NO SPOILERS!!!I am not going to provide many excerpts for this novel. The writing is neither bad, nor exceptionally good, a story is simply being told, a story about some Belgian characters during WWI and a clandestine newspaper. Perhaps if one is more religiously oriented than I am, this book would appeal to you more than it appeals to me. Here follows an example of the religious thoughts so frequently expressed in this book:
"We'll face the consequences, whatever they may be." Genny drew her close again. "But remember this, my little Isa: whatever happens, God is with us." (page 313)
Many chapters begin with a few lines from the newspaper La Libre Belgique. The lines are translated into English. Although it is interesting to that such documentation is included in this novel of historical fiction, I felt the connection between these lines and the following chapter was frequently thin. I kept wondering why is that quote put at the beginning of this chapter?! The author's note at the novel's end in fact states that the majority of these lines are fictional.
And there are some humorous lines, such as this describing German soldiers posted in front and behind a house:
But through the window she saw guards posted in the yard. No doubt they came as a matching set, one for the front as well. (page 308)
Overall, what I appreciate most with this novel of historical fiction is not the story, but the references to places ( squares and prisons and parks and town halls) in Brussels that I know. This is fun; I know exactly where the characters are moving and what the surroundings look like there and there and there. References to historical people, such as Father Clemenceau, Brand Whitlock and Edith Cavell, are also entertaining because there are squares and hospitals and streets in Brussels names after them! I hadn't known that Brand Whitlock was the American ambassador to Belgium during WWI.
Nevertheless, this is a very light novel, more about a woman and a man and their romantic feelings for each other – flirtations, misunderstandings and the overall development of their relationship commencing from an early childhood friendship.
Do you enjoy cinematic endings? If you do, add some more bonus points if you are trying to determine if the book is for you. I can only give it one star. I would have to be much more religiously inclined to give it more.
