Rose, Ella, Marta & Carla. In another life we might all have been friends together. But this was Birchwood. For fans of The Diary of Anne Frank & The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. As fourteen-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems & trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz, as readers may recognise it. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life & death. & this place is all about survival. Ella seeks refuge from this reality, & from haunting memories, in her work & in the world of fashion & fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive. Is her love of clothes & creativity nothing more than collaboration with her captors, or is it a means of staying alive? Will she fight for herself alone, or will she trust the importance of an ever-deepening friendship with Rose? One thing weaves through the colours of couture gowns & camp mud
- a red ribbon, given to Ella as a symbol of hope.