Milena and Margarete

“Strauss draws us skillfully into the world of the prison camp at Ravensbrück, in the darkest years of the 20th century. Milena and Margarete remind us that, amidst depravity and cruelty, the passionate friendship of women can be its own act of powerful resistance” - Tilar Mazzeo, bestselling and award-winning author of Irene’s Children and Sisters in Resistance“Riveting, mesmerizing important work… The details and perspectives of women prisoners at Ravensbruck concentration camp are juxtaposed to these extraordinary individuals’ proximity to the lives of the Martin Buber family and to Franz Kafka, reminding us that the lack of full autonomy for even free-thinking bourgeois women relegated them to secondary status in both freedom and enslavement. A magnificent work of contextualization that opens new doors of understanding” - Sarah Schulman, Lambda Literary Award winner, author of Let the Record Show

Gwen Strauss is an award-winning children’s book author and poet. Her poetry, short stories and essays have appeared in numerous places including The New Republic, New England Review, Kenyon Review, London Sunday Times and Catapult. She lives in Southern France with her three children and her dog Zola, where she works as the Director of the Dora Maar House, an artist residency programme.