Reviewed by Emma Crowley
In a quiet village in German-occupied France, schoolteacher Celina ushers young Jewish children into her classroom. Watching their bright smiles as they learn how to write, she and sweet, handsome Remy promise to protect them. Every day she pretends to send them home, waving at the local police roaming the streets, as instead they sneak away to hide upstairs.
But Celina can’t stop thinking about the note left on her bedside table last night. Written in the secret code used by the Resistance, it told her a baby she’s sheltering could be reunited with its mother. Will Remy ever forgive her if she attempts to take the baby home? If she’s caught, they could discover the orphanage…
New York, present day. Haunted by a loss he refuses to speak about, Rachel’s grandfather is slowly losing his memories. Then Rachel finds a name scribbled into the old children’s book he used to read to her, which leads her to a French village with a dark and dangerous past.
Nothing can prepare Rachel for what she finds behind the orphanage’s crumbling façade. But as her own future becomes entwined with her grandfather’s wartime secrets, she will learn just how much courage it takes to follow your heart.
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Secret Orphanage to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Secret Orphanage is the new stand alone book from Barbara Josselsohn after the conclusion of her very enjoyable Sisters of War series. Set during 1942 and 2018, this new story effortlessly moves back and forth between the two time periods as Rachel sets about getting some answers to questions regarding her family’s past that have arisen now that her grandfather has dementia and is in a care home. I flew through this book and read it in two sittings as I couldn’t wait to find out what happened which is quite something considering the amount of reading I have done lately has slowed considerably due to lack of concentration. I read endless amounts of historical fiction and I think what I enjoyed about this one was that it wasn’t heavy and drowning in detail regarding the war. Yes, the themes being explored are tough and heart rending but that shock and awe aspect that is present in many books in this genre wasn’t here and I was glad for it as it allowed for the story to be told without it being overly dramatic. It didn’t need to be at all. Yet the message of strength, bravery, sacrifice and courage was deftly portrayed and the meaning the author wished to convey was done so in a way that I quickly became invested in the characters and the story as a whole.
The opening to the book was brilliant and so vividly described and I thought this continued the entire way through. it’s 1942 and Celina and her brother Max are travelling through the free French zone to a small village called Paillettes au Sommet, where her husband Emilie had been left a house once owned by his grandfather. They are to meet with a solicitor regarding the sale of the house and then they will go back to America as the war rages around them and they know they are not safe .A dramatic introduction sees their car crash in the village and it’s while they are waiting on a mechanic that Celina spots something in the bushes. She investigates and discovers a baby wrapped up and a note is included saying the baby is called Brielle Aimee and her mother wishes for the baby to be kept safe until she can find her again. Instantly, I wanted to know more but I also wanted to know more about Celina. An American in France, how did she come to be there and what happened with Emilie? All this is revealed over time but you can read between the lines up until that moment as plenty is mentioned.
Max wants to get out of the area as soon as possible after all they had one job to do and that was it. Through one thing and another Celina realises the baby is to be brought to the orphanage at the top of the village and she soon discovers said orphanage is housed in the building that she has been left. Here she meets Remy and his sister Adele who are doing incredible things. The orphanage masquerades as a school and the villagers are all complicit in this. For the children living there are Jewish and they must be protected at all costs. Saying all this is not giving too much away as this merely the bones of the story and so much else happens and there are lots of twists and turns and secrets which Rachel in the present must uncover. Celina decides to stay she can’t just up and leave considering she is pretending that the baby is hers and the local police who are in collusion with the Germans coming sniffing around on a regular basis.
I felt Celina’s recent past and the trauma she had been through and how it would affect her future were portrayed in a thoughtful and considerate manner. As the weeks passed it was like she had found her calling and she was getting time to rest and heal. Yes, the orphanage was a safety net for the children and adults but at any time it could be dismantled and as Celina writes the text for a book she had begun with her husband strange things start to happen which has her questioning everything she had thought. Remy who was an excellent and subtle male character-strong, moral, reassuring, confident and sensitive was by her side as she wrestles with the decision whether to traverse the path that her situation has led her to the beginning of.No doubt abut it she was brave, courageous and made many sacrifices with love and compassion at the centre of everything she did.
So what of Rachel and how does she tie in with the past. Well, thought I knew fairly on and I did think why was the author giving away things too easily? But I was wrong and pleasantly so. Rachel visits her grandfather Henry on a regular basis but the times that he recognises her are few and far between but when she finds a copy of a book that he read to her every night as a child well that’s when everything changes. The book when her grandfather sees it opens up a whole can of worms and he says things that Rachel can’t understand. The Little Lost Fish, is very symbolic throughout the book. It’s full of metaphors and secrets and Rachel adored it as a child and read so much into its meaning hoping that it would explain so much in her life. Why did she never met her grandfather until her mother died when she was only five? Why did she know so little about him? He became her protector, yet he could be so closed and guarded? What made him come to America from France?
Rachel is keen to find out the story behind the dedication in the book and in doing so she hopes it will open up a whole new side to her family that she never knew about as she had always been too sacred to push for more information from her grandfather. Rachel, was strong in some aspects and then in others I found her to be a bit weak where as I felt Rachel to be the opposite of this. The storyline with Griffin and how she ended up in France was uncessary. What I mean was the character of Griffin I felt didn’t need to be there at all and I have seen someone else in a review mention the same. It brought nothing to the story and I kind of thought is that with regards to him. I would have preferred if he had been left out altogether.
Rachel makes it the small mountain village in France and the people there are warm and welcoming but also guarded regarding the book and the orphanage. Although the war is long over there are things that they do not wish to discuss and as Rachel begins her explorations she is on her own personal journey but at the same time slowly starts to delve into a remarkable tale which gave one woman purpose and she hopes the same will occur for her. She meets Alain, who I found to be very guarded but at the same time there was a wisdom, charm and generosity about him. This in turn meant I couldn’t wait to see how everything was connected and the story that was unfolding kept me rapidly turning the pages.
Overall, The Secret Orphanage was a very good read and the fact that I spent an evening reading half of it and then wanted to get back to it straight away the next morning could only be a good thing. There was just the right amount of mystery and uncovering of secrets with plenty of red herrings thrown in which certainly threw me off figuring out exactly what would ultimately be revealed. I was quite smug thinking that I had things all worked out and then that moment of reveal came and I thought oh well done Barbara Josselsohn you pulled the wool over my eyes. I love when that happens in a book as those pivotal moments that lead to epic and satisfactory conclusions are few and far between these days. I liked how the epilogue tied up all the loose strands and yes there may have been some aspects of predictability throughout the book and I did feel one of two things seemed familiar from the authors book but that didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book which reminded me that I do really love this authors books and that despite reading so much in this genre I will always make time for more inspiring stories with a depth to them that was subtle and well written. I’m already looking forward to what Barbara has in store for us next.
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