This story is spread out between three women - three women who are strong willed and unwilling to conform to the world around them. They fought, loved, and lived through some of the most troubling times in history. Aveline who has her life arranged for her by her family, but wants something different. Vi, who refuses to sit back and watch the world change around her. Ellie - who wants to unlock the secrets of her grandmothers life, but unwilling to budge on what she sets her mind to.
Ellie wants to know about her grandmothers past, and the secrets that are locked within the confines of her mind. Alzheimer's has ravaged the once clear and brilliant mind, leaving her millions of miles away - not always knowing her granddaughter, or where she is. The secrets that haunt her grandmother send Ellie off on a search for the answers - all the way to France.
Once there, she encounters Quinn, who holds almost as many secrets as her grandmother. As the stories flip between Aveline, Vi and Ellie, the past comes to life once more.

Aveline's story really spoke to me. The French Revolution was a dangerous time. But her concern was not the money or the social standing. She bucked convention and tried to help those who needed it the most. Instead of marrying the man that was set before her, she found love in one of the most unlikely places, with someone who was willing to look past the scars and accept her for who she was.
Vi was someone who wanted to do her part in the war, no matter the cost to her, because she believed in what they were fighting for.

I really enjoyed reading through this book. It held my attention throughout, and the flipping back and forth was not really hard to follow at all.

This is the third book by Liza Perrat I have read, and it won’t be the last one. After The Silent Kookaburra set in Australia in the 1970s, I read the first book in the Bone Angel Series, Spirit of Lost Angels. (Read the review here). This is a series that follows the women of a French rural family through the generations, with big jumps in time. The name comes from a little bone angel talisman these women wear and inherit down the female line, together with a skill and talent for nursing (including knowledge of herbs and natural remedies) and midwifery. While Spirit of Lost Angels is set around the time of the French Revolution, this book follows the main character, Célestine (Céleste) through the difficult years of the German occupation of France during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath.

The book is again narrated by its protagonist, a young girl, eager to prove herself and to lead an interesting life away from her seemingly uncaring and cold mother, in the first person. I know some readers do not like first person narrations although they bring an immediacy and closeness to the proceedings, and help us understand better the main character (well, to the point she understands herself). This device also means that we share in the point of view and opinions of Céleste and we are as surprised by events as she is, as we do not have any more information than she does. I am fascinated by narrators, and although Céleste is not an unreliable narrator by design (she does tell things and events as she experiences them), her rushed and unthinking behaviour at times, her quick reactions, and her youth make her not the most objective of people at times. Of course, if readers cannot manage to connect with Céleste at some level, the novel will be harder to read, but she is a likeable character. She is young, impulsive, and enthusiastic. She is eager to help and will often do it without thinking about the consequences and risks she might be taking. She helps a Jewish family very early on, hiding them on the farm, even when she is convinced her mother will not be happy. She wants to help the Resistance cause and is frustrated by the assumption that she is incapable of making any meaningful contribution to the war efforts because she is a woman. She works hard to prove she can be as useful and courageous as a man and runs incredible risks to achieve her goals.

She is not perfect, though, and her youth is particularly well reflected in her romantic attachment to one of the German officers. As is often the case for young lovers, Céleste seems to fall in love with her idea of romance, having only very limited and furtive contact with the officer. If at first she tries to convince herself that she is only playing a part to gather intelligence (and even her sister Felicité encourages her to try and obtain information), soon things turn serious, proving that she is not as calculating and mature as she would like to believe.

Céleste develops throughout the novel, moving to the city, becoming a true resistance fighter, helping the war effort as a nurse, feeding the prisoners at the station on their way to the camps, spying and passing secret information, and becoming a determined and independent woman. She also proves her strength and determination and survives a terrible ordeal and severe losses.

The cast of secondary characters is also exemplary. Céleste’s family (except for her father that we don’t know much about) are well-drawn and fascinating. The relationship mother-daughter is one of the strongest points and it reminds us of the strong bonds and connections between women (not always straight forward) the series is built on. Felicité, Céleste’s sister, is an amazing character, brave beyond the call of duty and, as we learn later, based on a historical figure. Her actions and her courage are very touching. Her brother is strong and supportive, and also a member of the resistance, and we get to know her friends, the doctor, the priest, and to understand that a lot of the population supported the resistance (some more openly than others), although there were collaborationists there too.

