Snow Moon Rising

Mischka Gallo and her Roma family travel through Poland and Germany. She learned early to ignore the insults of those who call her people “Gypsies.” Pauline “Pippi” Stanek has lived a settled life in a small German border town. In her mid-teens, she meets Mischka through her brother, Emil Stanek, a World War I soldier who went AWOL and was adopted by Mischka’s troupe. Mischka and Pippi become fast friends . . . but then WWII begins, “undesirables” are sent to labor camps, and the Nazis will not stop until they get every Gypsy, Jew, dissident, and homosexual.

On the run and separated from her family, Mischka can hardly comprehend the obstacles that face her. When she is captured, she must use all her wits just to stay alive. Can Mischka survive through the hell of the war in Europe and find her family?

In a world beset by war, two women on either side of the conflagration breach the divide—and save one another. Snow Moon Rising is a stunning novel of two women’s enduring love and friendship across family, clan, and cultural barriers. It’s a story of desperation and honor, hope and fear at a time when the world was split into a million pieces.