to constantly move and erase any sign of habitation. The big test is the long winter and the need to store up food and supplies.

Harmel’s intent in writing the book was to honor the brave Jewish refugees who were forced to live in the woods during the war. The survival tactics included are impressive and were carefully researched. One thing that rings loud and clear was the survivor’s guilt that so many faced as loved ones were slaughtered.

The characters are nicely drawn, showing a diversity of abilities, backgrounds and attitudes. There’s an almost magical element in the prescience that both Jeruska and Yona have; they sense things and have preternatural-like abilities. The skills instilled in the young woman are crucial to the survival of the Jewish people she helps.

There’s a great deal to like here in regard to the author’s purpose and the rescuing of the refugees but the strange and somewhat implausible beginning does take a little away from the overall success of the novel.

An eighty two year old woman kidnaps a two year old baby girl from her wealthy German parents in 1922. Years pass and she raises the child she calls Yona in the forests of Eastern Europe while teaching her how to survive in the wilderness. As years go by the older woman finally dies leaving Yona alone. In 1941 , Yona runs across a group of Jewish refugees. Knowing nothing of the war devastating Europe, she tries to help the group. They come to depend on her and more Jews begin to filter into the forest, she is compelled to share her knowledge. This is a compelling story and please read Harmel’s notes at the end of her novel. It is a compelling read and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Kristin Harmel for the arc.

I put this in my DNF log for now. I just couldn't get into it. The writing is great, just did not hold my interest. I hope to go back at a later time to give it another try.

4.5 - I had taken a bit of a break from WW2 historical fiction after reading so much of it in the past few years. The Forest of Vanishing Stars was the first of this genre in some time. I think the break did me well as I enjoyed this immensely while it ripped my heart out. There are definitely some parts that I had trouble believing could be true but other than that it was fantastic. I loved Yona and was cheering for her the entire time.

In 1922, Jerusza, an old woman, kidnaps 2-year-old Inge Jüttner from home in Berlin. The woman is a Jewish mystic and believes she must rescue the child and prepare her for a higher purpose. The girl, now named Yona, is raised by Jerusza in a large, dense forest in Poland. Jerusza provides a thorough education for Yona, which includes teaching her many languages, religion and survivals skills. In 1942, as Jerusza is dying, she reveals the names of Yona’s parents and her true identity. Now alone, Yona not only has to survive but is shocked to learn that outside the forest she was raised in, madness has taken place. Nazis have overtaken Poland and Jews are being murdered.

The book starts off in a fantastical manner, which paves the way for a very touching story. The Forest of Vanishing Stars was inspired by the brave partisan fighters who hid large numbers of Jewish refugees in the Nalibocka (now Naliboki) Forest. In this fictional story, Yona helps a small group hide in the forest against incredible odds. Comprised of people who have experienced unimaginable loss, they form a family-like bond as they work to survive. Yona, who must deal with the guilt of her true identity, is eventually confronted by her past.

Author Kristen Harmel shines a light on acts of courage and heroism during World War II in an unlikely place – deep in the forest. The true-life partisan group, led by the Bielski Brothers, is featured in the book and served as inspiration. (The 2008 film Defiance, starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, tells their story.)

When I was in high school I had to write a term paper. I chose to write it on Adolf Hitler. I had just finished a class on the Holocaust and was still dumbfounded by the cruelty and loss of life. In my mind I saw a crazed man controlling the minds of weak people and putting all Jewish people in concentration camps and killing them. It seemed black and white. As I grew older I knew that it wasn't this simple and that lives were affected all around the world and throughout history. I learned the parts that different people in Hitler's army played. I learned that he was the tip of a very black evil iceberg. And I realized how the world changed after that time. Until I read The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel I was uneducated about the parts of the whole. It wasn't simply Hitler,Jews, gas chambers. While in college I was taught about small bands of people that had escaped into the forest during the war. But there was not much elaboration on it because possibly there wasn't that much knowledge about them. The Forest of the Vanishing Stars opened my eyes to an entire entirely different concept of the war. Jewish people just didn't give up and bow their heads and meekly go into those gas chambers. Groups of people did escape the ghettos and manage to live in the forest. Yona is a fictional character but she brings together the stories of how these incredibly brave and determined people survived. Even though there was a constant terror hanging over them, these Jewish people managed to survive unimaginable conditions. Forest of the Vanishing Stars should be required reading for everyone, including high school history classes. Textbooks don't and probably can't tell the entire story. This is a must-read for everyone one. Kristin Harmel has written an incredible story.
I voluntarily received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars
June 17, 2021

Book Review
The Forest of Vanishing Stars

reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads



A beautiful tale of coming of age in war-torn 1941 Europe, unfortunately inspired by real life events of Jewish refugees in Nazi occupied Poland. Many stories of the holocaust exist, but few are as evocative, and heart wrenching, and pertain to the Jews of Poland.

During the initial reign of Nazi Germany, ten percent of the population of Poland was comprised of Jews, firmly entrenched and living harmoniously with the local citizenry. It is estimated that more than 3.3 million Jews lived in Poland at that time, representing the largest contingency in Europe. Roughly 85 to 90 percent were annihilated by the Nazis and their collaborators. This is their story of survival in the unforgiving forests of Poland, aided by a fictionalized savior, Yona (meaning “dove” in Hebrew). It is a story of emerging trust, community, hope, and love in the face of overwhelming darkness and evil.

