Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the international bestselling author of the “epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale” (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker’s Wife.
THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES by KRISTIN HARMEL
Series: Standalone
Publication date: July 21, 2020
Published by: Gallery
Genre: WW2 historical fiction
SYNOPSIS
Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.
The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?
As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.
An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.
The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?
As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.
An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.
Purchase your copy now!
“Set against all the danger and drama of WWII Paris, this heartfelt novel will keep you turning the pages until the very last word.”
– New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe
"Reminiscent of The Nightingale and The Map of the Heart, Kristin Harmel's THE ROOM ON RUE AMELIE is an emotional, heart-breaking, inspiring tribute to the strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love."
– NYTimes bestselling author Mariah Stewart
"The strong and courageous inhabitants of THE ROOM ON RUE AMELIE occupied all my time until the tender and powerful final pages. Beautifully written, Kristin Harmel’s latest is an unforgettable exploration of love and hope during the darkest of moments."
– Amy E. Reichert, author of The Optimist's Guide to Letting Go
“Harmel writes a poignant novel based loosely on the true story of an American woman who helped on the Comet Line, which rescued hundreds of airmen and soldiers. This compelling story celebrates hope and bravery in the face of evil.”
– Booklist
"Harmel injects new life into a well-worn story in this hopeful three-voiced tale about the struggle to find normalcy amid the horrors of WWII... Harmel’s emotionally fraught story hammers home the message that each person has a unique opportunity to stand against injustice. This is a celebration of those, like Ruby, who found the courage to face life head-on."
– Publishers Weekly
"This book of historical fiction is also a surprising story of love, courage, and the resiliency of the human spirit....[Harmel] manages to draw her audience in, even to the point of unexpected tears at the story’s end.."
– Jewish Book Council
“Harmel’s latest novel overlaps somewhat with recent book club favorites Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale and Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls… recommended for fans of World War II historical fiction.”
– Library Journal
"Richly detailed and yet fast-paced, Harmel’s story flows at remarkable depth, as ordinary citizens rise to the challenge of extraordinary circumstances in occupied France. A fascinating exploration of the escape routes set up for downed Allied pilots, readers will be swept up in this heart-wrenching drama."
– Juliette Fay, author of The Tumbling Turner Sisters
"A story of courage and love in unimaginable circumstances."
– bestselling author Barbara Taylor Sissel
"A heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism centered on a female forger who risks everything to help Jewish children escape Nazi-occupied France."
– People (20 Best Books to Read this Summer)
“With meticulous research and an assured hand, Kristin Harmel once again spotlights French Resistance figures of the Second World War, unique heroes whose bravery and immeasurable sacrifices are too often lost to history. THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES is a fascinating, heartrending page-turner that, like the real-life forgers who inspired the novel, should never be forgotten. A riveting historical tale that I devoured in a single sitting.”
– Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of Sold on a Monday
“Harmel brilliantly imagines the life of a young Polish-French Jewish woman during the depths of WWII...Harmel movingly illustrates Eva’s courage to risk her own life for others, and all of the characters are portrayed with realistic compassion. This thoughtful work will touch readers with its testament to the endurance of hope."
– Publishers Weekly (starred review)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kristin Harmel is the #1 international bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES, THE WINEMAKER'S WIFE, and a dozen other novels that have been translated into numerous languages and sold all over the world.
A former reporter for PEOPLE magazine, Kristin has been writing professionally since the age of 16, when she began her career as a sportswriter, covering Major League Baseball and NHL hockey for a local magazine in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late 1990s. After stints covering health and lifestyle for American Baby, Men’s Health, and Woman’s Day, she became a reporter for PEOPLE and spent more than a decade working for the publication, covering everything from the Super Bowl to high-profile murders to celebrity interviews with the likes of Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, OutKast, Justin Timberlake, and Patrick Dempsey. Her favorite stories at PEOPLE, however, were the “Heroes Among Us” features—tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. One of those features—the story of Holocaust-survivor-turned-philanthropist Henri Landwirth (whom both Walter Cronkite and John Glenn told Kristin was the most amazing person they’d ever known)—partially inspired Kristin’s 2012 novel, The Sweetness of Forgetting, which was a bestseller all over the world.
In addition to a long magazine writing career (which also included articles published in Travel + Leisure, Glamour, Ladies’ Home Journal, Every Day with Rachael Ray, and more), Kristin was also a frequent contributor to the national television morning show The Daily Buzz—where her assignments included flying to London three times to interview the cast of the Harry Potter films. She has appeared on Good Morning America and numerous local television morning shows--and even stumbled into a role as an extra in the 2003 American Idol movie while awaiting an interview with Kelly Clarkson.
