A solid WWII historical fiction debut by a new Canadian author that focused on Poland during the war and featured a part of history I didn't know much about. Recommended for fans of authors like Pam Jenoff. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

A fresh take on the dual timeline with parallel storytelling of a WWII story. The way the truth of the more mysterious characters is slowly eked out throughout the timelines is very well done. I had the guttural feeling that we needed to see some characters again but was genuinely surprised when and where they popped up again. I did find the names a little difficult follow at times. Even considering the strict use of aliases in the middle of the story, there was a moment in chapter one where I had to go back to double check the protagonists name and at least three pet names or name variations. It is thought provoking and emotional.

Are you a historical fiction fan on the lookout for a take on WWII that’s different from what you’ve read before (for instance, something NOT set in France or London)? Are you less interested in “feisty” heroines than ones more aptly described as “fearless”? If this sounds like you, you’re in luck, because Kath Jonathan’s The Resistance Painter is out today and features one of the most courageous female protagonists I’ve ever encountered.

This dual timeline story of Irina, a teenage girl who starts the Occupation as a Girl Scout and ends it as a war hero, and her sculptor granddaughter Jo, who lives with her grandmother under the long shadow of that history, is unlike any WWII hist fic I’ve read before. I love when a work of fiction teaches me something new, and Kath’s extensive research shows in how vividly war-time Warsaw is brought to life on the page. The action that takes place underground is especially intense—at times I felt almost claustrophobic as our resistance fighter heroine carried out missions in the sewer tunnels under the city, and had to remind myself it was just a book. And then I reminded myself that for some, it wasn’t fiction.

It’s a lot to take in. The fact that real people really did things just like this. At one point in The Resistance Painter, Irina asks another if the madness will ever end, and is told that of course it will, “It always does. The problem is, it starts again.” That, too, is a lot to take in, and very real.

It’s also timely. It’s hard to read the Resistance Painter and not think about current events and the frog-in-a-pot way it’s possible to watch the advance of evil but not feel in any way equipped to do something tangible about it. Or the way you can be put in the impossible position of watching someone you care about embrace an ideology you can’t reconcile with the person you thought you knew.

I finished this one weeks ago and am still thinking about it.

This is an incredibly moving, sad but beautiful story. It’s exactly the kind of book I thought I’d be getting, especially when you know going in that it focuses on the Second World War. It was a longer book, and there was a lot of information packed into those 450 pages, but I think it needed to be that length to get through the full story. Even though it was set during a horrific time in human history, Jonathan was also able to bring out some humour from the characters, to show that they were still able to find little joys in the scary place they were in.
As someone who has lived in Toronto for a significant time in my life, I also loved all of the references to Toronto locations throughout the Jo storyline.

Thank you Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the advance copy of The Resistance Painter. I will post this on Goodreads and Linkedln as well.

This book will speak to many. I think it was shown with books like The Tatooist of Auschwitz’ that people want the story of those that lived through the Holocaust, whether real history or historical fiction.
The story of Girl Guides and Scouts doing their part in Poland is very interesting.
The use of the sewer system is also really interesting.

I especially like that the focus of Girl Guides, showing the desire of girls and women to do their part to fight back.
However…..yes, there is a however, the book was “meh” for me. Meaning, it was readable and the facts and history was interesting. However, I really took my time to read this, I was not ever excited to open this book.
I believe there are readers who will really enjoy, this, I’m just ok with it.

4.25 stars!

As a big historical fiction reader I end up reading a lot of WWII books. So its always nice to get a change of local for the setting. We get that with The Resistance Painter with Jonathan set in Poland. Alternating with a present day timeline in Toronto. While I love a dual timeline I definitely enjoyed the past timeline more. The 2010 sections felt like they could have been a bit more fleshed out. But this was all balanced out by the past and such strong characters.

A story that weaves together the past and present, it follows Josephine as she discovers her grandmother Irena's heartbreaking past in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II and reveals a long-hidden secret.

Josephine learns of Irena's involvement in the resistance, helping people escape through the sewer tunnels. Later, Irena is captured and sent to a concentration camp. But the biggest surprise comes when Josephine learns of the existence of her grandmother's sister, whom she did not know about.

Every time I read a book about war, I feel great admiration for people fighting the enemy. And this time, Irena, along with other young people, showed the world how strong the fight for freedom of the homeland is.

A well-woven historical fiction about the cruelty of war, but also about courage, survival and sacrifice.

