Fascination and Drama in The Resistance Between Us

Published September 25, 2017, by Elizabeth Hurd

OK Art Scene and Hurd in The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

okartsceneandhurd.com

The Resistance Between Us is the first book in a planned trilogy by Oklahoma author Phyllis Kimmel Libby. The trilogy name is Ingrid's Wars.

Libby's book is a tale of woe and wonder, darkness and daintiness, resistance and redemption, hope and horror. The backdrop is Occupied France during the second World War. Written in first person, The Resistance Between Us is rife with individual drama and insights.

Protagonist Ingrid Fellner, 41, was born in the year 1900. She is a recent widow, caring for her daughter, Marta, who was disabled in the skiing accident that killed Ingrid's husband, Emil. Marta requires extensive physical therapy. This preoccupation, fueled by her enormous love for her child, prevents Ingrid from wallowing in grief. They live in France, near the Swiss border, where the Doubs River winds through the farming Franche-Comte countryside.

Ingrid Holds Herself Aloof

The Nazis arrive, bringing with them their singleminded brutality. Ingrid holds herself aloof, yet is inexorably drawn into the drama as the bodies of a young Jewish couple wash up on her riverbank.

Deciding to risk the sparse security she and her daughter have, Ingrid assists the French Resistance, hiding Jews and political refugees in her basement—even as three Gestapo officers demand entertainment upstairs—threatening Ingrid's reputation, security, family and life.

Seeing all this through Ingrid's perspective makes the conflicts and compromises even more compelling. She is trapped in a web woven by others.

Libby, a new author, provides an in-depth examination of what it takes to survive when every choice is fraught with potentially fatal consequences. It's all the more interesting because Ingrid is simultaneously searching for her own identity after her husband's death.

While everyone knows how World War II ended, The Resistance Between Us is the story of one woman's journey into the unknown.

Hard to put down and impossible to predict, Ingrid's Wars are just beginning.

copyright September 2017, E. Hurd; all rights reserved