I’m back in my WWII historical fiction genre with The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer. This is time hopping novel set in Poland that marvelously weaves a story between WWII Nazi-occupation and modern life in America. Like always in this genre, I was gripped by the heartbreak, the horror, the hardship, the will to survive and the ability to see and do good when surrounded by so much evil. In short, this one is a page turner, and one where you still think about the characters long after you turn the final page.
In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.
Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate.
Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.
I just started 11/22/63 and, if you’ve seen that book, I expect to be reading it for the foreseeable future. LOL. A precious friend has been begging me to read it so we can discuss. Well, she is the persistent type so when it showed up on my door step last week I committed. One chapter in and I’m already hooked.
What’s on your bedside?
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My book club just finished Demon Copperhead, which is very good, although somewhat dark. The Whalebone Theatre and The Last Painting of Sara de Vos are both excellent. I’m adding 11/22/63 to my list.
Loved all the things we cannot say!
Thank you for the suggestions….I will order both from my library. I like to support it by using it. I’m sure both will be gripping but 11/22/63 will bring back memories of being young and knowing something horrible happened to our president and the sadness all around us. My dad was stone faced and my mom crying and it was frightening. Our school principle announced it over the PA and the school was dead silent. It was bigger than personal sadness because it was everyone.