Martha Hall Kelly
Martha Hall Kelly, author of New York Times best selling novel, "Lilac Girls". She worked as an advertising copywriter for many years, raised three wonderful children who are now mostly out of the nest and Lilac Girls is her first novel. Martha set out to tell the world the story of Caroline Ferriday and her "Rabbits: in this acclaimed and stunning debut novel, Lilac Girls, a powerful story inspired by actual events. New York debutante Caroline Ferriday, a Francophile, Broadway actress and philanthropist was working at the French consulate when World War II broke out. This story is about Caroline and her unwavering perseverance that ultimately brought thirty-five former prisoners of Ravensbrück, to the United States for rehabilitation by 1959. They were a group of young Polish Catholic female prisoners. Nicknamed the Rabbits, they were forced to hop on crutches when Nazi doctors mutilated their legs testing the efficacy of sulfa drugs.
