This review will be posted on the below-mentioned blog and other social media on July13.
Book Title: The Book of Lost Names

Author: Kristin Harmel

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publishing Date: 21 July 2020




Line Summary:

Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, this book is about a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis

My Review:

Wow! What a lovely historical fiction! After “ The Nightingale “ I was looking for a similar WWII related book and this one is amazing! Though I liked the nightingale more than this, I enjoyed this too! The story was emotional and heart wrenching! The characters were heroic! The narration was fluid and crisp. Some chapters were raising my heartbeat and I was hastily turning pages to find out what happened next! But other than that few chapters its a slow-paced story for its setting! For a world war 2 related book it lacks bold adventuresome scenes but replaced them with emotional ones. I couldn’t ignore that some scenes were similar to "The Nightingale! But the climax was astonishing!!! A must-read brilliant historical fiction! 

Thoughts while reading :
This book satisfies my historical fiction thirst after "The Nightingale ". One of the things I admired in both books was the heroine oriented story, in spite of its war-related setting.

I was so mad at Eva's mother at each and every stage. And I wish Eva should have stand up for herself. And what about all the characters defend her mom?

Sometimes I felt the story lacks in bold adventurous scenes and so it fails to be a page-turner. Definitely, you need a little bit of patience to finish some chapters.

I could guess the traitor from the beginning when things going wrong! so not much surprise there, which I believe very important to keep the story's upbeat and so failed to do so!

Without mentioning the war's real cruelty and atrocities it tough to understand the importance of the forgery works unless you read or know about it from other books/sources. The book failed to make us understand it.

The initial America scene and the unsung unknown hero of war were much similar scenes from "The Nightingale".

Though it’s unbelievable I loved that emotional climax. Finally happy tears and reunion.

It is 2005. Eva Traube Abrams, 86, works in a Florida library. One day she sees a magazine article with a picture of a book, a religious book she has not seen since 1944, a book she named The Book of Lost Names. She immediately jumps on a plane and heads to Berlin and to the library where this picture was taken. The German library is trying to reunite books that had been looted by the Nazis during the war with their owners. Flashback to 1942. Eva is living with her parents, Polish Jews, in Paris where they had moved to give their daughter a better life. One night, while Eva and her mother are watching their neighbor’s children, her father is arrested and sent East to the forced labor camps. Eva and her mother flee Paris winding up in the small French town of Aurignon where Eva is united with Remy working in a small anteroom in a Catholic church forging documents to help children escape to Switzerland. In order to remember the real names of the children they create documents for, the create a code which is “hidden” with this religious book. A moving story of the hardships, fear, and utter despair of the people of France during the war, well-written with good characters and plenty of tension as well as story twists. This is the first book I have read by Kristin Harmel, and it will not be the last. Her forte seems to be historical fiction centered around WWII, a genre I truly enjoy. My thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review the ARC of this book.

I was expecting a dry, perhaps more informative tale of a young woman navigating her way through Nazi France. What I got with Kristin Harmel's work was so much more.

This tale follows the breathtaking and heartbreaking saga of Eva Traube as she pauses her own escape to dedicate her life to forging documents. I was hooked from start to finish. The shift from first person present to third person past was hard to grasp at first, but I found myself rooting for Eva and Remy as the story progressed. So often have I read stories of someone escaping from the Nazi regime but this work was unique in that it focused on the sacrifice of someone who worked on smuggling people over the borders to Switzerland.

What a courageous gift Eva provided not only the children she rescued but the world. I found Eva's character to be strong yet open to learning. Her mother seemed to whine too much but there are real people just like her. I was relieved that Eva pushed thru the guilt her mother tried to blanket her with. I was disappointed that she hadn't shared more of her history with her son.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. It’s no secret that the Holocaust is my favorite subject to read, and this book is now high on my favorite list. With a bonus of a book about books, and the greatness that they are! “You’re someone who finds herself in the pages. Someone who sees her reflection in the words.”
This is Beautiful, raw, heartbreaking, hopeful, powerful; and filled with characters that you instantly love, especially Eva. Told in two parts, 1) Eva as an elderly librarian who has lived a tortured, guilt filled life that gets a second chance at facing her past, and 2) Paris during Hitler’s reign and the sheer fight to live for a 20 year old Eva. During this fight, she discovers her courage, her strengths and how to use that (her art) to join the fight against Nazi’s..but she also falls in love in a time when that’s the last it best thing she could do. One of the most central parts of the book, and the driving force for Eva, is “The book of lost names”, a way for Eva, who becomes a forger of documents to help get Jews, pilots, etc out of Paris before they are killed by the Nazis, to keep track of the hundreds of children she helps, a way for them to not loose (have stolen by the Nazis) their “names” and identity. “They are erasing us. And we are helping them.”
The two story lines intertwine perfectly to the best ending! ❤️
Highly recommend, especially if you loved The Nightingale!

