historical fiction
Eva and her mother must flee Paris when the Nazis begin
arresting Jewish citizens. She is artistic and, with assistance, teaches
herself how to forge documents so that the two of them can board a train to a
small town that promises safety. There, she joins a resistance cell and helps
to save hundreds of Jewish children during the war. This novel is told from two
points in time of Eva’s life: one during WWII and one in 2005 when she finds
out that a very important book from her Nazi resistance days has resurfaced.
She feels compelled to travel to Germany to claim the book.
The Book of Lost Names is definitely a fantastic tale about heroic
activities during the war and Eva is a brave, smart, and kind character. I
loved the general storyline and reading about her. The last quarter of the
novel is almost un-put-downable. However, I never love a story where parents
are terrible to their children. Eva’s mother erroneously and continuously blamed
Eva for their situation. The fact that she was never able to think of things
from anyone else’s point of view but her own made her a very flat, evil
character. I hated her. And I didn’t believe in her as a real person. I felt
her lack of awareness was too far-fetched and a forced story device by Kristin Harmel to add
tension to the novel. Basically, that character contaminated my enjoyment of
the novel. The rest of the cast was terrific.
I also didn’t enjoy the audiobook narrator, Madeleine Maby,
which likely colored my opinion of this novel. She could be very
robotic and/or slow-paced at times and I simply didn’t like her vocal tone. It sometimes sounded like
she had gum or cotton in her cheeks and, while her accents were good and her
voice repertoire was not bad, she gave her lowest and stiffest voice to the mother. I
assume she did this to make her sound evil. But I thought it gave too much away from the beginning of the novel and was not the right choice. When Maby wasn’t annoying me, her voice acting wasn’t
bad. I’ll give her a B-.
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