Maya's Dance

A powerful novel of survival, resilience and enduring love, based on an incredible true Holocaust story.

Our dance. Do you remember how I spun and twirled? How I became more than a Jewish girl with battered shoes and dirty clothes ... We did not know then what it would mean, how that dance would change our lives.

Poland, 1942: seventeen-year-old Maya Schulze is struggling to survive in a brutal Nazi labour camp. But despite days filled with hunger, fear and despair, she is able to find courage and beauty in dancing – it is only then that she feels free.

One day a camp guard watches Maya perform, and both their destinies are changed for ever. Jan falls in love with Maya and promises to protect her; Maya lives for their stolen moments together, when her heart can dance again. Jan ultimately plots Maya’s escape and promises to find her when the war is over, but fate cruelly intervenes.

Fifty years on, having received news that changes everything for her, Maya tells her story to journalist Kate Young. As their friendship grows, they piece together the clues to find Jan before it’s too late.

About the Author

Helen Signy is an Australian writer who grew up in England – or, depending how she feels that day, an English writer who lives in Australia. She spent much of her youth travelling the world before becoming a print journalist in Asia and then in Sydney. Most of her writing these days involves science communications for academics, governments and not-for-profits, but she has never lost her passion for telling an amazing story. Maya’s Dance is her first foray into fiction. Helen lives on the Northern Beaches in Sydney with her husband, Peter, and, at various times, her (nearly) grown-up children, Ella, Jamie and Katie.