#7
Title: The Things We Cannot Say
Author: Kelly Rimmer
First published: 2019
Pages: 408
MY RATING: 7/10
I’d been wanting to read a wartime romance for a while and this book was perfect. at first I was hating because the writing wasn’t as elevated as it could’ve been in some parts, weak imagery and characterisation and whatnot, but it grew on me and didn’t seem so bad the more I read. I loved that the build up towards the past and present reconciling was deliberate and when the dots connected at the end it was really profoundly tragic
long story short, it’s about a Polish woman (Alice) in present day America who’s having troubles with a loving but unhappy marriage, and her ninety something year old grandmother who is on her deathbed and unable to communicate verbally but desperate to send someone to Poland immediately to find answers and closure about the boy she loved but was separated from due to Nazi occupation in ~1940, who promised he would follow her but never did. also closure about what happened to her family back home after she fled the war, as she established a life in America without ever having spoken about her complicated past pretty much until she was about to die. Alice takes on the task of visiting her grandmother’s hometown in Poland for answers
it’s a very sad truth that comes to light, and adding to the depth of it all is how Alice rediscovers herself in her quest to learn about her grandmother’s life and her own family roots, and her marriage takes a turn for the better, it was wholesome
only thing that really resonated with me though was the grandmother’s (Alina’s) and her fiance’s (Tomasz) life together in Poland and the way their relationship endured and deepened through and despite their circumstances
Happy to be reading a little again now that I’m on break
