On her own in 1932 Berlin, Hilde, 18, feels bereft and abandoned after aging out of the orphanage where she’s been living and not hearing a word from her girlfriend, Gretchen, since Gretchen left months before. Hilde finds refuge one night in Cafe Lila, where a waitress named Rosa gets Hilde a job. Hilde feels right at home at Café Lila, a gay nightclub, and she’s dazzled by kind and beautiful Rosa, who invites Hilde to stay with her and her aunt. The rise of the National Socialist Party and Adolf Hitler start out in the background of this story, in which Hilde struggles to overcome her stage fright to perform at Café Lila, and to overcome her fear of rejection and tell Rosa how she feels. But even as Hilde (white) rises to these personal challenges, the escalating tensions around the elections, as well as Nazi attitudes toward Jewish people, like Rosa and her aunt and gay people, become an ever-increasing threat to both young women and the communities of which they are a part. This beautifully realized novel in verse succeeds on every level—as a work of historical fiction vividly bringing the past to life, as a love story, as a story about overcoming one’s personal fears, and as a work illuminating chilling parallels between early-1930s Germany and Western society today. It’s also a story that celebrates community and family—both blood and found. (Age 14 and older)

A fascinating historical novel about Hilde, an orphan who experiences Berlin on the cusp of World War II as she discovers her own voice and sexuality, ultimately finding a family when she gets a job at a gay cabaret, by award-winning author Kip Wilson.

On her eighteenth birthday, Hilde leaves her orphanage in 1930s Berlin, and heads out into the world to discover her place in it. But finding a job is hard, at least until she stumbles into Café Lila, a vibrant cabaret full of expressive customers. Rosa, one of the club’s waitresses and performers, immediately takes Hilde under her wing. As the café denizens slowly embrace Hilde, and she embraces them in turn, she discovers her voice and her own blossoming feelings for Rosa. 

But Berlin is in turmoil. Between the elections, protests in the streets, worsening antisemitism and anti-homosexual sentiment, and the beginning seeds of unrest in Café Lila itself, Hilde will have to decide what’s best for her future . . . and what it means to love a place on the cusp of war.