Book Review The Book of Lost Names

 

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Inspired by true stories of the resistance from WW II “The Book of Lost Names” by Kristin Harmel is a work of historical fiction. It begins in 2005. when eighty-six-year-old Eva Traube, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, sees a photo in a magazine that's an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years—a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite children with families they were taken from long ago. The photograph in the article was an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war but now is housed in Berlin’s Zentral- and Landesbibliothek library. The book appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. The story then switches seamlessly to the events of World War II beginning in 1942.

Eva and her mother are forced to flee Paris when her father, a Polish-born Jew is arrested. They arrive in a small town in Free France, and Eva's artistic skills are pressed into service. She joins the resistance and begins forging documents for children who are being escorted across the border into Switzerland. While she understands the importance of what they are doing, she feels it is equally important that a record is kept of the children's real identities, with the hope that after the war they can be reunited with their families. With the help of the forger Rémy they come up with the ingenious idea to record the real names of the children they helped using codes formulated from the Fibonacci sequence. This allowed the information to be hidden in the pages of an old book in the church library which they called The Book of Lost Names. 

The story is a reminder of just how powerful books are to the reader. I found Harmel's writing superb, and mesmerizing.  Since Harmel's characters were so well-developed and realistic the storyline captured my attention from beginning to end.  I finished the book in 24 hours. The book appears to be well-documented. I found the book to be informative learning more about a time in history when people's heroic deeds made a difference as they took enormous risks to help others. Certainly, the story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery to face evil. I found the addition of real-world elements to the story enhanced its appeal.  Of course, adding a bit of romance always keeps the readers engaged. Parts of the ending I did find implausible but see what you think. 

Harmel's dedication to librarians and booksellers was a heartwarming acknowledgment at the end of the book as well as adding a note of gratitude to the work of book bloggers and reviewers. The power of words prevails in this novel.

All About The Author

Kristin Harmel is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels including The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Book of Lost Names, The Room on Rue Amélie, and The Sweetness of Forgetting.

In “The Book of Lost Names” she bases her fiction on extensive historical research, including real-life forgers who had heroic roles during the war. Eva is fictional, but her story draws from fact.