The author creates a great sense of place and historical era. The language, the foods, the clothing, the difficulties of an occupied nation trying to survive and resist are vividly brought to life thanks to the detailed descriptions of the landscape and the events, that make us share in the experience, without burdening the novel with extraneous information. The research is seamlessly incorporated into the story and it reminds us of how close the events are to us and makes us reflect on historical similarities with current times. The style of writing is poetic at times (the descriptions of the forest, Céleste’s love for her home and her pendant…), dynamic and flowing, and it has psychological depth and insight too.

The novel is harrowing and realistic as it describes death and tragedy on a big scale. The events that took place in Oradour Sur Glane in 1944 (and that inspired the novel) are horrific and reading them in the first person helps us understand more fully the kind of horror experienced by the victims and also the survivors.

The ending ties all loose ends together and is perfect for the story.

This is a great book for anybody who loves historical fiction and is interested in the French resistance from a more human perspective. It personalises and brings the readers closer to the experience of the era, at the same time helping us reflect on events and attitudes that are all too familiar. If you prefer your history close, personal, and in the first person, this is your book.

 

 

Through the eyes of Henry Forrester, average American teenager, readers of Under a War Torn Sky are taken up into the skies over Europe and deep into the trenches of the French Resistance during World War II. This is a novel that does not need to be praised with the condition that it is a great read "for YA." Readers of any age can learn about the heart-wrenching experiences of this young bomber pilot and be captivated by his story.

 

The author created this fictional story based on the first hand accounts of her own father and his friends. Sharing these experiences is not something that all veterans are willing to do, and, as time goes by, less are around to do so. That makes this novel even more impressive, and it reads much like a personal memoir. The gritty truth of running from the Nazi's is presented realistically while still being appropriate for younger readers. In fact, I feel that many of them would benefit from understanding what people their age went through and are capable of. (We expect so little from our teenagers these days, but that's another story.)

 

There is little that Henry Forrester does not go through from the time his plane is shot down over German occupied France. He meets amazing people, loses friends, has to make impossible choices, and is forced to keep moving without the opportunity to discover whether those who dare to help him live or die. Henry himself is a somewhat naive Virginia farm boy, who is quickly hardened by what he experiences. He struggles to live by the principles that he has been raised by in the face of inhuman cruelty. In him, it is easy to see millions of young men just like him, many of whom never made it home.

 

Since my grandfather was a pilot in WWII, I appreciate and enjoy stories like this that bring to life the daily hardships and concerns of men that weren't expected to live for more than 16 missions. This book is a wonderful one for younger readers who want to learn about WWII. I would also recommend And Some Fell on Stony Ground as a somewhat deeper look into the mind of an RAF pilot.

Michel Mocker’s memoir of the time he spent in the French Resistance during the Second World War gives and interesting insight into aspects of war seldom considered in fictional novels and movies.

 

A good deal of this important historical story talks about the difficulty in organizing, leading, training, transporting, housing and even feeding hundreds of men and women in a volunteer, irregular army.

 

Because of the details of these logistics, and since René and his compatriots are seldom in combat, the story tends to drag in places.

 

It does, however, ring with sincerity when Mocker’s writes how he felt about the loss of friends, the taking of human life, and the bonds of love and camaraderie forged during this intense experience.

 

The randomness and chaos of war is also evident as well the callousness that comes with dealing with death on a daily basis. When the Resistance ambushed retreating German convoys they would kill enough of the enemy so it would no longer be a threat and then disappear into the forest leaving the Germans to deal with their own wounded and dead. If the Germans surrendered, they stripped them of their weapons, boots and belts, and sent them on their way back to Germany. The Resistance simply did not have the resources to feed prisoners of war or provide medical aide.

 

Likely because it is a factual memoir and spans a relatively short period of time, the narrative flows remarkably well. Even the stilted English adds to its authenticity. This reader could almost hear the author’s accent.

 

However, it’s obvious the services of a good editor would have improved this work immensely without detracting from its validity.

"Just Raoul" is the story of Raoul Laporterie, one of the most active members of the French Resistance during WWII. He was responsible for transporting hundreds of Jewish men, women and children to safety across the lines of Vichy France, using his influence as mayor of his town and a well-known and respected businessman to convince German officials that his business and his passengers were all legitimate.Laporterie's family and friends aided him in his work during the Occupation and even after, as he sought to assist German soldiers and prisoners of war who were grossly mistreated by a French policy of revenge once liberation was complete.The book is based on interviews with Laporterie, his family and friends, as well as their collective archives of letters, official papers and the like. There are some graphic and disturbing descriptions of life under the Vichy government and the post-war period, but I think they are important to an improved understanding of Laporterie's unsung heroism.