By Kristin Harmel
This book is about the Holocaust. I think it is always ambitious to tackle a topic that is so broad, so visceral, and has already been told so many ways – but hats off to you, Kristin Harmel! The central conflict is about the Resistance in France against Nazi occupation. Eva, a Jew, is studying English at the Sorbonne in Paris, where her father is revered as a world-renowned typewriter repairman. Both of them treasure and love books, but realize that unimaginable terror is forthcoming due to the Nazis taking over France.
After witnessing her father violently taken in the early morning hours, Eva does everything she can to insure the safety and survival of both herself and her mother. She is forced to use the artistic skill that comes naturally to her but she never truly embraced, to forge documents that will pass a grueling German officer’s inspection. Successfully duping the guards, she and her mother escape to the French countryside, where they unknowingly plummet into the middle of an active Resistance cell.
Though she only wants to get her mother to Switzerland, Eva cannot leave this town when her gifts could save the lives of so many innocent children who are hidden in the town as part of an underground to Geneva. She quickly becomes immersed in the work, at the expense of her relationship to her mother, her world view, and her own heart. Eva makes sure that a record is kept of the children’s real names along with their aliases encoded inside an old Catholic Book of Psalms, so that though the Germans may temporary displace them, they will not ultimately take the children’s identity.
I loved all the messages in this book! There is honor in one’s actions. There is always truth to be found in books. Nothing can define you unless you let it. It is the duty of the good to stand up against evil, not just peacefully ignore. The measure of someone is their deeds, their heart, and their courage, not a label bestowed on them.
Here you will find action and horror. You will find love and heart-wrenching despair. Here, there be monsters, often dressed in the guise of friendly faces. But mostly, here you will find hope, no matter how delayed the resolution.
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- A very sheltered main character has the courage to open her mind and her eyes to see the world from a new perspective
- Courage from not only the persecuted, but others that cannot abide the hate and evil
- So many people have goodness inside of them, down deep
Cons
- I knew the bad guy, but I didn’t understand the depths of his depravity
- It’s war – there is a lot of death of the innocent
- You just know something bad is going to happen to Remy all through the book, and then…it does, and it is still soul-numbing when it happens