This book was recommended by a friend. I don’t normally read books about war, because I usually can’t get into them. And the ones that aren’t super detailed and technical (that I can’t get into) are usually just relentlessly sad, and that’s not my jam either! This book was none of that. Of course it was sad, but it was so incredibly filled with hope, and family, and people relentlessly trying to do the right thing that it made it all worth it.
This book flips back and forth between Alina Dziak in the late thirties / early forties in Poland and Alice in present times. Alina is living with her family and telling us all about her sweetheart Tomasz. They were destined to be together since they were very small. His sister is like a sister to Alina, and they’re all a big family. Then war breaks out slowly at first, but with a rapid acceleration to Nazi occupation. People start going missing from her town, Tomasz’s parents are killed while Tomasz is off at college, and his little sister needs saving.
Meanwhile, Alice has two kids and a husband. Her grandmother (no idea how to spell this, sorry) Babchi is not doing well in the hospital. She’s gotten older and is now having strokes. Alice is very close to Babchi, but she also has a young son on the autistic spectrum. He requires a lot of care and sensitivity, but he also loves Babchi.
I absolutely loved the relationship between Alice and her grandmother, and her son and her grandmother. It was beautiful and forgiving and unconditional. Babchi is struggling though, she can’t talk after her stroke, and she’s not understanding English well. They use Alice’s son Eddie’s ipad to help communicate with icons, and they realize Babchi can understand Polish.
Babchi seems to be asking Alice to go to Poland and get Tomasz, but as far as Alice knows, Tomasz was her grandfather who died just the previous year.
I really don’t want to spoil anything, so I won’t say more. This is a beautifully and lovingly written book, and I recommend it to everyone.