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As a Russian Jewish émigré to France, Vera's wealth cannot protect her or her four-year-old-daughter, Lucie, once the Nazis occupy the country. After receiving notice that all foreigners must report to an internment camp, Vera has just a few hours to make an impossible choice: Does she subject Lucie to the horrid conditions of the camp, or does she put her into hiding with her beloved and trusted governess, safe until Vera can retrieve her? Believing the war will end soon, Vera chooses to leave Lucie in safety. She cannot know that she and her husband will have an opportunity to escape, to flee to America. She cannot know that Lucie's governess will have fled with Lucie to family in rural France, too far to reach in time.
And so begins a heartbreaking journey and separation, a war and a continent apart. Vera's marriage will falter under the surreal sun of California. Her ability to write—once her passion—will disappear. But Vera's love for Lucie, her faith that her daughter lives, will only grow. As Vera's determination to return to France and find Lucie crystalizes, she meets Sasha, a man on his own search for meaning. She is stronger with Sasha than she is alone. Together they will journey to Lucie. They will find her fate.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 23, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593347607
- File size: 365565 KB
- Duration: 12:41:35
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from November 23, 2020
In Landau’s powerful latest (after The Empire of the Senses) a Russian Jewish family is separated and forever changed in Vichy France. Vera and Max Volosenkova report to separate internment camps as ordered by the Vichy government in 1940, leaving their four-year-old daughter, Lucie, in the care of Agnes, Lucie’s governess, who takes Lucie to a farm. After Vera and her friend Elsa Freudenberger escape, Elsa is free to pull strings to get her husband and Max freed from their camp. Vera reluctantly agrees to leave Lucie behind, understanding the increased risk of capture if they try to leave the country together. Vera, Max, Elsa, and Leon end up in California as the war continues, where Vera holds out hope for Lucie’s survival with every letter she receives from Agnes. As the defeat of the Germans by the Allied forces becomes imminent, the emotional distance between Vera and Max intensifies, and Vera meets Sasha Rabinovitch, a screenwriter haunted by a suspicion that his biological father was a German soldier whom his Russian-born mother met during WWI. Vera returns to France after the war ends to find Lucie, and Sasha sets her up with a contact from the Resistance, hoping Vera will return to him. Landau brilliantly explores the blurred lines between good and evil as the characters wrestle with their own dire decisions and the choices of those they love. Once this magnetic book takes hold, it doesn’t let go. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary.
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