THE GIRL WHO RODE THE WHITE LION
Germany, 1938. On the eve of war, as Nazi violence engulfs Jewish homes and businesses, young Sarah Frank escapes an SS officer whose obsession with her family turns deadly.
Forced into a world suddenly stripped of safety and certainty, she finds refuge in a traveling circus, an unlikely sanctuary of lion trainers, acrobats, elephants, and outsiders who become her family.
Under their protection, Sarah discovers a courage she never knew she possessed, even as the Nazi grip tightens and the man she fled closes in.
New York City, 1957.
A routine autopsy at the city zoo uncovers a chilling object inside an elderly lion: a silver SS ring engraved with a skull.
For chief veterinarian Mark Spencer, the discovery ignites a transatlantic search that leads through postwar Paris, Tel Aviv, and the shadowed corners of New York toward the buried story of a girl who dared to challenge an unfathomable evil.
Endorsements
“Reading The Girl Who Rode the White Lion feels like stepping inside a vivid dream you do not want to end. Page after page its mix of suspense tenderness and wonder sweeps you away from the terror of Kristallnacht to the spell of a traveling circus and the mystery of 1950s New York. It is not just a novel it is an unforgettable journey of beauty courage and survival.”
"In a sweeping historical novel, Yishay Ishi Ron has crafted a wondrous and imagined tale of pursuit and rescue during one of humanity’s darkest hours. Ron touches on the profound moral dilemmas of the Holocaust and tells a story of humanity, courage, and hope, in a time when obedience was deadlier than anything else."
"The strength with which Yishay Ishi Ron channels his pain towards deep introspection, has allowed his scars to fortify his artistry rather than define his identity, leading him to write “The Girl Who Rode the White Lion”. Through his compelling writing, Ishi succeeds in anchoring the Holocaust in hearts and minds of generations to come, as a critical turning point in human history. This is a duty we share, and a solemn lesson we are all compelled to relearn."
“Yishay Ishi Ron has succeeded, in a breathtaking novel, in drawing us into the heart of the moral dilemmas of the Holocaust era, between Jewish identity and survival, between self-risk and saving others. The Girl Who Rode the White Lion is a living reminder that the strength of the Jewish spirit, mutual responsibility, and the moral compass are our greatest assets as a people, then and now, and they obligate us to continue building a future of hope for the Jewish people both in Israel and in the Diaspora.”
“The words in The Girl Who Rode the White Lion come to life where the fate of an individual is a parable for the fate of all humanity. How upliling it is to read such a book.”
No reader can resist falling in love with this book, which glides between tenderness and compassion and the fierce storm of revenge. A masterful historical novel, one that will linger with you long after the final page.
Inspired by an astonishing and little-known, yet true, story of rescue of Jews in a circus in Nazi Germany, Ron’s novel of survival and search holds in suspense until the last page. Here, curiosity about an object and an animal culminates in an international chase for truth in which desire, revenge, and memory drive actions, decisions, and human connections. With diary snapshots switching between the Holocaust and the postwar period, the story dissects the complexities of people’s behavior as witnesses, victims, rescuers, and perpetrators, and instills a universal message about how emotions can become tools for destruction or salvation. This book will absorb and amaze.
Captivating and emotional. Had I not myself experienced the cruelty, inhumanity and lies of the Nazi regime, I wouldn't believe these things were possible. Yishay Ishi Ron's storytelling does an important service to a history we can never forget.
The Girl Who Rode The White Lion is a compelling story which involves history, hatred, humor, a circus and a reasonable degree of horror. Scattered through this wondrous novel are many unexpected twists and turns. All of the characters feel real. They are characters you can identify with even if they are circus performers which most of us are not. I found it hard to tear myself away from The Girl Who Rode The White Horse. It is a little frightening and simultaneously very enlightening.
The Girl Who Road the White Lion is a fascinating story told by a masterful story teller. I was mesmerized and could not put the book down. Part mystery, part history, it vividly portrays the four characters types in the Holocaust, ta perpetrator, his victims, a survivors, and her rescuers. Everything Ron touches comes alive from the vengeful, pathetic inner life of a newly empowered SS man to the world of the circus --Lions and Elephants and their trainers and masters. He brilliantly explores the ability and the necessity to control fear when confronting danger and the world of the zoo keepers. Set in pre-war and war-time Nazi Germany and post-war New York and Tel Aviv, the story unfolds so grippingly that it takes time to grasp its profundity.