A remarkably sensitive depiction of the teenage psyche under unthinkable pressure.
In Andrews’ historical novel, two French siblings and their dog desperately attempt to escape invading German forces in 1918.
Marcel and Geneviève Durand, 15 and 13 years old, respectively, live in Bouresches, a region of France soon to be evacuated as German troops march perilously close to it. However, Claire, their mother, is terrified by the prospect of evacuating because Geneviève is gravely ill with pneumonia and likely to die if compelled to walk even a modest distance. The Germans inevitably arrive, and Claire dies protecting Geneviève from their furious assault on the town. The children’s father, Pierre, also perishes fighting on the front, and they are left orphaned, their only guardian a fiercely devoted border collie named Abby. Marcel remembers they have a cousin named Henri somewhere in Paris—maybe in Neuilly-sur-Seine—but he has never met him and doesn’t even know his cousin’s last name. Abby, though, knows Henri and his wife, Sophie, well—they were once her owners. In this moving tale, Abby herds the siblings through a countryside ravaged by war, a dangerous journey that threatens the life of the ailing Geneviève. The story is told from multiple perspectives—including Abby’s, who is depicted with great nuance as deeply intelligent (border collies are “geniuses of the dog world”) but still not overly anthropomorphized: “I may not understand human sadness, but I know what it smells and looks like. It fills the house,” the canine observes. The opportunities here for schmaltzy sentimentality are manifold, and occasionally the author simply can’t help but indulge, especially toward the conclusion of the novel. However, for the most part, Andrews resists the allure of maudlin melodrama and limns a surprisingly unflinching tale of loss and survival. This is often a profoundly forlorn story, but not a hopeless one, and it is as emotionally affecting as it is historically authentic.
A remarkably sensitive depiction of the teenage psyche under unthinkable pressure.Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9798989383542
Page Count: 300
Publisher: 46 North Publications
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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