The Opera Sisters by Marianne Monson

 Two women, Ida and Louise Cook work as secretaries on a minimum wage in England in 1929.  One day, on a whim, Louise buys a phonograph with some records of opera. They love the music and start saving money to attend a live opera. Soon they are hooked and start saving to travel to Vienna to see the most famous musicians of their time.  The ardency of their appreciation comes to the attention of some of the performers, and they get to meet some of the greats. Then Hitler starts to move against other countries.  On one of the Cook's trips to Austria, one of their opera friends asks them if they will smuggle out some valuables and hold them for them in England.  The friends are Jewish and are trying to get out of Austria but are afraid all of their belongings will be seized. The sisters agree to help and that is the beginning of their efforts to help dozens of German Jews escape Germany and Austria before and during the Nazi occupation. Their efforts come to a halt when Hitler starts bombing London, but each finds other ways to serve. 

This is a great fictionalized account based on a true story.  In the end the two women end up helping 29 families and individuals escape from occupied territories. The story is interesting and the woman are portrayed very sympathetically.  They grow in confidence in their efforts, while at the same time being worn down emotionally by all they cannot save. The writing is good and their are some really lovely descriptions of both the beauty of Germany and Austria, and the horrors of war.  The only fault is that the book is paced a little bit slowly and could have used some editing.  There are chapters that recount important events of the war without reference to Ida and Louise.  I think the author should have assumed the reader knew what happened, for example, at Dunkirk. If the author had left out those historical chapters,(there were maybe eight or ten of them) the book would have been better paced and easier to get through. Still, it is a really good book that I recommend to people who like WWII fiction and nonfiction. (2022, 352 p.)