Two Brave Women 2,000 miles and 100 years apart
Almost everyone has heard of Harriett Tubman. Unable to read and only five feet tall, Tubman escaped from slavery and founded the Underground Railroad. She paved the way for hundreds of enslaved Africans to escape to the North. She was undoubtely a true American hero, and her picture is proposed to appear on the $20 bill. Right now, Andrew Jackson is on the twenty. (I don’t do political statements on this blog. IF I did, you know what I would say!)
Several authors have written excellent biographies of Tubman. In 2019, a biopic film won rave reviews. As illiminating as these accounts of her life are, Tiya Miles has written a new book that goes beyond the facts and presents Tubman as the person behind the myth. She explores what propelled Tubman in her brave efforts by highlighting the ecology and faith of her world as well as using first hand descriptions by her contemporaries. Does Miles succeed in showing the reader a closer look into the real Harriett Tubman? Perhaps we should read it to find out.
Tiya Miles is an historian and professor, currently teaching at Harvard University. She reached recent acclaim as the author of All That She Carried, a recounting of a true story about a slave named Ashley whose mother gave her a special sack to take with her when she was sold away from her home in Charleston. That sack is in the Smithsonian Institute today. Miles was a featured speaker at the 2021 Charleston’s Literary Festival.
The other brave woman is fictional. She was created by Lisa Barr, a prolific writer of historical fiction. Barr’s recent book, Woman on Fire, is set to become a movie staring Sharon Stone. The Goddess of Warsaw: A Novel tells the story of Lena Browning, an aging Golden Age movie star. When a young producer wants to make a movie about her life, Lena must reveal that during the war she was Bina Blonski, a spy and an activist in the Warsaw Ghetto. In the present day process of reliving her past, Lena cannot help but seek to exact revenge on those who ruined her life. This book is described as being a real ‘page turner’. If you like novels about World War II and you want a quick read, this book is one to consider.
A reviewer in the Hadassah Magazine, May 2024, writes, “Part Steamy love story, part suspense tale and part revenge fantasy, Goddess is at its best when describing Lena’s past, her life before the Nazi occupation of Poland and in the ghetto. ‘We should have left Poland long before the invasion in September 1939. We knew better. But my mother insisted we stay, believed that our friends in high place would shield us.’ ” This haunting dilemma is relived throughout history.