Blog
The Seven Year Dress – Devastation & Resilience
By Carol / August 9, 2016 /
Today, I introduce you to Paulette Mahurin and her new WWII-era novel, The Seven Year Dress.
The Seven Year Dress covers one of the darkest times in human history from the perspective of one Jewish woman who lived to tell her story.
The narrative tells how teenager, Helen Stein, and her family were torn apart as Hitler put in motion his plan to eliminate the Jews and other undesirables. With the help of one of those “undesirables,” a German boy who was also homosexual, Helen and her brother went into hiding for several years. Ultimately, they were discovered and Helen was interred in Auschwitz.
It was in that death camp that Helen suffered persecution, torture, and devastation at the hands of the Nazis. It was also in the death camp that she encountered compassion, selfless acts of kindness, and friendship. Ultimately, this is a story of the resilience of the human spirit.
The atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews aren’t easy to read about, but the story Mahurin tells in The Seven Year Dress is too important to miss. Click to read my review.
Telling stories for a purpose
Mahurin has written a number of books, most of them historical fiction. Her passion for telling stories supports another of her passions. The profits from all her books go to help rescue dogs from kill shelters. She tells me that so far this year, sales of her books have helped rescue 79 dogs.
More about Paulette Mahurin:
Paulette Mahurin lives with her husband Terry and two dogs, Max and Bella, in Ventura County, California. She grew up in West Los Angeles and attended UCLA, where she received a Master’s Degree in Science.
While in college, she won awards and published her short-stories. One of these stories, Something Wonderful, was based on the couple presented in His Name Was Ben, which she expanded into a novel in 2014. Her first novel, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap, made it to Amazon bestseller lists and won awards, including best historical fiction of the year 2012 in Turning the Pages Magazine. Her third novel, To Live Out Loud, won international critical acclaim and made it to multiple sites as favorite read book of 2015.
Links to Mahurin’s books & more
Purchase The Seven Year Dress on Amazon
Check out all of Paulette Mahurin’s books on Amazon
Find Mahurin:
Blog:
Learn more about Mahurin’s efforts to help dogs
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my book. Twice! I’m truly grateful for your help, feedback. and support. Coming from you, an author whose work I love and admire, this is such an honor.
One of my favourite genres is historical fiction, so thanks for alerting me to this book, Carol. It will be difficult to read, but also difficult to put down!
You are exactly right, Elfrieda. Authors who take on subjects like this take on a special challenge to balance the reality of the horror with the reader’s ability to keep reading. Mahurin handles the challenge well.