User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
This book is a WWII Historical fiction. This book has two timeline 2005 (Eva in the present) and the 1940's (Eva in the past). This book is all about WWII when Germany takes over Paris, France. Eva is a Jewish girl that lived in Paris. This book will stay with me for so long. It will touch your heart. Eva is a girl that loves book that after the war become a librarian, but during the war she helped Jewish kids escape France to safe their life. She used The Book of Lost Name to help her remember all the kids real names. This book has sadness, l0ve, misunderstanding, and so much more. If you loved The Nightingale you will love this or if you love historical fiction books about WWII Paris France books. I loved this book so much, and this book should get a million stars. This is one of the best historical fiction books I have read. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher or author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
Happy Publication Day to The Book Of Lost Names!
3.5 stars. The tearful ending made me round up to 4 instead of down to 3.
An eye-opening and informative, lighter WWII story.
Eva and her mother are forced to flee their apartment in Paris after being added to the list of Jews in the round up. Before Eva’s father is captured, he provided a plan for Eva and her mother to flee to Switzerland. Eva takes charge and leads her mother to a small, hidden town at the Swiss border. There she and her mother blend in and become part of the small town Resistance where Eva learns the intricate art of forgery, aiding hundreds of young Jewish children in making their way to safety.
This book was a mix of things for me. I enjoyed it and loved the main character, Eva. Eva’s mother, on the other hand, irritated me from start to finish. Her constant negativity was a frustration to endure and I found she distracted me from the story.
I enjoyed learning about the Resistance group who worked so hard to save the Jewish children. However, the majority of the novel lacked the emotional pull and connection I had expected. I didn’t feel any of the true grit and darkness of these wartime atrocities.
Eva’s story in becoming a forger for the Resistance was very interesting and I loved learning about that, however, I wanted more focus on the children the Resistance was saving. I wanted to be fully immersed within the underground children’s rescue mission and hoped for more detail surrounding that underground Resistance network. Had the novel focused more on the underground Resistance network and less on the romance, it would have been much more enjoyable.
A recurring issue I had with the storyline was how many times Eva had faced a “close call”. There were too many convenient instances of officers looking the other way or yawning while checking paperwork which took away from my investment in the story and made it a predictable, lighter, less intense read.
The ending had a great twist that kicked my enjoyment up a notch. After feeling less than emotionally invested for the first 80%, I shed a few tears at the end which was a pleasant surprise.
Overall, it was a well-written, interesting and entertaining read with some wonderful characters, but lacked the emotional depth and grit I crave with historical fiction reads.
Loved this quote: “She doesn’t understand what it means to love books so passionately that you would die without them, that you would simply stop breathing, stop existing.”
Rating: really liked it
Holocaust stories are never easy to read and they shouldn’t be. While we never see the horrors of the death camps in this novel, we see the heartbreaking impact on so many, especially children, whose mothers and fathers were rounded up by the Nazis sent to those camps, killed there or before they get there. It tells of the brave and good people of the French Resistance who risked their lives, some of whom lost family of their own, forging documents and transporting Jewish children to safety. The narrative follows a pattern that I’ve seen in so many recent novels, alternating the past and present, tying the two together and this is so well done here. While the characters are imagined, they represent some real people and their courageous acts to save the lives of so many. This is discussed by the author in her notes at the end to put the imagined story in context with the history.
Eva Traube Abrams, an eighty six year old semi retired librarian has shut out her past, kept it from her family. When she sees a newspaper article about a librarian in Berlin trying to connect people with books that might have been theirs before the Nazis looted libraries in Europe, she knows she can no longer shut out her story. The photo of a book Epitres et Evangiles (Epistles and Gospels), called The Book of Lost Names by Eva and others who forged documents to save Jewish children is more than just a Catholic Church text. It contains secret codes that preserved the given names of some of the children saved. “I want to keep a list of the children we are falsifying documents for. They belong to someone, all of them... Because someone should remember.” Eva’s desire in this beautiful way reflects my belief as well as so many others, that it is so very important to remember these victims.
The novel is filled with tension and intrigue and it’s also a love story. I thought it was such a worthwhile story to read, but I took off a star since the ending, while touching, was predictable and didn’t strike me as realistic. Having said that, I highly recommend it to historical fiction fans, especially those who are as compelled as I am to read these stories and to insure that the victims of the Holocaust, both those who died and those who survived, are not forgotten.
