The blurb: A gripping story of three young women faced with impossible choices. How will history -and their families- judge them? Paris,1940. With the city occupied by Nazis, three young seamstresses go about their lives as best they can. But all three are hiding secrets. War scarred Mireille is fighting with the Resistance; Claire has been seduced by a German officer; and Vivienne’s involvement is something she can’t reveal to either of them. Two generations later, Claire’s English granddaughter Harriet arrives in Paris, rootless and adrift, desperate to find a connection with her past. Living and working in the same building on the Rue Cardinale, she learns the truth about her grandmother - and herself - and unravels a family history that is darker and more painful than she ever imagined. In wartime, the three seamstresses face impossible choices when their secret activities put them in grave danger. Brought together by loyalty, threatened by betrayal, can they survive history’s darkest era without being torn apart?
My thoughts: I struggled to get into this one at first, although I can’t be sure if that was because of the book itself, or because I was in a pretty bad place, pain wise with my Crohn’s at the time. So I feel like this is one I will need to go back and reread at some point when, I’m fairing a little better.
The fact that I do want to go back and reread says a lot for this book though, and I actually devoured the last half pretty quickly and was touched by the character’s strength and determination, in the face of horrendous treatment and seemingly insurmountable odds.
This authors character development wasn’t as strong as I would have liked, the three seamstresses personality’s do seem to bleed together quite a bit, with little to really distinguish them. And Harriet seems a little pointless to the story, until the last few chapters, where she is used to highlight the struggles of women in France in world war 2 and the effect their trauma may have carried through the generations.
That said though I do feel that this book carry’s a beautiful message and one that I found very relatable and uplifting, given my present battle with Crohn’s and the horrible chemo, they are pumping into my body.
In one of Harriet’s chapters, as she is piecing together all she has learned we read “Claire and Vivi showed how much the human spirit can endure: brutality, cruelty, inhumanity - all of these can be borne. It is the loss of those you love that is unbearable.”
And she is right of course, we are capable of enduring far more than we ever imagined possible, and it’s through these trials that we grow and become stronger. And Fiona (the author of this book) seems to have an incredible grasp of human nature, the ways we doubt ourselves and the way in which despite those doubts we are able to over come seemingly insurmountable odds.
And the three seamstresses all show this in their own way, as each one battles feelings of self doubt, guilt, and remorse, while continuing to fight to survive, in a cruel and inhumane world. Putting themselves at risk over and over again, as they fought against the evil that was all around them, doing seemingly small things, that made a big difference, not necessarily to bringing the end of the war, but certainly to a few of the battered souls who found themselves caught up in it, and desperate for salvation.
As is expressed again in one of Harriet’s end chapters that reads : “They were ordinary people, but the extraordinary times that they lived in saw them step up to become extraordinary too. No matter how tough it got, no matter how dark the night, they never gave in.”
In today’s modern world, it is hard to believe that we could endure and survive as they did back in the 1940’s. The recent world pandemic of COVID - 19 , certainly hasn’t portrayed the human race in the same light as those facing the horrors of world war 2. We have moaned and complained, at simply being asked to stay at home, and wear masks, not caring that our selfishness may put others at risk. While our ancestors, waved their loved ones off to war, not knowing if they would ever see them again. And the women stepped up and worked in munition factories and the land army and went across into Europe and desperately fought to save the lives of those sent to fight for us, enduring things we can’t even begin to imagine.
But I like to think that Harriet is right when she says “I know I have a little of her courage. I know, if I am called upon, I will stand up, as she did, and turn to face danger. I won’t run away. I will fight for what is most important. For life.”
And that’s the reality isn’t it, for every bad person out there in the world, there are thousands of ordinary people who are capable of extraordinary things. And as history has shown, it’s those ordinary people who can change the world.
And it’s that message of hope, strength and love that Fiona hammers home so well and which makes this book a beautiful and heartwarming read. That reminds us of what those who came before us sacrificed, in order that we can now live in a world that is no longer suffocated by the hateful minds behind the atrocities of world war 2.
And though we can never truly erase all the evil from this world, as Fiona shows by illustrating the hate in Harriets own times, through the terrorist attacks that plagued France and the rest of the world, not so many years ago, we are, as a whole, bigger and stronger than that evil and that is why it is so important that we never forget.
So yes, I recommend that you not only read this book, but share this story with others, to keep alive what all our ancestors sacrificed for us and future generations. To help those struggling in whatever form, be it to fight for their rights, or for life, as they battle physical or mental illness, or through the loss of those they love, to stay strong and keep on keeping on.
I will certainly be reading it again in the future, when I can fully absorb it in its entirety.
Love and hugs Joss xx
P.S. apologies for any errors I may have made in the writing of this and any future posts. My Crohns and the chemo medication I am on, can make it difficult for my brain to function properly, meaning I muddle words sometimes and misspell things among other errors.
So please bare with me and know that I am trying my best and remember to stay healthy cause the alternative sucks XX
