Pages from the Past

March's Title: News of Our Loved Ones by Abigail DeWitt

Set in France and America, this is a haunting and intimate examination of love and loss, beauty and the cost of survival, witnessed through two generations of one French family, whose lives are all touched by the tragic events surrounding the D-Day bombings in Normandy. What if your family's fate could be traced back to one indelible summer? Over four long years, the Delasalle family has struggled to live in their Nazi occupied village in Normandy. Maman, Oncle Henri, Yvonne, and Francoise silently watched as their Jewish neighbors were arrested or wordlessly disappeared. Now in June 1944, when the sirens wail each day, warning of approaching bombers, the family wonders if rumors of the coming Allied invasion are true--and if they will survive to see their country liberated. For sixteen-year-old Yvonne, thoughts of the war recede when she sees the red-haired boy bicycle past her window each afternoon. Pausing to consider the shadow of a passing cloud as she raises her bow, she does not know that her family's home in Normandy lies in the path of British and American bombers. While Genevieve plays, her brother Simon and Tante Chouchotte, anxiously await news from their loved ones in Normandy. Decades later, Genevieve, the wife of an American musician, lives in the United States. Each summer she returns to her homeland with her children, so that they may know their French family. Genevieve's youngest daughter, Polly, becomes obsessed with the stories she hears about the war, believing they are the key to understanding her mother and the conflicting cultures shaping her life. Moving back and forth in time, told from varying points of view, this novel explores the way family histories are shared and illuminates the power of storytelling to understand the past and who we are.

Pick up your book at the Circulation desk.

This book club will meet monthly on the fourth Monday of each month at 6:30 pm. We will be reading mostly historical fiction books and the occasional popular non-fiction title.