Opera Sisters

Drawn from the real story of the Cook sisters, this novel follows Ida and Louise, two British women living modest lives in south London. Ida writes romance novels and Louise is a secretary. Their shared passion is opera. They put aside money for records and for performances across England and the Continent, and both performers and fellow enthusiasts come to know them well.

In 1933, Hitler took power and began singling out German Jews, passing laws that stripped them of rights and reshaped their daily lives. The sisters kept traveling to the opera houses of Germany. Before long, Jewish members of that opera community approached them in secret, fearful of losing their savings and belongings and of being forced out of the country they called home. The threat was spreading toward every border in Europe.

Ida and Louise resolved to help, even though they were working-class women with few resources. Alongside their friends in the opera world, they built a plan to personally escort Jewish refugees out of Germany and into England. Its success depended on smuggling jewelry and furs past SS guards stationed at checkpoints. Each crossing carried the risk of discovery.

The novel tells the story of two unlikely heroines whose determination and compassion offered hope to many people trying to escape Nazi persecution.