The Forest of Vanishing Stars

The Forest of Vanishing Stars (2021) is a historical fiction novel by Kristin Harmel. Against the backdrop of war-torn Poland, the novel explores themes of identity, destiny, the importance of belonging, and finding a home for the heart in even the harshest adversity. Kristin Harmel is a New York Times best-selling author of more than a dozen historical novels exploring World War II, including The Book of Lost Names, The Sweetness of Forgetting, and The Winemaker’s Wife. Her books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have been finalists for the Goodreads Choice Awards and the National Jewish Book Award.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars was included in Parade’s “Best Books of Summer,” SheReads’ “Best WWII Fiction of Summer” list, and the Indie Next List. Harmel is also a cofounder and cohost of Friends & Fiction, a web series dedicated to supporting independent bookstores, the art of storytelling, and new voices in fiction.

This guide refers to the 2022 trade paperback from Gallery Books. To avoid confusion, this guide retains the book’s references to Belorussia and Belorussian, the names used for present-day Belarus and the Belarusian language until 1991.

Content Warning: The source material takes place during World War II and features antisemitic violence and perspectives.

Plot Summary

The story begins in 1922 when a mysterious woman named Jerusza kidnaps a two-year-old child, Inge, from her home in Berlin and takes her into the forests of Eastern Poland to raise her away from civilization. Jerusza appears to know the future and sees a vital destiny for the child, who is awake as if she knew Jerusza was coming. Jerusza renames the girl Yona, the Hebrew word for “dove,” in part because Yona has a dove-shaped birthmark. She teaches the girl survival and healing skills, and Yona’s birthmark shifts as though magical. Yona also shares Jerusza’s clairvoyance, seeing visions and having strong feelings that prove to be true.

Yona has her first encounter with the outside world in 1931 when Jerusza takes her to a village to steal supplies. She sees a family celebrating Hanukkah and compares their menorah to the one Jerusza carves each year, though Jerusza is not otherwise religious. As Yona reads about religions and languages, Jerusza questions her decision to kidnap her. In 1933, Yona meets a boy who lives near the forest, and he tells her about the violence in Berlin since Hitler was made chancellor. As bombs fall over Poland, a 20-year-old Yona begins asking Jerusza about her identity, but she doesn’t share details until she dies in 1942. On her deathbed, she divulges that she kidnapped Yona from her parents, who are bad people. Yona tells Jerusza she loves her, and Jerusza says love is for fools.

After Jerusza dies, Yona is left alone with many unanswered questions about her origins and the future for which Jerusza was preparing her. Her private, solitary world is shattered when she encounters a sick girl, Chana, in the forest. Chana is Jewish, and she tells Yona about the Nazis’ plan to kill all Jewish people. Yona stays with Chana and her parents for two weeks to help Chana heal, but one day, she has a premonition that they are in danger. Chana’s mother doesn’t trust her, though, and refuses to listen. Yona leaves without them, and a few days later, they are shot dead.

A month later, Yona meets a man named Aleksander, who is struggling to fish. Yona offers to teach him and learns that he is with a group of Polish Jewish refugees. Yona helps him fish and joins their group, determined to help them survive winter in the forest. She helps them learn to conceal their tracks and provide for themselves. While her guidance is vital, some of the group don’t trust her as she is an outsider. The group moves frequently to avoid danger, though Yona has to kill two Russian soldiers who threaten a boy. In the winter, they dig burrows for shelter, and Aleksander and Yona begin a romantic relationship.

One day, Yona encounters a second group of survivors, led by Zus. Yona invites them back to the camp, and conflict erupts because Aleksander and others don’t trust this new group. Yona is drawn to Zus, and over time, the groups become united, though Aleksander continues to resist Yona’s advice and expertise. After a dark premonition, Yona finds Aleksander having sex with another woman and decides to leave. Zus asks her to stay, but she refuses.

Yona decides to return to the forest where she lived with Jerusza, but on the outskirts of a village, she hears gunshots and sees a nun running with a young girl toward a church. The nun offers to house Yona if she helps save the girl, and she agrees. The nun shares that the Nazis are arresting and killing villagers because a German soldier was attacked there, and the nun is determined to talk to the commander. Yona doesn’t like this plan, and she turns out to be correct; an officer announces that a priest and eight nuns will be executed in exchange for the village’s safety. In the town square, Yona locks eyes with one of the officers and recognizes that he is her father: Siegfried Juttner. She calls out to him to stop the execution, and he recognizes her by her mismatched eyes and birthmark.

Juttner takes Yona to his house, and when Yona confronts him about his actions as a Nazi officer, he says he is just following orders. Yona asks him to save the nuns but he declines, then mentions hunting the Jewish refugees in the forest. The next day, he offers to help the nuns if Yona shares information about the Bielski group and other factions living in the forest. Yona refuses and runs away in the middle of the night to warn the refugees of the coming danger.

After a few days in the forest, Yona finds Zus, who is happy to see her. They return to the camp and decide that Yona will lead the group to safety while Zus, Aleksander, and a few others will help the Bielski group. While leading them through the swamp, Zus’s brother tells Yona that the Nazis killed Zus’s wife and child. They successfully evade detection, though Aleksander dies on his mission. As winter approaches, the group’s supplies dwindle, and two new group members propose ambushing a Nazi convoy. Yona is reticent, but Zus and many others agree to the plan.

The night before the heist, Zus and Yona make love, and she shares her conflict about her identity since her father is a Nazi. Zus assures her that what matters is who she is now. The group successfully pulls off the heist and seems set for the winter. A few days later, however, Juttner crashed through the forest, determined to bring Yona back to town. He calls Zus antisemitic names and reveals that Yona’s mother was part Jewish, saying he is determined to “save” her, starting by killing Zus. Yona leaps in the way of her father’s gun and is shot, and she kills Juttner with her concealed knife when he leans over her body. Zus carries her back to camp.

The last chapter recounts the fates of the group after the war—many return to their home villages, while others seek new lives in new places. Yona lived in the forest for the rest of her life with Zus and their two children. She lived until age 100, as Jerusza predicted.