The Girl in the Haystack

by Bryon MacWilliams

Hours after Germany invades the Soviet Union in 1941, nationalists in a small Ukrainian town carry out a pogrom against local Jews, killing dozens and leaving others for dead. One survivor is a seven-year-old girl. Lyuba is forced from her home into a Nazi ghetto, then spirited away, into hiding, for nearly two years -- on a farm, in haystacks.

Under the hay Lyuba discovers the will to persevere, to survive. Even as her eyes open to the moral failings of her Ukrainian neighbors, she takes heart in the kindness of the Ukrainian farmer who is hiding her at great risk to himself and his family. She's encouraged, too, by thoughts of reunion with her older sister, Hanna, who is in hiding in town. But it's her uncommon bond with the farmer's dog, Brisko, that helps Lyuba through her greatest moments of peril, and despair.

For Lyuba the dog becomes not just a guardian, but a guardian angel.

The real Lyuba -- now living under a different name in the United States -- tells her own story in "The Girl in the Haystack," weaving a vivid, suspenseful narrative that addresses simply the complex matters of culture and ethnicity, trust and distrust, courage and cowardice. It is a story that has waited more than seventy years to be told.

Genres: Holocaust, Survival

80 pages, Paperback

Published March 20, 2019

About the author

Bryon MacWilliams won awards for his reporting at U.S. daily newspapers before moving to Moscow, where he was based for nearly twelve years as a foreign correspondent reporting from the territories of the former Soviet Union. His journalism, essays, poetry, and literary translations have appeared in publications big and small, including: "The New York Times," "The Chronicle of Higher Education," "The Philadelphia Inquirer," "The Literary Review," "B O D Y," "Solstice," "Nature," and "Science."

Reviews

[Penny Cipolone]

What a beautiful book. This is a holocaust story told from the viewpoint of a 7 year old girl and a dog. Both were real, and the little girl grew up to tell this story to the author. The dog was real too but since we can't actually know his thoughts, the author cleverly uses the dog to comment on what was going on that the little girl and her parents, literally hidden in a haystack for three years, couldn't see. This is a perfect book for pre-teens studying the Holocaust. It is a good lead in to "The Diary of Ann Frank" which they may read in middle school or high school. I highly recommend this to anyone. The Holocaust is not exactly enjoyable reading, but this book punches you in the gut about what happened in the past -- a past we surely do not want to repeat.

[Mia Angelucci]

I would give this book more than 5 stars if I could! Once I started reading it, I could not put it down until I finished. MacWilliams communicates this true, historical, and tragically powerful story with such grace, interweaving elements of the human (and canine) spirit, leaving the reader in awe of Laura, her parents, and Pavlo, and also hopeful from some of the fragments of human kindness that prevailed. This is a must read for people of all ages. My friends who shared it with their children said that it initiated meaningful teachable moments and very profound conversations - even with children as young as 7 years.

[Leslie]

A fascinating true story.