One Last Shot is out now!
Buy links: Signed copies at Molly’s Bookstore | B&N | Bookshop | Amazon
Also available as an audiobook!
Teachers and librarians, please download the free educators’ guide here!
About One Last Shot:
The daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants, Gerta Pohorylle doesn’t quite fit in. While she’s away at boarding school, however, she becomes a master at reinventing herself. When she returns from school, she gets more involved with left-wing groups as Germany splits into political extremes and after she’s arrested for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda, Gerta and her family decide she must leave Germany.
In Paris, Gerda meets André Friedman, a Hungarian photographer eager for fame and fortune, who fosters Gerda’s interest in photography and how it can be as much of a tool for broadcasting her beliefs as protesting and demonstrations. Together the pair invents Robert Capa, a rich American photographer, and soon they’re selling “Capa’s” work for high prices and to great acclaim. Soon after, Gerda begins selling her own work under the last name Taro and the pair take on more assignments, jetting off to Spain to cover the growing conflict that quickly becomes the Spanish Civil War.
As Gerda pushes closer and closer to the front line, eager to capture the lives and vibrant hopes of those fighting against fascism, she begins to lose track of, and regard for, her own safety.
Praise for One Last Shot:
“Wilson shares Pohorylle’s story with stunning efficiency through an economy of language that wrings sweetness from every word.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED review
“Wilson’s poems read so smoothly, and her subject is so compelling, that readers may be tempted to race through, but slowing down or reading aloud illuminates the full depth and poignancy that’s on display.” – Booklist, STARRED review
“Expertly researched and told in verse sharp and shining as a camera flash, Kip Wilson captures the life of Gerda Taro in thrilling, heartbreaking snapshots to tell the fascinating story of a talented and passionate young woman who sought to bear witness to and expose the dark truths of war and fascism at any cost.” – R. M. Romero, author of The Ghosts of Rose Hill, A Warning About Swans, and The Dollmaker of Kraków
“Though fiction, One Last Shot adheres closely to the true story of Gerda Taro, the first woman photojournalist killed in combat. Gerda came of age as the wave of fascism rose and surged through Europe. One Last Shot sounds an alarm. It reads like a roadmap to tyranny. Its relevance could not be more clear. Wide awake to personal danger and to the larger stakes, Gerda dove in with her camera and her heart determined to turn the tide of history. Her belief in herself as an equal to men, her fervent resistance and her courage to take action offer ideals for women today.” – Mary Cronk Farrell, author of Close Up on War: The Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam
“In this extraordinary, moving, and carefully researched novel, Kip Wilson breathes photojournalist Gerda Taro to life in a story that’s heart-pounding, heart-breaking and so terribly relevant today. This story will stay with me for a very long time.” – Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow and Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850