The Mermaid of Warsaw

A sweeping WWII historical fantasy merging The Little Mermaid and Slavic folklore with the real history of the Warsaw Uprising, for fans of Ruta Sepetys, Elana K. Arnold, and When the Angels Left the Old Country.

The first edition will feature gorgeously designed foil case art, patterned endpapers, and an illustrated interior map!

August 1944. 

Unable to fight the German occupation of Warsaw in her current form, a mermaid living in the Vistula River bargains with Baba Jaga for a pair of legs. But the witch’s magic comes with a price: If the mermaid fails to liberate Warsaw, she will turn to ashes on the river.

What the mermaid doesn’t remember is that before the Vistula, she was a Jewish girl named Basha Rosenfeld.

Two years ago, Basha sacrificed herself to save her best friend Shimon Steinberg from the Treblinka extermination camp. Now, Shimon lives in Warsaw under falsified papers, grieving Basha and the lost world they shared. But when the mermaid appears in his apartment, chasing the monstrous SS officer Bruno Falkenwrath, Shimon recognizes his childhood friend immediately.

Now on the run together, he and Basha join forces with the Polish resistance. But as Warsaw rises up against the Nazis and help from the Allies doesn’t arrive, Shimon worries that the resistance may be doomed even with the mermaid—and that Basha and Falkenwrath might have a more sinister connection than he ever imagined. A connection that will take him to the ruins of Treblinka and force him to confront the horror of what happened there.

A gut-wrenching and ultimately empowering tale of resistance and the magic of storytelling, award-winning author R. M. Romero’s timely and necessary story rises to meet the present moment where history often feels like it’s on the precipice of repeating itself.