Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington which I won in a Readers First giveaway. This is not the type of book I usually go for but I was tempted in by a very pretty cover and a really intriguing extract. As it’s set in a concentration camp I can’t say it’s an enjoyable read but it’s definitely engaging.

My Teaser

I became hypnotised by the sight of Stripeys tugging garments from a pile. Their hands moved like spiders over each item. Snip went the scissors if something was to be cut. Clink went coins poured into a tray. Money notes rustled. Gold twinkled. Slowly, reluctantly, clumsily, my mind was making the connection between the high quality clothes we altered in the workshop and these suitcases spilling out all over the Department Store floors.

~ Pg 100 The Red Ribbon by Lucy Adlington

Blurb

Rose, Ella, Marta and Carla. In another life we might have all been friends together. But this was Birchwood.

As fourteen-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and 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.

Every dress she makes could be the difference between life and death. And this place is all about survival.

Ella seeks refuge from this reality, and from haunting memories, in her work and in the world of fashion and fabrics. She is faced with painful decisions about how far she is prepared to go to survive.

Is her love of clothes and creativity nothing more than collaboration wth 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 and camp mud – a red ribbon, given to Ella as a symbol of hope.