by Cesca Major
First published 2018
Adeline sits silent in a French convent in 1952, unable to remember who she is or how she arrived there eight years earlier, wounded and traumatized. The war feels distant now, but its scars remain fresh. A determined doctor works to unlock her memories, and slowly Adeline begins to speak again. She remembers fragments of 1940, when German forces occupied France and shattered the quiet village of Oradour. She recalls Sébastien, cheerful and in love with beautiful Isabelle, forced to flee to avoid deportation. She remembers Paul, Isabelle's brother, sent to fight at the front where death waits daily. The villagers gathered in her small shop, where she offered smiles to everyone. As her memories return, Adeline realizes she must journey back to the place where everything happened, where someone might still be waiting for her.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, war, mystery
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: journey, unreliable-narrator
Setting: France, Oradour, French Convent
Period: 1940, 1952
Hardcover · TRE60
Content warnings: violence, war