What In Life Were Wings Av Barbara Isbister

An intimate story of a young girl's incredible journey across three continents. Taken from her home in Poland, now in Western Ukraine, to a forced labour camp in the Siberian Gulag. The true story of intense suffering, struggle, family, love and uncompromising resilience.Her epic 9,000-mile journey, from Poland to the USSR, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and Europe. The journey of her life in which she turns from girl to woman. 1940.War is raging in Europe over the invasion of Poland. Whilst the world's attention is focused on Germany, the long arm of Stalin has found its way to Poland. Zofia and her family are one of many that are forcibly deported from their homes in cramped cattle wagons.Their destination is over a thousand miles away: the Labour Camps in the Siberian Gulag. Inhumane conditions: meagre rations, temperatures of -40 degrees, forced hard labour in the Siberian forests, result in needless deaths from disease, cold and starvation. Failure to complete the strict work quota, means no food.Zofia longs for her lost idyllic life: her family and golden days in the golden fields back home. Just when she is close to despair, she meets a young Russian with a smile that makes her forget the nightmare she is in. Quite unexpectedly, she finds herself falling for him.But when there is a chance to escape the Camp, Zofia faces greater challenges and the dilemma of her life. Should she follow her heart and stay in Siberia, or join the quest to return to her beloved homeland against unimaginable oppressors?What in Life Were Wings is a gripping story that will stay with the reader long after the final page has fallen.