Our heroine was born with the name “Inge” in Berlin, Germany, the product of power-hungry Siegried Juttner and his aloof wife, Alwine. Siegfried was one of the earliest to join the National Socialist German Worker’s Party after watching Adolf Hitler’s rousing speech. Hitler’s party was slowly but inexorably gaining traction in this war-shattered country. Inge was born with a dove-shaped birthmark on the inside of her left wrist. On the eve of her second birthday Inge was taken from her crib by Jerusza. At age eighty-two, Jerusza was the last of her bloodline that had stretched for centuries. She had already lived twice as long as the usual German.

She considered herself Jewish, as passed down by her maternal blood.

Jerusza had never wanted a child—the child re-named “Yona” was not allowed to call her “mother;” she was her teacher and not mother. Yona’s lessons were far reaching. She had been born for the sake of “repairing the world.” She was taught not only the ways of surviving a forest in all seasons, the wonders of food gathering, hunting, and natural healing herbs, sheltering, but also given an education rivaling those in university, She was fluent in multiple languages and knew the holy works of most religions and not only the Torah and Talmud. She was bright, sensitive, and intuitive and knew all the mysteries of the forest and survival, but remained naive to the outside world.

In the summer of 1941, as the bombing of Poland raged, Jerusza died at age 102 as she predicted. Yona was left alone to survive in the wilderness of forest and swamp after eighteen years of Jerusza’s teaching and training. Yona had been taught a combination of Jewish tradition and Slavic witchcraft, along with an education of forest survival, but lacking in knowledge of the outside world.

Yona’s naivety of the outside world is quickly shattered as she encounters groups of Jewish refugees fleeing the ghettoes and Nazi terror. She is astounded and cannot comprehend the atrocities of the Nazi hordes. The thought of humans killing other humans is unfathomable to her. The story is repeated with little variation. The Germans storm into the small towns and villages. All the Jews are moved into ghettoes, in horrible conditions with only a little bread to eat. They are randomly murdered, seemingly killed for sport. The people quickly learn their lives hold no value and will die at the whim of the Nazis. They are demeaned, humiliated, and kept in squalor. They continue to be randomly murdered or shipped to concentration camps. Having nothing to lose, some escape to the adjacent forests with little in the way of skills to survive.

They are not versed in the ways of safe food gathering, sheltering and survival for the inevitable coming winter.

Kristin Harmel proves to be a masterful storyteller, as she weaves a heart wrenching and harrowing tale of survival, courage and fortitude in the darkest of days, facing insurmountable terror, the coming together of community, trust, friendship and at times love. Utilizing rich characterization skills, the mosaic of community and survival is woven into the fabric of hope and the growth and evolution of Yona’s character, as she emotionally evolves in the face of betrayal. The ultimate lesson: let’s not forget the past, least we repeat it. Let us not forget to be kind to our fellow man. This novel will deservedly become the most sought-after novel by book clubs in July.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for proving an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review. I certainly intend on searching out Harmel’s other historical suspense novels.

So many books about the treatment of Jewish people during World War II have left me feeling sad, shocked and disgusted. While those feelings certainly are warranted considering the horrors of the time, this story crafted by the literary genius, Kristin Harmel, left me feeling hopeful, which is a rare feeling considering the seriousness of the subject matter. Harmel has taken a horrible moment in history and managed to provide a story of bravery, forgiveness, love, devotion and the importance of God in times of extreme difficulties. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this fabulous read. This book is one you do not want to miss.

Another great historical fiction from Kristin Harmel! This one set in the woods outside villages in Eastern Europe does have some elements of Where the Crawdad's sing in its reverence for nature. While that aspect was enjoyable what really makes this story sing is Harmel's ability to get you to care about the characters and how adeptly she brings history to life. I'd tired of WWII novels but Harmel's gift of shining a light on aspects of life in WWII where little is known had me eagerly returning to this book ready to see what happened next. Another totally involving read and honestly I enjoyed this one better than The Book of Lost Names.

Just when I thought that Kristin Harmel couldn't do it again, she did. I absolutely LOVED this book! The characters, the storyline, the descriptions, everything was phenomenal. It was fascinating, breathtaking, and so well researched that I felt like I was part of the book. This will be the book of the summer!

Kristen Harmel’s Forest of Vanishing Stars was an awesome read and foray into historical fiction. I finished it within a week and couldn’t keep it down. I can’t recommend this book enough because it not only presents its readers with a strong female character through the protagonist, Yona, but the author refers to significant historical events that led many persecuted to seek refuge in the forest. I have been on a serious novel binge! I started this after A Burning and loved both of them! 🙂

Usually, being a connoisseur of memoirs and non-fiction, I love historical fiction because it allows readers to engage with the blurred lines between fiction and historical events. I appreciated Harmel’s notes at the end of the novel when she specifically explained all the events that had inspired parts of her novel. This is an amazing novel for students to learn about survival during the Holocaust. I can’t recommend this novel enough!

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reading copy of this novel so I could provide a honest review in return!

Although I got the approval for this book a while ago, I waited to read it. It begins almost like a fairy tale. A little child is snatched by an old crone and becomes a wood nymph. I liked Yona and all her knowledge about how to survive in the forest. The author provides many twists to the story that made me read feverishly. The emotions are powerful in the book. At times I wanted to set it aside, but couldn’t. Harmel costumes the essence of Jews hiding in the woods in all its myriad of emotions. Don’t hide from this book, read it, absorb it, and embrace its message.