I received a copy of this book from Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster through Edelweiss.
Rating: really liked it
I have been looking forward to reading this book because the premise sounded interesting. A Jewish forger who helped forge the papers of Jewish children in France to send them to Switzerland. She also records their old names in a book called “the book of lost names”. I love WWII stories but I think it’s about time I take a break. They used to affect me a lot but I guess now since I’ve read more than average I’m more difficult to impress?
I sadly couldn’t connect with this book on any level. While it wasn’t a chore listening to the audiobook, the narration was smooth and clear, the story itself didn’t interest me much. Eva was very undecisive and while she didn’t let her mother control her, she certainly started the self-blame on very absurd stuff. For example, her mother told her it’s her fault her father got captured (she had NOTHING to do with it and could’ve done NOTHING to help) she just wondered if it’s truly her fault. Her personality lacked depth honestly and a “character”.
But that’s fine, not enough reason to rate this book 2 stars.. if it wasn’t for the mother. She annoyed me so damn much. Her characterization was unrealistic. She blamed her daughter for everything and didn't “grasp” that it’s war. For example, Eva warned them about the Jews's capture. Her parents didn’t take the warning seriously. And then the mother blames Eva? She sounded like a child and not a mother. War changes people, usually makes them tougher and stronger. Not like winy children with fictional expectations of war. She wasn’t worried her daughter might get captured, no she only wanted to break into a jail/camp whatever and save her husband. She didn’t have any mental disabilities to be clear and I didn’t think she was meant to be portrayed as a bad mother, that’s why I think her characterization wasn’t good.
I also wish the romance wasn’t so central to the plot, Remy was cool but it just didn’t do it for me. I wouldn’t recommend this book if you’re looking for something new and refreshing in this subgenre especially since this isn’t based on specific true events (at least the forging part). Overall, this book wasn’t bad but it lacked originality in this genre. It’s not easy to write a touching WWII story nowadays without just simply playing with the reader’s feelings and I’m glad the author didn’t do that here. I wish however the story had more depth, complexity, and fewer cliché moments.
Rating: really liked it
I really wanted to like this book, the premise was really intriguing, but I did not like the execution. The book's summary starts, "Inspired by an astonishing true story," which I feel is misleading. Yes there were forgers in Nazi-occupied France but Eva, the cast of characters around her, and even the town, are all fictional. There was no Jewish female forger who served as the basis for Eva. Historical fiction novels run the gamut from fictionalized accounts of real people to fictional stories set in historically accurate settings. This book is the later. But that has more to do with the publisher's marketing strategy than the author.
My reactions to Eva, her characterization, and the plot, ranged from disinterested to anger. First, the author cannot seem to decide who Eva is - is she an observant/religious Jewish woman from a religious family that prides their religious observance (as implied by the juxtaposition of Eva to Joseph on p.7), an unaffiliated Jewish woman from a family that is somewhat observant, non-practicing from a non-practicing family, a woman of faith who loses her connection to Judaism as time goes on, a woman who struggles with her Jewish identity, or a woman who is completely disinterested and the only reason why she is nominally Jewish is because the story is set in WWII France, a good Catholic girl? The author cannot seem to decide. Eva is Jewish and observant, when convenient, Eva is not observant and not Jewish when convenient. If Eva is an observant Jew from an observant family, she certainly doesn't act like it. Not a single internal monologue about how she has to change her practice, keep her practice hidden, does not feel connected to Judaism, or anything. I forgot Eva was Jewish until one of the side characters mentions it.
For a novel primarily written in the first person, Eva does not tell us anything about her actions. The reader only discovers it because other characters comment on her behavior. Eva became Catholic and began practicing Catholicism - we learn this from her mother, not from Eva herself. And even then, Eva doesn't address it.
Eva is also terrible at keeping secrets and staying under the radar. Makes false identity cards for herself and her mother so that they can pass as non-Jews, immediately reveals her true indentity to everyone she meets. Gets a new fake identity, immediately reveals it again. Meets Joseph under a pseudonym and told to not use his real name around people. Eva and her mother IMMEDIATELY call Joseph by his true name in front of the boardinghouse proprietress, the exact person they were told to NOT reveal his name to. Similar incidents happen with Genevieve. Either Eva is terrible at keeping secrets or the author got confused and put the wrong names in the text.
