I was so excited to see this book as one of the selections on my online library. So often they get books that I’m not typically interested in, self help books, religious books, sci-fi books, romance. When I saw this, I snapped it before I read the reviews. I hoped it would be good. The book was The Daughter’s Tale by Armando Lucas Correa.
So did I like it.
It was a good enough book…fabulous, I guess I’m going to say no because I didn’t fight to get time in my life to listen to it. If I have a good book I’ll sit in the living room, tv off, stitching and listening to an audiobook. I wouldn’t have done that with this book.
Without giving too much away, the mom ends up prostituting herself for what she saw as a chance to save her daughter. There was no internal struggle that the reader was privy to for her to do this. Then she goes from supposedly being fine with prostituting herself to stabbing the guy without any feeling.
Then I looked and saw the book was written by a guy. I know that sounds bad on my part, but seriously, most women I know would have a HUGE personal struggle with letting that happen to yourself. Most women I know would then “like” the attention from the guy. Most women I know wouldn’t then easily stab him. All of this was done with no emotional shared with the reader. Ah…not a book I can love.
I can understand how a mom could come to that conclusion, but never without a huge personal struggle.
Here’s what Amazon has to say:
“Seven decades of secrets unravel with the arrival of a box of letters from the distant past, taking readers on a harrowing journey from Nazi-occupied Berlin, to the South of France, to modern-day New York City.
Berlin, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the South of France. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape and there, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Once in Haute-Vienne, her brief respite is inter rupted by the arrival of Nazi forces, and Amanda finds herself in a labor camp where she must once again make a heroic sacrifice.
New York, 2015. Eighty-year-old Elise Duval receives a call from a woman bearing messages from a time and country that she forced herself to forget. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise is shocked to discover that the letters were from her mother, written in German during the war. Her mother’s words unlock a floodgate of memories, a lifetime of loss un-grieved, and a chance—at last—for closure.
Based on true events and “breathtakingly threaded together from start to finish with the sound of a beating heart†(The New York Times Book Review), The Daughter’s Tale is an unforgettable family saga of love, survival, and redemption.”
Amazon readers gave the book 4 stars. I think I’ll have to agree. The book was okay, but I didn’t fall in love with any of the characters. It’s hard to love a book that I can’t envision myself as on of the characters.
If you are interested in the book you can find it HERE on Amazon.
If you are interested in giving Audible a try, you can find it HERE.