Set in Nazi Germany’s only all-female concentration camp, Across the Lake is a story of survival amid overwhelming brutality. With a keen eye towards historical accuracy, this is an unflinching portrayal of how prisoners supported each other while holding onto their humanity. This is also a story of the female guards—the Aufseherin—who were every bit as vicious as the SS in Buchenwald, Dachau, and Auschwitz. What did it mean to be a woman in a concentration camp like Ravensbrück? Across the Lake is an unforgettable story about gender and violence in the Holocaust.
As Svea Fischer struggles to survive yet another day, she has to forget her past and endure the brutal reality swirling around her. Meanwhile, a new guard, Anna Hartmann, enters Ravensbrück and sees not horror, but opportunity. As the story unfolds, these two women find their futures inextricably tied together. Told with historical insight, Across the Lake explores a concentration camp that was totally unique in the Third Reich.
“I promise you—Across the Lake will have you holding your breath until the very last note in the very last line. Clear-eyed and unflinching, steeped in historical fact, Patrick Hicks chronicles the descent from cruelty to brutality, from oppression to the scalding depths of inhumanity, all facilitated under the polished façade of professionalism at Ravensbrück. This is a profound critique of history, yes, but it also serves as a warning that we remain attentive to the slide into fascism, madness, and evil. The pages will turn quickly in your hands, and at some point you’ll pause, and you’ll think, Oh, my god—this isn’t fiction. This is the real world. This is how it happened. This is how it could happen again.”
—Brian Turner, author of Here, Bullet and My Life as a Foreign Country
“The story of Ravensbrück is not well-known […] and I found a new revelation on every page, a new discovery of the strength and suffering of these women. Across the Lake is an astonishing, magnificent, and heartbreaking book by one of the foremost writers of WWII novels in our generation.”
—Andria Williams, author of The Longest Night and The Waiting World
“Through deftly woven alternating points of view, Across the Lake offers history, but also a deep view into the lives of some of the women most intimately connected to the camp, and, crucially, it adds another title to Hicks growing list of meticulously researched, character-driven, and briskly plotted, novels of World War II.”
—Peter Mountford, author of A Young Man’s Guide to Late Capitalism
Recent Readings at…
• High Plains Book Award. Billings, Montana
• Luther College Writers’ Festival. Decorah, Iowa
• Madeline Island School of the Arts. LaPointe, Wisconsin
• The Loft Literary Center. Minneapolis, Minnesota
• United States Air Force Academy, Colorado
• Waterstones at Piccadilly Circus. London, England
• Latymer School. Hammersmith, London, England
• Saint John’s University. Collegeville, Minnesota
• Great River Reading Series. Winona State University. Winona, Minnesota
• Common Good Books. St Paul, Minnesota
• The Poetry Center. Distinguished Poets Series. Paterson, New Jersey
• Valencia College. Orlando, Florida
• Visiting Writers’ Series. DePaul University. Chicago, Illinois
• Tattered Cover Bookstore. Denver, Colorado
• Changing Hands Bookstore. Phoenix, Arizona
• Prairie Lights Bookstore. Iowa City, Iowa
• Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education. University of Northern Iowa
• Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival. Minneapolis, Minnesota
• The Book Cellar. Chicago, Illinois
• Providence College. Providence, Rhode Island
• Western Wyoming Community College. Rock Springs, Wyoming
• The Poetry Center. Chicago, Illinois
• The Irish Embassy. Washington, DC