The romance between Eva and Remy felt forced and was uninteresting. Why can't female protagonists doing cool stuff - forgery for the resistance and saving children and others from the Nazis, stand on their own? Why shoehorn a problematic romance into the story. Eva's story should have been interesting on its own.
Random fictionalized Nazi with a heart of gold - ugh hard pass. Why is this here?
The author also used poor choice of phrases. Once is a mistake. Three or more times is intentional. The author describes Eva as choosing to walk into the fire, a Jewish child with grief tattooed on her, and Eva states that the Catholic priest "redeemed her." Incredibly problematic language to use for a Jewish character during the Holocaust.
The book left me wondering if the author is Jewish or if the author is a random person who decided to make a Jewish character just for kicks but then didn't want to commit to actually writing an observant Jewish protagonist as a heroine in a WWII but not Holocaust story.
The summary on the back of the book promised me a story about a resistance member who worked as a forger to save children, recorded their identities, and then resurfaces after the war to track down the children and the fight to reclaim them and their identities (as many people who hid Jewish children during the war refused to return them to their families and erased their Jewish identities). Instead, I got a half-baked story with a protagonist who refused to share information with the reader about anything other than a crush she has on the hot Catholic boy working with her with a side of boo-hoo-the-poor-Jewish-children and oh this one Nazi is actually a good guy don't be so judgmental Eva.
I got a free copy as part of a goodreads giveaway.
Rating: really liked it
Everyone should just accept that any book from this time period is going to be gut wrenching. 💔 It is a horrific time in our world history, that should never be forgotten. This book had all those feels 😭😢🤧 I loved Eva and her tenacity and strength. She was such a strong character. The idea of there being a book out there with real names just gives me goosebumps. This was a great book, that I’ll be thinking about for a while. ❤️
Rating: really liked it
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel (Author), Madeleine Maby (Narrator)
This story features Eva Traube, a twenty three year old Jewish woman, living in France during WWII. In 1942, as a student living with her parents, Eva and her parents are on a list to be rounded up. Eva's father is taken but she and her mother are able to escape Paris due to Eva's artistic talent at falsifying paperwork that will allow them to escape to Switzerland. Before reaching the border the women settle in a small town in the Free Zone. It's there that members of the resistance recruit Eva to use her new found forging talents to save thousands of children and adults who would otherwise have been killed by Hitler's regime.
I enjoyed the historical part of the story very much and more so after I found more information about forgeries during WWII and the work of the Resistance to smuggle persecuted people to safety. It seems impossible that someone could just pick up the trade of forgery and excel at it but that is exactly what some real life resistant fighters did to save thousands of people. People of all nationalities risked and gave their lives in the fight against those persecuting and killing those deemed undesirable by oppressive leaders.
I did have trouble with the naivety of twenty three year old Eva when she first has to flee her home. At times she reminded me of Scarlet O'Hara, flouncing her petticoats at the thought of not being able to waltz back into her apartment after her father was taken and at being reprimanded by resistance fighters to be careful about what she says and does. But Eva quickly grows up and makes better decisions, more often than not, as time goes on. Sadly, her mother is shown to be some over the top caricature of a bitter, shrewish woman who literally berates her daughter for trying to save hundreds of children rather than spend time with her mother. Eva is blamed by her mother for every bad thing that happens and every bad thing that might ever happen and her mother's presence in the story weighed negatively on the more important matters in the story.
My audio version of the book had no author's notes (I have no idea if there are author's notes in the print versions of the books) so I'm including some links of interest to those who read the book. Getting to read the information at the links went far to enhance my enjoyment of the story. It helped me to understand how Eva could quickly learn to do all that she did with her special talents. Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.
Q&A with Kristin Harmel, Author of The Book of Lost Names
https://bookclubchat.com/chat/qa-with...
Adolfo Kaminsky, a former member of the French Resistance, specializing in the forgery of identity documents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_...
How a WWII-era forger saved lives, one fake document at a time
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-a-ww...
Published July 21st 2020
Rating: really liked it
Another well-written book about WWII and the tenacious women who fought, usually indirectly, against the Nazis!
