Review: The Daughter’s Tale

Title: The Daughter’s Tale
Author: Armando Lucas Correa
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Format: Ebook
Release Date: May 7, 2019
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

The internationally bestselling author of The German Girldelivers an unforgettable family saga of love and redemption during World War II, based on the true story of the Nazi massacre of a French village in 1944.

New York City, 2015: Elise Duval, eighty years old, receives a phone call from a woman recently arrived from Cuba bearing messages from a time and country that she’s long forgotten. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise and her world are forever changed when the woman arrives with letters written to Elise from her mother in German during the war, unravelling more than seven decades of secrets.

Berlin, 1939: Bookstore owner and recent widow Amanda Sternberg is fleeing Nazi Germany with her two young daughters, heading towards unoccupied France. She arrives in Haute-Vienne with only one of her girls. Their freedom is short-lived and soon they are taken to a labor camp.

Based on true events, The Daughter’s Tale chronicles one of the most harrowing atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II: the 1944 massacre of all the inhabitants of Oradour-Sur-Glane, a small, idyllic village in the south of France. Heartbreaking and immersive, The Daughter’s Tale is a beautifully crafted family saga of love, survival, and hope against all odds.

Review:

I loved this story. It was fast paced, with short chapters, so it was a quick read for me. 

The story was mostly set during World War II. The beginning and the end were in 2015, which looked at the main character in her later life. The first chapter didn’t really make sense until about halfway through the book. There was so much that happened, so it was always exciting. 

The concept of family was fluid in this story. Depending on the situation they had to call different people family. For example, parents had to give up their children to give them a better life, with the strong possibility of never seeing them again. This sometimes meant giving them to friends or even strangers, and hoping that they would be looked after. It was heartbreaking to see families being separated like that, but it was necessary for their survival. 

This was a powerful story! I highly recommend it. 

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Have you read The Daughter’s Tale? What did you think of it?