Poland was gripped with despair and desperation during the Nazi occupation during World War II. Life grew from living to survival. People, especially Jews, were heavily cloaked with constant threat of persecution, humiliation, torture and death. Germans devised so many layers of torment which caused confusion and terrible fear. But the fate of Ravensbrück prisoners meted out by pure evil is even more impossible to contemplate.

One extended Warsaw family lived in a four-buulding home. Papa had died before the war and Mama worked for the Education Ministry. Though sisters Irena, an artist, and Lotka, a specialist nurse, felt helpless, they became a crucial cog in the Resistance by smuggling others through the dangerous and fetid sewer system. The vivid descriptions took me there immediately. All my senses were involved there and in the Ravensbrück scenes.

In Toronto in 2011, sculptor Jo discovers connections to her grandmother, Irena. A client of hers has a secret past.
I like dual timeline stories and was especially invested I the war timeline.

The author has a personal link to this terrible time in history through her partner's Polish family. It is important to tell these stories and I am glad she felt compelled to share a bit of it. Bravery and courage shown by so many is astounding. Ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC to review.

In this dual timeline novel, we meet Jo, an artist living in Toronto and looking after her Polish grandmother, Irena, in 2011. We also meet Irena in Warsaw during the Second World War. As Jo begins work on a commissioned sculpture for a client, his connection to her grandmother’s past brings up many questions about Irena’s time in the Home Army after the Nazis invaded Poland. What horrors did Irena face, and what secrets is she still keeping about the war?

While I appreciated learning about the history of Warsaw’s experience during WWII, this novel felt much too long. Even with the action of the war and Irena’s bravery in the face of risky missions, it dragged at several points. Unfortunately, this novel felt like so many other historical fiction novels that use dual timelines. As heartbreaking as the story is, I don’t think this book brings anything unique to the genre, and the ending lacked resolution for some of the characters.

In the legacy of freedom fighters like Harriet Tubman, The Resistance Painter by Kath Jonathan is an exceptionally moving story about the little known history of the Polish resitance during WWII.


This dual narrative and timeline captures the haunting tale of a grandmother’s legacy as a young woman and resistance figther, who helps strangers escape while simultaneously losing the people she loves. As the war comes to an end, her raw talent as a painter saves her from the fate of so many others. Sharing her grandmother’s artistic talent, the granddaughter unintentionally unlocks a past that threatens to unravel a lifetime of buried memories.


I enjoyed the dual POV, especially Irena's (the grandmother). I knew nothing about the Home Army in German occupied Poland and felt transported and emotionally invited into Irena’s incredible journey as she overcame the bitter and horrifying challenges brought on by war. Every chapter dedicated to her story felt like an intimate bts of a movement.


I also really enjoyed Jo’s timeline, Irena’s granddaughter. Her dedication to her grandmother while managing her own grief and the desire to know more about her past - the devastating consequences included - was so relatable. Her and her grandmother smoking cigarettes and sipping on liquor though? I just loved those shared, quiet moments between them.


There were a lot of really dark and frightening moments in this novel, so I really appreciated how the story was fully resolved… similar to Irena’s life, hope in the face of heartbreak.


This book is for those interested in women led activism under fascism and the role of art in preserving culture.


Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the ARC

The Resistance Painter is such a powerful story. Written in a dual timeline from WWII during the Nazi occupation of Poland and 2010 Canada. It tells the story of a young Irena, a Resistance Fighter who transfers people through the Polish sewer systems to get them to safety and the current time where her granddaughter Jo is working on a grave sculpture and soon becomes intrigued by possible connections to her grandmother's time during the war.

This story is filled with so much heartache and grief. Add into this that so many people experienced this war and it hits you in the most heartbreaking way. Such a well written book giving us just a tiny glimpse at the atrocities these people went through. How some survived and lived to share their stories while so many others brutally lost their lives.

**Received ARC through NetGalley. Voluntarily reviewed**

Rating - 4/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Date Read - January 19, 2025
Publication Date - March 25, 2025

*I received an ARC of this book for free in exchange for an honest review* - Thank you @kathjonathanauthor and @simonschusterca!

The Resistance Painter starts with action right away, which was great because I love being thrown into a story. There are past and present alternating timelines and POVs, and I liked that they were well marked, so I never felt lost or confused. My favourite parts happened during the past timeline with Irena because I felt more connected to her than Jo. However, the present was still interesting to read because of the mystery and suspense! A cool extra in this book is the inclusion of book club questions at the end. WW2 is my favourite time period to read about in historical fiction books and I am extra happy to support a fellow Canadian! It was fun being able to recognize landmarks. Also, this cover is gorgeous and caught my eye right away (it looks amazing on my bookshelf and will be a lovely addition to yours, too)!

