Lovely Green Eyes: A Novel

📘 About This Book

Fifteen-year-old Hanka Kaudersov has ginger hair and clear, green eyes. When her family is deported to Auschwitz, her mother, father and younger brother are sent to the gas chamber. By a twist of fate, Hanka is faced with a simple alternative: follow her family, or work in an SS brothel behind the eastern front. She chooses to live, her Aryan looks allowing her to disguise the fact that she is Jewish. As the German army retreats from the Russian front, Hanka battles cold, hunger, fear, and shame, sustained by her hatred for the men she entertains, her friendship with the mysterious Estelle, and her fierce, burning desire for life. Lovely Green Eyes explores the compromises and sacrifices that an individual may make in order to survive, the way a woman can retain her identity in the face of appalling trauma, and the value of human life itself. This is a remarkable novel, which soars beyond nightmare, leaving the reader with a transcendent sense of hope. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

📖 Summary

Lovely Green Eyes by Arnost Lustig, published in 2011 across 260 pages, is a harrowing work of fiction that delves into the darkest recesses of human history and the ultimate extremities of survival. The narrative centers on Hanka Kaudersov, a fifteen-year-old girl whose distinct physical features—ginger hair and clear, green eyes—set the stage for a tragic and agonizing journey. When Hanka and her family are deported to Auschwitz, the brutal realities of the Holocaust immediately shatter her youth. In a cruel twist of fate, her mother, father, and younger brother are systematically sent to the gas chamber, leaving Hanka completely alone and facing an unimaginable choice. She is given a grim alternative: follow her family to death, or work in an SS brothel situated behind the eastern front. Driven by a fierce, burning desire for life, Hanka chooses to live, utilizing her Aryan looks to successfully disguise the fact that she is Jewish. As the German army begins its desperate retreat from the Russian front, Hanka is thrust into a nightmare landscape where she must battle unrelenting cold, gnawing hunger, paralyzing fear, and profound shame. Yet, amidst the degradation and horrors she faces, she is sustained by several vital forces. Her hatred for the men she is forced to entertain becomes a protective armor, preserving her internal defiance. Furthermore, a deep friendship with the mysterious Estelle provides a crucial anchor of human connection and solidarity in a world devoid of compassion. Lovely Green Eyes deeply explores the profound compromises, moral dilemmas, and painful sacrifices that an individual may be forced to make simply in order to survive. Through Hanka's harrowing experiences, the novel examines how a young woman can strive to retain her core identity, dignity, and humanity even when confronted by total annihilation and systemic cruelty. Lustig's writing confronts the reader with uncomfortable truths about human nature, endurance, and the heavy price of staying alive when all around you is consumed by destruction. It is a striking testament to the resilience of the human spirit, capturing both the ugliness of war and the desperate, unyielding hope of a teenage girl determined against all odds to see tomorrow.

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