Why I liked this story:
1. the premise of this story about Eva, a young woman working with the French Resistance forging identity documents to assist people, especially Jewish children, escape to Switzerland, is quite intriguing! This underground activity felt exhilarating and frightening at the same time;
2. I found this story a little reminiscent of the book The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor (another great story) in which people forged postage stamps to relay coded messages; and,
3. the dual-timeline (currently a popular writing trend) worked for me!
Things that niggled me:
1. I don't know about the physical copy of this book, but I would have liked to hear an Author's Note on this audiobook. The synopsis states that this book is based on a true story, but what specifically? The actual Book of Lost Names? The characters? The overall idea of people forging documents?
2. I wish Eva's mother was a more sympathetic character (she came off sounding incredibly selfish.) Did she truly know/understand what Eva was doing? This wasn't very clear to me; and,
3. more history (especially about the children saved) and less romance would have suited me fine.
If learning about various ways that people worked against the Nazis during WWII is of interest to you, then you should read this book!
Rating: really liked it
4.5 STARS
My first by Kristin Harmel. I was hooked after a few chapters in and became immersed in the story of Eva Traube. Two timelines that bring everything together.
It begins in 2005, when Eva reads a headline in the paper
"Sixty Years After End of World War II, German Librarian Seeks to Reunite Looted Books with Rightful Owners." She recognizes the leather bound book with the gilded spine. Her heart races and she knows she must get back to Berlin.
July 1942 - Eva learns to use her skills to forge identity documents for Jewish kids trying to get to the safe zone in Switzerland. She works closely with resistance groups as arrests are stepping up.
Eva wants to secure the children's real identity so that one day perhaps their parents could locate them. It is a dangerous endeavor, but she has plan that could work.
"I want to keep a list of the children we are falsifying documents for. They belong to someone, all of them."Heartbreaking and harrowing with characters that will stay with me for a long time. I also felt their spirit to survive and bravery. Tissues recommended.
Rating: really liked it
[ Why didn't the author write more about the jewish children being smuggled to Switzerland under the Nazi noses? Why did sh
Rating: really liked it
This is my first Kristin Harmel book. She's a good writer and the story flows well. I did not know much about the French resistance in WWII and it was interesting to read about it.
I liked Eva the main character. She was a strong and passionate woman. She was forging documents for the French resistance and along with her love interest Remy, helped to save many Jewish children by smuggling them into Switzerland. I do however wish the story had focused more on the children and less on the forgery. Despite the material this was not as heavy of a story as I thought it would be. It was lighter and a bit romantic. One thing that bugged me throughout the book was Eva's mother. She grated on my nerves and I just wanted to shake her at times.
I originally would have rated this story a 3.5 stars but towards the end it really picked up and the ending did have me in tears. What seemed like a light story just became so emotional for me therefore granting it a 4 stars. The last 80% or so of the story was captivating! It had a nice twist that has left me pondering and wanting more!
Rating: really liked it
May 2005, Eva Traube is in her 80’s and she enjoys working part time at her local library and she spends most of her time shelving books. One day she is shocked to see an article in a magazine, it’s about how the Nazis stole or destroyed priceless books from Berlin libraries during WW II, in the article was a photo of a book that was precious to Eva 65 years ago and she never thought she would ever see it again.
Paris 1942, Eva lives happily with her mother Faiga and father Tatus, once the German’s arrive every day life is made more difficult for Jewish citizens and living in Paris is very hard. Despite being warned about a roundup of Jewish people Eva’s parents believe they are safe and one night during a raid only Tatus is taken into custody. Tatus has told Eva what to do if something ever happens to him, she’s to contact a man her father has organized to help her, he’s nervous, and he gives her some papers and makes her quickly leave.
Eva and her mother escape to a little town called Aurignon in the free zone, using their new identity papers she altered and they find a place to stay at a small boarding house. Eva discovers from her desperation to save her mother and leave Paris, she’s has a talent for forgery and she can help others and the French resistance. Her years of watching her father repair type writers, she has learnt to type and she has a unique skill. Give her the correct paper, ink and pens, Eva can easily create fake identity papers, birth certificates, ration cards, travel documents and copy signatures.
