What would you do to save your child? If you, like Hanni in Berlin in 1941, knew that your 12 year old daughter could never survive the onslaught that your gut tells you is coming, would you be brave enough to send her away? Could you send her alone? Or would you, like Hanni, find a way to ensure a protector for her, whatever the price? The path that Lea, Hanni's daughter, must take to make it safely to end of the war will lead her through Paris streets and countryside convents, beekeeper's cottages and the terror of not even being sure you are worth the sacrifice that's been made.
Lea is not the only main character in this story, but she is a thick strand of color in a tapestry made by people trying to survive, people trying to love, people bent on revenge and, in this story, even one that's not really a person at all. If you like your stories with magical realism - if you like the world to have a spark of life that's all its own, with animals and angels and the fates having a mind of their own, then this story of love and survival in the midst of war is for you. It touched my heart, it hurt me, the emotions of this story rang true. I liked that it was a twist on the World War 2 Novel and I liked that faith could make magic. In my mind, I can still see some of the images that Hoffman created and for a story set in a time of such horror, the ones for me that really stick out are the ones were she has laid bare our humanity and made us want to grasp it with both hands.
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