The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite

Happy birthday, son Christian! I couldn’t stop reading this one, a great story (thanks Charlotte!), The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin.  This is a British book and I could not find it here at the New York Public Library or get through NYU’s vast array of “book connections” so I had to call upon the RA who selected this book to borrow.  It was worth it!  Add this one to your list for sure.  It is a story of a real life German actress and her story of sorrow, lost-love and heartbreak.  Throw in her struggles enduring World War I and the beginning of Hitler’s regime.  Lilly was thrust into St. Francis Xavier Home for the Orphaned Children after her single mom was killed by her father when he found her in bed with a younger lover.  The father, who was married to another woman when he impregnated Lilly’s mother, wanted her to have an abortion, she didn’t.  Lilly went to another family before the Orphanage, but it didn’t work out as she was too angry.  Lilly eventually settled into the Orphanage and fell in favor with the head nun Sister August whose story will come back to connect with her later in the book, as do all of the characters who interact with Lilly.  Lilly’s life is hard during the war, the Orphanage closes down and she is left to migrate through the streets and also within the lives of others like Otto (an older orphaned boy who was making a good life for himself), and Hanne another one of the orphaned children who befriends her.  Lilly experiences being raped by the husband of the woman she works for as a maid, and later is run over by a car driven by Eva, who also befriends her but attempts to tempt her as a lesbian lover.  Lilly’s life, in many ways, is a metaphor for the “ups and downs” of the German nation.  Whenever a glimmer of hope exists, it is eventually blown away!  Lilly falls in love with Eva’s brother Stefan, who disappears during the war and made for dead, or is he?  Lilly reunites with friend Hanne, who wants to become a performer on the stage or on screen.  Instead Lilly makes the stage as a lead actress.  This true life story captures the gutter to stage, poor and barren to rich over-the-top actress.  Yet, the mighty do fall.  Lilly’s story is jarring, engaging, sad, and motivating.  For those who have dreams, they can happen… but sometimes at what cost?  Imagine having to hide your heritage in the most feared time in the world, being Jewish during Hitler’s rise to power.  A lot in this book… I really enjoyed it!