The Forest of Vanishing Stars
Yona is two years old in 1922 when the old woman Jerusza kidnaps her from a wealthy Berlin nursery and disappears into the Polish-Belarusian forests, raising her on wild plants, herbal medicine, and the names of stars. Twenty years later, in the summer of 1942, Jerusza is dead and Yona stumbles onto a small group of Jews fleeing the ghetto liquidations. She has the forest skills they need to survive a winter the Germans expect to finish them. Harmel based the book on the real Bielski partisans, who hid more than 1,200 Jews in the Belarusian forests, and spent two years interviewing survivors before writing.
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What you might want to know about The Forest of Vanishing Stars
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A young woman raised in the Polish-Belarusian forests by an herbalist guides Jewish refugees through the 1942 ghetto liquidations in this lyrical WWII bestseller.
Yes, partly. The Forest of Vanishing Stars is fictional but inspired by the real Bielski partisans, a Jewish resistance group that survived in Belarusian forests during World War II. Kristin Harmel researched the documented history extensively.
No. The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a standalone, but Kristin Harmel has written several other historical novels including The Book of Lost Names and The Paris Daughter. Each is independent.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars was written by Kristin Harmel, published in 2021 by Gallery Books.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars is 384 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Forest of Vanishing Stars takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars is a standalone novel by Kristin Harmel, not part of a series.
The Forest of Vanishing Stars is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