Kristin was born just outside Boston, Massachusetts and spent her childhood there, as well as in Columbus, Ohio, and St. Petersburg, Florida. After graduating with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida, she spent time living in Paris and Los Angeles and now lives in Orlando, with her husband and young son. She travels frequently to France for book research (and—let’s be honest—for the pastries and wine) and writes a book a year for Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster.
Follow her:
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin HarmelMy rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Right now, WW2 is a heavy topic to take on for me, but somehow it's been exactly what I needed. The Book of Lost Names brings you to a very dark time in the history of the world, but it's also an open window to the resilience of the human spirit. It took an army of courageous people outside of military forces who were willing to risk immediate execution to save the lives of strangers. Many of these people are unsung heroes, their sacrifices forgotten as time moves on. This novel is inspired by real life forgotten heroes fighting quietly behind the scenes in the resistance's network. Forgery played an essential role in smuggling refugees out of danger, which required a great deal of talent to successfully pull off. Eva Traube never thought her natural artistic skill would play an important role in her life until she realized that with a swipe of her pen she could save thousands.
When Eva flees Paris with her mother to the free zone in Aurignon, her only plans were to make her way as fast as possible to Switzerland where the two of them would be safe. Fate had other ideas. Once they arrive at a boarding house, tired and hungry, they soon discover allies in desperate need of her skills. Tentatively at first, she agrees to help a man named Rémy forge paperwork that will fool the Nazis. Not only does she do impeccable work, but she finds a way to increase production to maximize how many people receive help. Once she joins the effort, she must admit to herself that her conscience won't let her turn her back on the helpless. What was once a temporary job turns permanent. Orphaned children were being smuggled in and housed with caregivers in the city before it was safe to move on. How could she have lived with herself afterwards if she had selfishly ignored what she was capable of contributing to those who had lost everything like herself?
Loss would forever be etched on the child like a tattoo; it might fade over time, but it would never be erased.
Eva was a softhearted, gentle woman who acted far beyond her years as she did what had to be done without complaint. She may have fallen into the network by chance, but she eventually believed that she was put there for a reason.
After many months when she meets some of the orphans in hiding, it occurs to her that these children will never remember where they came from if there is no record of their real names. And so the book of lost names is created. In an old, dusty religious text, she and Rémy devise a secret code that will allow them to keep a record of these lost souls. The Nazis were trying to erase not only an entire race of people, but their history right along with them. Often she worried that she was forgetting her own family and religion as she worked alongside Christians in a Catholic church. She couldn't help but feel bitter and lack the will to continue Jewish traditions and prayer while the world burned around her. Honestly, I completely sympathized and understood where she was coming from. Unfortunately, her mother chose to frequently enforce the idea that could do no right.
Eva hardly recognized the woman before her, the woman trembling with anger, the woman whose decision to hold on to a past that would never return had made her into something cold and unfamiliar.
This brings me to my one issue with the story. Eva's mother was a thorn in her side that I found so hard to tolerate. Every single scene she was in made me either want to strangle her or slap her. From the moment she discovered that her husband had been taken by the Nazis in Paris, she dragged her feet and made an impossible situation worse. In such harrowing, devastating conditions, I should have felt some shred of sympathy for her, but instead I could do nothing but despise her. A mother should always do their best to protect their children from emotional and physical harm, but she did the opposite. Not only insulting every single thing she did and said, but placing blame on Eva for events that were beyond her control. There was no redeeming her in the end as I had lost all respect for this woman who needed to be babysat and admonished constantly like a child. My issue wasn't solely that the character was unlikable, but the fact that she was only unlikable. There were no shades of grey to soften the harshness of her, no vulnerable side to make her feel fleshed out to the fullest.
The romance between Rémy and Eva blossomed tenderly among the ugliness around them. I adored both of them separately, and desperately wanted them to find their happy ending together. They complimented each other beautifully; he was mischievous and she was solemn. She arrived soft-spoken and broken, and he showed her what confidence and courage looked like. Both had a fierce loyalty to those they loved that nothing could alter. In the present time POV, you really see how strong she became as a woman, yet she was essentially the same. She was still an intelligent, proud woman who never lost her love of the written word. The problem was, she she didn't allow those closest to her to understand the true depth of her character, or how the war shaped her entire life.
I thought I might feel heartbroken for all she had lost by the end, but after finishing all I felt was peace. It wasn't a cookie cutter happy ending, but it was raw, it was real, and it was beautiful. Any fan of tumultuous, wartime historical fiction with plenty of suspense should give this book a chance. It explores the often overlooked forgers of the time as well as the Nazis' role in looting priceless books. As a book lover myself I appreciated the clever way they were integrated into the central storyline. In summary, I can't recommend this book enough. It was filled with heart, faith, and enduring hope which is so necessary in a book with such heavy themes. It's an absolute must read!
FOLLOW SMOKIN HOT BOOK BLOG ON:
0 komentarze:
Post a Comment