42 pages 1 hour read

Kristin Harmel

The Forest of Vanishing Stars

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Important Quotes

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“Her feet had carried her straight to Behaimstrasse 72, to bear witness as the raven-haired Frau Juttner nursed the baby for the first time. Jerusza had seen the baby glowing, even then, a light in the darkness no one knew was coming.”


(Chapter 1, Page 4)

The first chapter of The Forest of Vanishing Stars has a mystical feel that reinforces the book’s undertones of magical realism. Along with her mismatched eyes and dove-shaped birthmark, the child Inge glows, foreshadowing the light she will bring to Jewish survivors in the darkest days of the war.

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“If one listened closely enough, nature always spilled her secrets, which of course were the secrets of God. And now, it was God who had brought Jerusza here, to a fog-cloaked Berlin street corner, where she would be responsible for changing the fate of a child, and perhaps a piece of the world, too.”


(Chapter 1, Page 9)

These two sentences lay out the themes of Yona’s story. Nature is a manifestation of God, and by obeying that divine impulse, Jerusza makes it possible for this chosen child to fulfill her world-changing destiny.

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“Have I not taught you by now that the forest takes care of its own?”


(Chapter 3, Page 27)

Jerusza and the young Yona have reached the swamp, foreshadowing a time when Yona will lead the group of Jewish survivors as they flee the Germans. Here, Jerusza emphasizes once again that the forest is a refuge and protector.