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Series

Art of Resistance

Art of Resistance is a sequence of standalone Second World War novels about women who turn creative skills into instruments of survival and defiance under Nazi occupation. Moving through Rhodes, Amsterdam, rural France, Paris and Milan, the books centre on painting, document forgery, dance and photography as ways to preserve identity, hide the persecuted and support clandestine resistance.

Each novel pairs a wartime narrative with a later generation uncovering concealed documents, artworks or family histories. Linked by themes rather than recurring characters, the series builds a wider portrait of Jewish persecution, civilian resistance, moral compromise and the long afterlife of wartime secrecy.

Reading order

Books in this series (5 books)

The Girl in the Oil Painting cover

#1 – The Girl in the Oil Painting

Uri Dushy

Rhodes, 1940–1944. Sixteen-year-old Dora Behar and her cousin Sarah grow up within the island’s long-established Jewish community, painting Mediterranean landscapes and imagining the lives ahead of them. As Italian rule gives way to German occupation and anti-Jewish persecution closes in, Dora’s family faces separation and deportation,…

The Librarian of Amsterdam cover

#2 – The Librarian of Amsterdam

Uri Dushy

Amsterdam under German occupation. Sophie Weinstein, a Jewish librarian erased from official records, uses her knowledge of paper, type and ink to forge identity documents for the Dutch resistance. When three-year-old Hannah is placed in her care, false papers and canal routes become the means of…

The Ballerina of Paris cover

#4 – The Ballerina of Paris

Uri Dushy

Paris, 1942. Léa is the prima ballerina of the Palais Garnier, performing before German officers while concealing an identity and clandestine role that could lead to her arrest. Her closest friend Marguerite, another dancer who fled Odessa as a child, has also been transformed by occupation.…

The Italian Photographer cover

#5 – The Italian Photographer

Uri Dushy

Milan, September 1943. Eva Cantoni photographs the collections of her family’s fashion house on Via Montenapoleone until the Italian armistice is followed by German occupation and anti-Jewish roundups. She repurposes her studio, camera and darkroom to produce photographs for false identity papers, turning commercial image-making into…