PAPER HEARTS is a quick, emotional read. This wonderful brutal book just about broke my heart. It´s thoughtful, sensitive and creative and it´s based PAPER HEARTS is a quick, emotional read. This wonderful brutal book just about broke my heart. It´s thoughtful, sensitive and creative and it´s based on true events. Beautifully written and deeply moving book about strength, friendship, survival, fear and hope during the Holocaust. ...more
“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”
This was “If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: In love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”
This was the very first line of this book, and after it, I was hooked! I have never read a story about the Great War that captivated me the way this book did. This is a book about struggle, compassion you didn't know you could have, broken hearts and lives. The characters were incredibly well-written and well developed. They are intense, real people. Especially the women. Kristin Hannah created two very compelling and different characters, sisters Vianne and Isabelle, and through them she presents wonderful balance between family, love, romance... She describes us historic portrayal of women's role in WW2 and the agonizing choices people had to make to survive and to maintain their humanity.
“Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over.”
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Writing is beautiful and the story line is simply amazing. The author depicts the sacrifices made on a personal level of one family, the horrors of war and the price paid by those not on the front lines. Truly one of the best books I have read about WWII! I highlighted so many good quotes that I can’t share them all.
"...I will tell my son my story at last. There will be pain in remembering, but there will be joy, too. "You´ll tell me everything?" "Almost everything," I say with the smile. "A Frenchwoman must have her secrets." And I will... I´ll keep one secret. I smile at them, my two boys who should have broken me, but somehow saved me, each in his own way. Because of them, I know now what matters, and it is not what I have lost. It is my memories. Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain."
The Nightingale deserves all the hype and awards it's gotten. Everyone should read it.
"It´s hard to forget," she said quietly. "And I´ll never forgive." "But love has to be stronger then hate, or there is no future for us."...more