France, 1939In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France...but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When France is overrun, Vianne is forced to take an enemy into her house, and suddenly her every move is watched; her life and her child’s life is at constant risk. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates around her, she must make one terrible choice after another.Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets the compelling and mysterious Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can...completely. When he betrays her, Isabelle races headlong into danger and joins the Resistance, never looking back or giving a thought to the real--and deadly--consequences.
My first impression was “wow, this book is long.” I
abandoned that notion pretty quick because I almost wanted it to go on forever.
This book is H-E-A-V-Y. When I started it, it was just a sad
book about WWII in France. The more I read, though, the more breaks I had to
take. It was just gut wrenching to read. Yeah, these may be fictional
characters, but this was reality for so many people.
You really become attached to every single character that
you read about. Its really hard to express my feelings about this book because
it’s almost pure sadness. But then there is the joy of having read it because
it really is a great read.
I’m not huge on historical fiction but I do tend to enjoy
books about WWII/Holocaust. It’s just so incomprehensible that these things
happened to real people. It’s tough to digest but it makes these books that
much more interesting.
If you are in the mood to feel every single feeling – pick
this up. It is definitely worth the read. Even if it does leave you empty and
hopelessly sad.
5/5 Stars
Memorable Quotes: “As I approach the end of my years, I know
that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of
us.”
“Everything looked exactly as it always had and that surprised
her. War was coming, and she’d imagined it would leave a mark on the
countryside somehow, changing the grass color or killing the trees or scaring
away the birds, but now, as she sat on this train chugging into Paris, she saw
that everything looked completely ordinary.”
“Some images, once seen, can never be forgotten.”
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