Eva's sweet mother has changed by the loss of her husband and she is now an angry, bitter, difficult women and she thinks Eva should be concentrating on trying to save her father. If she helps the resistance group, her mother has a place to stay and she feels like she is doing her part to get back at the Germans and she can’t do anything to help her father.
Eva spends her time at the local church with Pere Clement a priest, Remy a fellow forger and together they create new identities for hundreds of Jewish people escaping to Switzerland. Eva notices that many of the new identities are for young Jewish children who are not escaping with their parents, they are too young to remember their real names and how will anyone find them when the war ends? Eva comes up with the idea to use a secret code called Fibonacci Sequence that only she and Remy understand, they use an eighteenth century religious book to keep a record of the children’s names and they refer to it as The book Of Lost Names.
Sixty five years later, Eva must face her past to be reunited with her precious book that was taken from a church library during the end of the Second World War and she thought she would never see it again. The Book of Lost Names, has a dual time line that’s very easy to follow, the story is a about family, sacrifice, duty, friendship, honor, betrayal and lost love.
What a brilliant book, five stars from me and if you like to read historical WW II fiction I highly recommend The Book of Lost Names. I have shared my review on Goodreads, Twitter, Amazon Australia, Edelweiss, Kobo and my blog. https://karrenreadsbooks.blogspot.com/
Rating: really liked it
I guess I’ve read too many WWII novels as it’s becoming harder to find something new and different. This had a feel of deja vu for me. It’s not that it’s bad, it just doesn’t really cover any new ground.
The story is told in a typical dual timeline approach. Eva Traube Abrams is an 85 year old librarian when she sees a picture in a newspaper that causes her to fly off to Berlin. In her younger days, she was studying at the Sorbonne before the Germans arrived in Paris. She fled with her mother to Vichy territory, hoping to make their way across to Switzerland. But instead, she ends up staying in the small town and creating forged documents.
The novel spends way too much time on romance (a common problem with historical fiction, IMO). The only character I found at all interesting (but not sympathetic) was her mother. In despair over her husband’s removal and deportation by the Germans, she blames Eva and fails to find the good in what she’s doing. She finds constant fault with Eva. She also asks the more interesting questions of Eva about her identity.
It’s obviously well researched and the parts about forgery were excellent. However, the story relies on some leaps of faith (especially Eva’s ability to master forgeries as easily as she does). And the ending is hokey in the extreme.
In the final analysis, I would recommend this for readers who have not read much WWII fiction and who are fans of romance novels. Otherwise, it’s not one I would recommend.
Rating: really liked it
After reading the synopsis and it having been compared to The Nightingale and the Lilac Girls, I quickly pressed buy on my trusty iBook app and thought I was in for a treat. It’s a treat alright if you enjoy the vomit 🤢 flavor of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans (I just got done watching the HP films). Harsh but fair in my opinion. Fifty pages in and I was wondering how you go about getting your money back from Apple because I was duped by the synopsis of this book. I mustered through till the end because of the $13.99 spent.
How did it get so many 5 stars and what are these other readers reading? Did the person that wrote the synopsis ever read the Nightingale or Lilac Girls? I don’t know what I can safely say, I’m baffled by the comparison.
The story was implausible, the characters unbelievable as well as unbelievably naive. The mother and this is so horrible to say she was so annoying I was wishing that Eva had left her in Paris. I cannot believe that anyone who lived in WWII and was Jewish were as naive and so clueless as to what was happening as Eva’s idiotic mother.
As for Eva I didn’t know what she was a librarian, an artist, an expert forger apparently she was all of these things. The underground were sssooooo lucky to have her, if they said this once they said it a hundred times. Don’t even get me started the mustache twirling dastardly double agent that stuck out like a sore thumb or the sickly sweet romance that would give you cavities. 🙄.
I’d say if you come across this book give it a hard pass but do read The Nightingale, Lilac Girls or even The Alice Network or The Huntress. Those books are worth 5 stars.
Rating: really liked it
As always I'm trying to find books about WWII that are interesting to read and have a fair bit of reality in them. This book is too much of a romance for me with characters that are magnified in a way that isn't very likely. Big change of character too during the story, from nasty to nice and the other way around. I loved the present part of it with the 85 year old protagonist whom I immediately liked. The history part of the stolen books is very interesting and the explanation at the end of the book is therefore very valuable.
