Novelist Kristin Harmel, author of The Forest of Vanishing Stars, on the PRosé podcast

“We are running out of years to be able to talk to people who lived during that time,” says New York Times bestselling novelist Kristin Harmel, who told the story of refugees surviving the holocaust by hiding in the deep forests of Poland in her most recent novel, The Forest of Vanishing Stars.

A masterful storyteller, Harmel is the author of a dozen books, including The Book of Lost Names, The Winemaker’s Wife, The Art of French Kissing, and other novels. She started writing at the age of 16 when she got a job covering baseball and hockey in the Tampa Bay area and realized after years of sports journalism that what she most liked writing about were the personal stories of the athletes, their motivations, backgrounds, and histories.

With many of her novels taking place during WWII, she says The Diary of Anne Frank initially drew her to that era, making her realize she wanted to write something that would make a positive difference in the world. “In my 20s I had the opportunity to interview a holocaust survivor talking about the psychological impact of that time of his life” she says, “and that reignited my fire to explore the holocaust and led to my first novel. Then that opened up the floodgates as there are so many stories that haven’t been told.”

Harmel feels an obligation to bring to light the stories of holocaust survivors, so we learn from them now, saying “even though they are 75-80 years in the past, they have great relevance to today.”

For her most recent novel, the Forest of Vanishing Stars, Harmel explains how her research led to hearing first-hand accounts of that time. “I was able to talk to someone who had a refuge in the forest of Poland, he is 94; he was 14, 15, 16 during the time he was hiding in the woods,” she says.

Listen to the podcast to hear more fascinating details about her research on The Forest of Vanishing Stars as well as her novels The Book of Lost Names and The Winemaker’s Wife. Hear how she manages to write and be a parent and what she does for fun. Plus, hear a first-peek synopsis of her upcoming novel that returns to WWII France and weaves in a storyline in New York City. Listen to PRosé for all the details.