Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.
Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.
Kindle Edition, 448 pages
Expected publication:
March 19th 2019
by Graydon House
Genre: Historical Fiction
Kristine's Thoughts:
** I received an advanced readers copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!**
The Things We Cannot Say was a dual time line story between present day America and during the Nazi occupation of Poland in WW11.
In present day, Alice is a stay at home mom to a gifted daughter, a son living with autism, and a husband who spends more time at work than not. She also has a grandmother who is in the last stages of her life with a request that is impossible for her to imagine. With the use of a computer device, she asks Alice to go to Poland for what she thinks is to take pictures of the places she grew up. She has a list of names and some addresses but nothing else. Alice loves her grandmother and wants to honour her wishes but can't even begin to think of what the disruption to her carefully planned out life would do to her son.
In Poland, Alina was a happily naive and spoiled girl who thought only of her future with Tamasz until circumstances had them separated and she was forced to help significantly on her small family farm. The Nazi occupation turned her world upside down in more ways than one and surviving became her main focus. Throughout all of her challenges the only thing that remained constant was her love for Tamasz.
The story weaved back and forth between the two time frames until they eventually collided into one. As is the case with most dual time line stories, I found myself drawn more to the past story. It was such a tragic time where so many unthinkable things occurred that it easily captured my attention. I will say however that as tragic as this war story was it was still cleaner, neater and a little more predictable than most I have read during this time frame. There was death and dying and hardships but with less detailed gore and visuals to go with it. This would be a great book for someone just starting to dip their toes into historical fiction or more specifically WW11 historical fiction.
This is one of my favourite genres and I love dual time lines so it was no surprise that I enjoyed this book. The only thing stopping me from giving it five stars was the fact that I wasn't the biggest fan of either Alice or Alina. There was a tiny bit of selfishness mixed with self righteousness within Alice that I found hard to ignore. With Alina I just found her to be overly naive and quite immature. It made it difficult to picture her in a romantic relationship with someone. Even though I didn't love either of the main characters I was able to look past that and enjoy the story. I think others will too.
This was not the first title by Kelly Rimmer for me and it won't be the last.
The Things We Cannot Say was a dual time line story between present day America and during the Nazi occupation of Poland in WW11.
In present day, Alice is a stay at home mom to a gifted daughter, a son living with autism, and a husband who spends more time at work than not. She also has a grandmother who is in the last stages of her life with a request that is impossible for her to imagine. With the use of a computer device, she asks Alice to go to Poland for what she thinks is to take pictures of the places she grew up. She has a list of names and some addresses but nothing else. Alice loves her grandmother and wants to honour her wishes but can't even begin to think of what the disruption to her carefully planned out life would do to her son.
In Poland, Alina was a happily naive and spoiled girl who thought only of her future with Tamasz until circumstances had them separated and she was forced to help significantly on her small family farm. The Nazi occupation turned her world upside down in more ways than one and surviving became her main focus. Throughout all of her challenges the only thing that remained constant was her love for Tamasz.
The story weaved back and forth between the two time frames until they eventually collided into one. As is the case with most dual time line stories, I found myself drawn more to the past story. It was such a tragic time where so many unthinkable things occurred that it easily captured my attention. I will say however that as tragic as this war story was it was still cleaner, neater and a little more predictable than most I have read during this time frame. There was death and dying and hardships but with less detailed gore and visuals to go with it. This would be a great book for someone just starting to dip their toes into historical fiction or more specifically WW11 historical fiction.
This is one of my favourite genres and I love dual time lines so it was no surprise that I enjoyed this book. The only thing stopping me from giving it five stars was the fact that I wasn't the biggest fan of either Alice or Alina. There was a tiny bit of selfishness mixed with self righteousness within Alice that I found hard to ignore. With Alina I just found her to be overly naive and quite immature. It made it difficult to picture her in a romantic relationship with someone. Even though I didn't love either of the main characters I was able to look past that and enjoy the story. I think others will too.
This was not the first title by Kelly Rimmer for me and it won't be the last.
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