Ruth Druart’s book has to be one of the best books that I have read this year. Told from several perspectives, both in third and first person, it is a war story in many ways but the different threads mean that the narrative is not linear chronologically and so, we move from place to place as the story requires it. However, this does not make it difficult to follow as Druart clearly heads each chapter to clarify the new viewpoint for narration for that section.
The lynchpin around whom the narrative revolves is Sam, a nine year old boy who lives with his parents, Jean-Luc and Charlotte in California. Jean-Luc and Charlotte are immigrants, originally from France, carving a new life for themselves and forgetting the past. In addition, we learn about Sarah and David, Parisian Jews who are sent to Auschwitz and survive it remarkably. As readers, we do get to see their lives before their imprisonment but in brief terms, the first half of the book primarily dedicated to Jean-Luc and Charlotte.
Despite trying to start a new life, it seems that the past is never really escapable and it catches up to Jean-Luc and Charlotte in the worst possible way, impacting them in ways that they would not have been able to predict.
The book is good throughout but it is the second half where Druart’s story really comes into its own. It is difficult to discuss without giving too much away but in terms of displaying the better side of human nature and man’s humanity to man, it is exemplary and deeply moving, contrasting especially with the horrors depicted in Druart’s discussion of Auschwitz.
I don’t give five star reviews that often and reserve them for books that deeply impress or deeply move me and Druart has achieved that here. If you like your reads to put you in a situation where you question what you would do in those circumstances, then I implore you to read this and wonder at what you would do in the shoes of the characters concerned.
This book was a joy. I feel so glad that I read it and know that I will be mulling it over for weeks.
Scuffed Granny 