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The Daughter's Tale
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
Based on the true story of the Nazi massacre of a French village in 1944, an unforgettable tale of love and redemption from the bestselling author of The German Girl.
Berlin, 1939: Bookstore owner and recent widow Amanda Sternberg is fleeing Nazi Germany with her two young daughters, heading towards unoccupied France. She arrives in Haute-Vienne with only one of her girls. Their freedom is short-lived and soon they are taken to a labour camp.
New York City, 2015: Elise Duval, eighty years old, receives a phone call from a woman recently arrived from Cuba bearing messages from a time and country that she's long forgotten. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise and her world are forever changed when the woman arrives with letters written to Elise from her mother in German during the war, unravelling more than seven decades of secrets.
Inspired by one of the most shocking atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, the 1944 massacre of all the inhabitants of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in the south of France, The Daughter's Tale is a beautifully crafted family saga of love, survival and hope against all odds.
‘Breathtakingly threaded together from start to finish with the sound of a beating heart.’ THE NEW YORK TIMES
‘Not many novels bring me to tears… it takes a special storyteller to tell the tale of such devastation. It seems so wrong to say I loved this book, but I did. I loved, I learned, I cried.’ Natasha Lester
'Reminds us that it is in the darkest gardens that the brightest seeds of hope are sown' Kristin Harmel, bestselling author of The Room on Rue Amelie
Berlin, 1939: Bookstore owner and recent widow Amanda Sternberg is fleeing Nazi Germany with her two young daughters, heading towards unoccupied France. She arrives in Haute-Vienne with only one of her girls. Their freedom is short-lived and soon they are taken to a labour camp.
New York City, 2015: Elise Duval, eighty years old, receives a phone call from a woman recently arrived from Cuba bearing messages from a time and country that she's long forgotten. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise and her world are forever changed when the woman arrives with letters written to Elise from her mother in German during the war, unravelling more than seven decades of secrets.
Inspired by one of the most shocking atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, the 1944 massacre of all the inhabitants of the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in the south of France, The Daughter's Tale is a beautifully crafted family saga of love, survival and hope against all odds.
‘Breathtakingly threaded together from start to finish with the sound of a beating heart.’ THE NEW YORK TIMES
‘Not many novels bring me to tears… it takes a special storyteller to tell the tale of such devastation. It seems so wrong to say I loved this book, but I did. I loved, I learned, I cried.’ Natasha Lester
'Reminds us that it is in the darkest gardens that the brightest seeds of hope are sown' Kristin Harmel, bestselling author of The Room on Rue Amelie
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Author
Armando Lucas Correa
Armando Lucas Correa nació en Guantánamo, Cuba. En 1991 llegó a Miami, donde trabajó como periodista en El Nuevo Herald. Luego, en 1997, se mudó a Nueva York y fue contratado como escritor para la recién inaugurada People en Español, de Time Inc., donde desde 2007 es el director editorial. Actualmente vive en Nueva York.
Read more from Armando Lucas Correa
The German Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Daughter's Tale: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of Emma: How We Created Our Family, A Memoir Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Daughter's Tale
Rating: 3.630434726086956 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
46 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Such a sad story. People of the 1940s sure had guts and stamina. :(
SO this is my review from JUNE when I read this one already... I read the first line and said... I READ THIS ALREADY lol.
Onward. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I know we are barely into 2019 but I have a feeling this could end up being my favorite historical fiction read of the year. This book gripped me pretty darn near close to the start and didn't let up until the last page. I highly recommend this one even if you feel like you have read one too many WW2 historical fiction books. It's worth reading.Eighty year old Elise Duvall has been living in New York for the past seven decades when she receives quite a shock. A woman has contacted her and wants to deliver letters written to Elise by her mother during World War 2. Time has a way of helping you forget your past but now all of it will come back to the surface for Elise along with so much she never even knew about.I like when historical fiction books are able to teach me something. In this case there were two things I didn't know about prior to reading. One was the tragic massacre of a village in France in 1944. Another thing that was part of the plot was the ship that left Germany with refugees bound for Cuba. The way both were weaved into the plot made for a compelling story and I am thankful the author chose to include them as it made me interested in looking up more information about both after I was done reading. Most people liked The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and I think if you enjoyed that one you should definitely check this one out. While I thought that book was well-written it took me until almost the end before I felt a strong emotional connection to the characters. With this one it was so easy to immediately feel for the character of Amanda and your heart breaks with the choices she and other characters had to make not knowing how history would play out. One of the themes of the book is what you would be willing to do for someone you love and the different scenarios that played out have left me thinking about them still even though I finished the book days ago. I love when stories just stay with you in your head and that's why this was just a really good reading experience.I won a free advance copy of this book in a giveaway but was under no obligation to post a review. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daughter’s Tale is Correa’s second book of historical fiction, following the publication of The German Girl in 2016. In ‘A Letter to the Reader’ penned by the author he explains the story was inspired by a conversation with a holocaust survivor, and his desire to tell another forgotten story of WWII.Despite the troubling unrest in the streets of Berlin, and then the forced purge and closure of her bookstore, Amanda and her cardiologist husband Julius, naively believe their family, which includes young daughters Viera and Lina, will come to no harm from their German compatriots. It’s not until Julius is forcibly dragged from his office to serve the Führer in 1939, that Amanda finally realises the danger she and her girls are in, and when the pogrom begins, she is forced to flee. One of Julius’s last acts was to secure passage for their daughters on a refugee ship destined for Cuba, but unable to abandon both her children to an unknown fate thousands of miles away from her, Amanda sends only Viera to her brother’s adopted homeland. With three year old Lina in tow, Amanda makes her way to a friend’s home in southern France, hoping to escape the persecution she and her daughter face as German Jews.Correa’s tale is one of courage, hope, desperation, and tragedy, as Amanda and Lina fight to survive among those that hunt, and fear, them. I appreciated the way in which he shows how Amanda struggles with each decision she makes, never certain if her choices will save, or condemn them. A brief period of respite with her friend Claire and her daughter, Danielle, renews Amanda’s optimism for the future, and she writes loving letters to Viera on the few pages she rescued from her favourite book, a botanical encyclopaedia, hoping they will find her in safe in Cuba. But their situation worsens when France surrenders to the Nazi’s, and Amanda grows ever more determined that Lina will have a future, and eventually reunite with her sister, no matter the cost to herself. The strength of A Daughter’s Tale is in the characterisation, Amanda and Lina in particular are fully realised and sympathetically rendered. I was especially affected by the guilt Amanda felt, and the sacrifices she made. Where it suffered, I felt, was in the pacing. Though I liked the way in which the story was introduced, and ended with Elise in 2015, I think the tale in Germany perhaps began too early. Only a fraction of the story, barely a few pages in fact, actually features the horrific event in 1944, where the villagers of Oradour-Sur-Glane in the south of France, were brutally massacred by soldiers, though the tragedy becomes a pivotal moment for Lina. Such a heinous act is difficult to convey, and while I think Correa gave it the gravitas it deserved, I’m not sure the brevity had the impact within the story that the author hoped for.A Daughter’s Tale is a moving novel, also exploring larger themes such as identity, home, family and faith, it’s impossible to be unaffected by the experiences portrayed by Correa.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I’ve read quite a few books set during World War II and always seem to come across a piece of history that I didn’t know much about. With this novel it was a mix of events I was aware of and some events that I had heard of only in the vaguest sense. The story centers around a young mother and her two daughters and begins at the start of World War II. The mother, Amanda Sternberg, was to place her two daughters alone on a ship bound for Cuba, then she was to go to the home of a family friend in France to wait out the war until the family could be re-united. Shockingly, Amanda decides to send the older daughter alone at the last moment.I was a bit surprised that readers were not privy to the older daughter’s journey. Instead, the author focused on Amanda and the younger daughter named Lina or Elise. The story begins and ends in 2015, but delves back into the past to chronicle the events that occurred during the war.Most notable was the horrific act the Nazis carried out on the small small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. From here on, the story centers around young Lina/Elise and what ends up happening to her.I think avid historical fiction or World War II enthusiasts will not find this book holds anything new, but others who aren’t as well read in these areas will be captivated by the story. I felt that most of it revolved around the plight of the displaced children and from reading the book, it had me wondering just how many people survived the war with no family and possibly not even knowing who they really were or even who their parents had been.Many thanks to Net-Galley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of offer an honest review.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I received this from GoodReads giveaway.I started to read this one when I realized I also had the author's debut novel, The German Girl. Figuring this second one was a sequel, I read the debut first, which I really enjoyed. When I finished with The Daughter's Tale, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it is a good story, not a sequel, but about another family on that same ship St Louis. I was disappointed in that it felt a little too muddled, parts of were cut short (it seemed), and the ending not as satisfying as The German Girl. I would like to have heard more about Elise's life in New York. These two novels are based on true events.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A read that will pull you in and not let go, the ultimate sacrifice of a mother when she gives life to her daughters twice, and knowing that she will most likely never see them again.Knowing that a lot that is presented in this book is sadly true, and hoping while I was reading that history would change, but as you will see no.What begins with an old woman receiving letters, and then we are given the background from whence they came, but then end with the recipient.A book that does become a compelling page turner, and is filled with people that gave all they had for their fellow man, selfless acts of love, but also a read that we hope will never be repeated by mankind.I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Atria Books, and was not required to give a positive review.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5This book alternates between WWII Berlin and France and the present day. In the present day, 80 year old Elise receives a phone call, and then a box of letters written from her mother during WWII. In the past, Amanda and her two young daughters are forced to flee Berlin after Amanda's husband is arrested. Amanda makes a heartbreaking decision to send her oldest daughter alone to Cuba, and take her youngest daughter with her to France. This book had a surreal/dreamy quality to it that made it seem less than real. There was some problems with the writing style and point of views that took away from the story line. At seemingly random times, the author would switch pov, which took away from the flow of the story. Overall, not a book I would re-read or recommend.