Title: The Book of Lost Names
Published: 2020
Call #: FIC Harmel
http://pclib.polarislibrary.com/view.aspx?author=harmel&title=book+of
In her fifth WWII novel, Kristin Harmel tells the story of a forger’s quest to make sure the people she’s helping don’t forget who they were. In 2005, Eva Traube Adams stumbles upon a man hoping to reunite owners with books stolen by the Nazi during WWII. He’s intrigued by one book which seems to contain a code and Eva has the answer since she’s the one who put it there.
After she witnesses her father’s arrest for being Jewish, she uses her artistic skills to create fake documents for her and her mother to leave Nazi occupied Paris. They retreat to a small town near the Switzerland border. It is only meant to be a stopover before making it to freedom, but the local Resistance group recognizes Eva’s skill at forgery and requests her help in creating documents for the children they are helping escape France. Unable to ignore those in need, Eva stays, drawn both to cause and her attraction to fellow forger Remy. Together they created the code that they put in an old religious text as a way to keep track of the true identities of everyone they help so that their past won’t be erased, but the ever-increasing presence of the Nazis and war threaten to expose them all.
Not only does this book offer an interesting insight into the role of forgers in the war, but it poses thought provoking questions about identity. Eva’s mother constantly claims Eva is losing herself as she moves forward with her life, forgetting about her father who they left behind and losing her religion as she works in a Catholic church and falls for a Catholic boy. In the same way, does creating a new name and identity for a person erase where they came from? Through an engaging story with the threat of war and a touch of romance, this book questions what defines a person and what matters most when the end can happen at any moment.
Mary-Megan K.
Popular Materials Asst.