Title: The Things We Cannot Say

Author: Kelly Rimmer

Publisher: Graydon House 2019

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 432

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library

In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.

Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate.

Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.

I’ve been really over the various WWII books this year, but this one was our book club selection for February. And I found that I mostly really enjoyed this one. I loved Alina’s story during the war. It was tough to read, but a great perspective on the war. You don’t often get stories centered in Poland during the 1940s. The first person narration felt a lot like Alina telling us her story from old age. I was fascinated by the mystery of Alina’s future. However I know need to go to the bad. I was not a fan of the modern story line. Well, that’s not quite true. I liked the sections where Alice tried to uncover the mystery of her Babcia’s life during the war and in Poland. I was on pins and needles waiting for the reveal of the players and what happened. I was not a fan of Alice’s voice throughout the modern sections. The voice was very whiny and informal. I thought I was reading a blog post instead of a published novel. The voice was grating. If I could have ignored the voice, I would have given the book 5 stars.

Next up on the TBR pile: