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Wednesday, November 18, 2020

The Book of Lost Names

We chose “The Book of Lost Names” by Kristin Harmel for our November 2020 book and found it to be a powerful, and incredible story based on the true-life story of a talented young women thrust into helping Jewish children escape the Nazis in WWII France.

The book begins with Eva, a librarian in Florida, learning that a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years has been discovered in France, and she knows far more about it than the researchers who discovered it. They realize it appears to have some kind of code, but are unable to decipher it, and Eva realizes it’s time her story came out. Years of hiding her past are about to come to an end.

A Jewish student in France, her father is arrested and taken away as she and her mother happen to be helping a neighbor. They manage to get to a mountain town in the Free Zone, but begins forging documents for the French resistance, allowing Jewish children to flee to Switzerland. The story that follows is powerful, intriguing and fascinating- allowing readers a small insight into some of the ways people fought back had less to do with guns, and more to do with other gifts.

The book left a powerful impression and we had a lovely discussion about this very interesting story.

“Once you’ve fallen in love with books, their presence can make you feel at home anywhere, even in places where you shouldn’t belong.” Kristin Harmel, The Book of Lost Names