If you like WW2 historical fiction, you should try The Resistance Painter!

Get excited to read The Resistance Painter, available March 25! 🎉

*Please check trigger warnings*

As a big historical fiction reader I end up reading a lot of WWII books. So its always nice to get a change of local for the setting. We get that with The Resistance Painter with Jonathan set in Poland. Alternating with a present day timeline in Toronto. While I love a dual timeline I definitely enjoyed the past timeline more. The 2010 sections felt like they could have been a bit more fleshed out. But this was all balanced out by the past and such strong characters.

Jonathan does a great job of telling the struggles and atrocities faced but the Warsaw residents during the German occupation, while evening it out with smaller soft moments, reminding us to find the joy in the little things. Even as we have hard choices to make. I also really enjoyed learning about the existence and importance of the girl guides and scouts in Poland. I always thought they were a North American thing.

This was a heart warming and heart breaking tale and a great debut effort. I found myself connected to the story and characters and engaged in the story.

Delighted to include this title in the March edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

i read another historical fiction that has a dual timeline (one set during WWII) and a strong female protagonist. are we surprised? this is a current contender for my top book of 2025. it had twists that i didn't see coming, was extremely well written, and is so relevant to our world today (as much as i wish that weren't the case). the author based the story on her partner's mother who lived through being captured by the nazis during the warsaw uprising, was a military prisoner in a concentration camp, and was an integral part of the underground resistance group in warsaw. this is a fascinating, heartbreaking story that also manages to focus on the small moments of happiness that take place during times of tragedy. i do wish the 2010 storyline in toronto was developed a bit more, there were some conversations that i felt could have been more productive. overall i really enjoyed this and highly recommend. as the author states in the author's notes: "historical wars have repercussions that reverberate across the globe, far into the future".

cw: heavy themes

thanks to netgalley and simon & schuster canada for my advance copy of the resistance painter by kath jonathan. all opinions are my own.

The Resistance Painter tells the tale of two women separated by decades and their art.

Irena is an artist and painter and a teenager when Poland falls to Nazi Germany, determined to not go peacefully, she joins her Girl Guides troop and joins the Polish Resistance, guiding Poles through the sewers underneath Warsaw to safety. As the war progresses, the stakes get higher and everyone she loves is in danger.

Jo is Irena’s granddaughter and a sculptor in Toronto in 2010, and she is hired to sculpt a grave marker for an elderly Polish man, Stefan, who claims to have survived Poland’s occupation as a member of the Polish Resistance. When interviewing him for his sculpture, some of his stories don’t seem to add up. Jo is determined to get to the bottom of it and decode her grandmother’s wartime secrets.

Inspired by the lived experiences of the authors Mother-in-Law, this story kept me guessing until the end. This story kept me guessing until the end. I really felt Jo’s desperation to figure out how Stefan and Irena were connected and her deep love of her grandmother. Irena’s story was sad, yet she bravely defied Nazi rule and saved countless lives in the story. Well written and a strong debut!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada for the ARC on NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Written in dual timelines, during WWII and Toronto in 2010. I’ve read many historical fiction novels set during WWII but not many about the Polish Resistance. The author does a great job of weaving together two timelines.

The novel tells the story of Irena both a painter and soldier in the Polish Resistance and Jo a sculptor living in Toronto in 2010. Through Jo’s work as a grave sculptor, she learns more about her grandmother's experiences in WWII.

A riveting dual timeline story of resistance, hope, and understanding. Jo is a sculptor who shares a connection with her artist grandmother Irena. In the course of her work she uncovers a history of her grandmothers experiences in the polish resistance during World War II and finds the actions in war can be heroic and horrible, but the choices are never easy.

I really enjoy reading historical fiction because I always learn so much about past events, even horrific ones, and the courage of the people who lived through these events. This story taught be many new things. Even though it was very sad, it was inspiring to read of the resilience and bravery of so many. I was not aware of how sewers were used to help so many people escape. This was such a compelling story. I thought it was very well written. I always enjoy a dual-timeline to see how people's actions in the past affect future generations. Definitely recommend to historical fiction lovers!

A WWII story of Poland and their resistance. It is another look into WWII that I haven’t read. I enjoy reading the other sides of the war. I enjoyed reading it.