I have read several of Hannah's books but I think this one is my favorite. It is a novel in which most of the story takes place in France during WWII. It begins in the United States in 1995 with a brief introduction to an elderly woman who was recently widowed. In preparation of her final move she has gone up to her attic and opened a trunk that has been closed for decades. In the bottom of it is a carte d'identité for a young woman named Juliette Gervaise. And immediately we are transported back to 1939 in the Loire Valley, home to a woman named Vianne Mauriac. She is living a happy life with her husband and their daughter, Sophie. But soon things will change as war approaches and changes Vianne's life forever. She is no stranger to the ways that war can change people. Her father had come back from the previous war a different person. When she was a teenager her mother died and she found herself with a needy four-year-old sister living in a foster home. Isabelle is herself a teenager and has been kicked out of several schools. She has gone to tell her father that she wants to help out in the war effort. Her father insists that she flee Paris and go to help Vianne now that her husband is in the army. On that journey she meets a young man who thinks she could be helpful.
This book will keep you engaged from beginning to end. It is about war, love, bravery, sacrifice, friendship, loyalty and secrets. Be ready to ignore the things you should be doing so that you can just keep reading - that's what I did!
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