Eva is a well-developed character who is encouraged to become a forger during WWII based on her artist skills. Her responsibilities include creating false identity documents to be used by Resistance fighters or by others (such as Jewish children) who need documents to escape from or to be smuggled out of Nazi occupied France to other countries. In addition to Eva and her parents, The Book of Lost Names focuses on those residents of the village of Aurignon who are actively involved in or sympathetic to the Resistance movement, especially Rémy, another forger, and Père Clément, the local priest.

Some things were a bit too predictable. But all-in-all, I found this to be a moving story with believable characters and actions that were consistent with what I know about the French Resistance movement.

A beautiful story about Eva, a forger who does whatever she can to help Jewish children escape from a small French town during WW2. This plot line involves the pain of familial separation, shocking plot twists, a time hop between 2005 and moments in Eva’s history, a love story, and great character development. I highly recommend this book to anyone. Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel is a poignant, emotional, tear your heart out read! The book highlighted the art of forging during WW2 with Eva Traube as one of the forgers. The book opens the reader’s eyes to how people worked to trick the Germans and help hundreds of children escape certain death.

Eva Traube was born in France to two Polish born Jews. As citizens of France, they think they are safe despite the German presence in Paris. They were not, as all Jews were rounded up on July 16–17, 1942. Eva and her mother were helping a neighbor by watching her children and were missed. Eva managed to drag her mother away from Paris and to a safe place in Aurignon in the safe zone.

Eva finds a group to work with to help people escape the Germans. She learns more from Remy about forging and together with the father of a local church manage to open and run a forging enterprise to help many people escape. Eva is determined to work to help people while her mother is determined to find her husband and to escape into Switzerland. Eva is constantly being questioned by her mother, while working on helping others.

Eva was such a strong main character. Despite the harrangues of her mother and the fear of discovery, she worked on helping so many escape and managed to make a list of children who were escaping so they would learn the truth someday. I like how Eve felt so connected to many of the children. I like how she was determined, brave and clear eyed.

The novel wrecked me. I read the book while at the beach and found myself crying during the most poignant parts. So many people gave so much to help save people and their bravery should be recognized despite the hardships and the work done in secret. I found The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel was one of the best of the best books I have read.

This might just be my new favorite book! I'm obsessed with Eva, the love story, the betrayals, the settings, the relationships...everything. This book is so beautiful and full of hope, while certainly not shying away from loss, and I nearly cried at the end. I also highlighted so many passages about the magic of books and reading; there are so many beautiful turns of phrase in this novel.

With all the historical fiction books I have read about WW2, I'm always surprised to read another book on the subject where I learn so much about things I did not know. In this story, you learn about ordinary people who did extraordinary things during the war years to help their fellow countrymen. In this story, you read about 'Eva' and 'Remy', two people skilled in art and chemistry who became forgers and helped save many Jewish children with forged papers. Kristin Harmel weaves an imaginary tale of what it may have been like for people who fled Paris when Jews were being arrested for being Jewish, how they might have fled to small towns in the south, how they might have saved Jewish children, and how they might have helped these children escape through Switzerland with forged documents. If you are a fan of historical fiction, especially events that happened during WW2, then put this book on your list of must reads! #netgalley #thebookoflostnames

Sixty years after the end of WWII a German library is looking to reconnect stolen books with their owners, especially an 18th century religious text. What makes this text unique are the dots on each page of the text. What is the code to these dots and why are they there.
On the eve of the July round up of Jews in Paris, Eva and her mother are asked to look after a neighbor's children so they are not at home when the Gendarme come to round them up. Eva reaches out to a friend for help and is given blank copies of documents that she then forges. This one act leads her to what her life will become for the few years.
The Book of Lost Names is an enjoyable, quick read. WWII Europe is a very popular subject for novels in the recent years and more specifically the resistance. So many of them are the same but this one is a newish story and really kept me interested that I finished it in two days. This is my first Kristin Harmel novel so I will definitely be picking up more.

Do you remember names well?

Eva is a young Jewish girl living in Paris when WWII arrives and the Nazis Invade. To help keep things straight, she uses a book to document the names of the children she helps to escape so that she can reconnect them later with their real identities.

The story flips between the current (2005) and the past so seemlessly. In the current, Eva is a librarian and is recalling this delicate period of history and her heroic measures. Sure to grip anyone that reads it with such power, this heartfelt book will stay with you long after the last page turns.

Thank you Netgalley and Gallery books for allowing me to read this and give my honest opinion.

Grab this book and a tissue box! You will read it, cry and read some more. I liked the theme a lot. I loved the writing. This is a 2nd book I read from this author and let me tell you, this book does not disappoint. War War II and books that were stolen by Nazis are put back to its rightful owners by a librarian. What a beautiful plot itself, and a great idea. With that... The author deserves 10 star feedback not only 5.
Read this book, cry your eyes out and remember how beautiful this book is.

This is the second book I have read by Kristin Harmel and liked it even better than the first, The Winemakers Wife. Eva is an artist who used her skills as a document forger to save thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust. She was strong, she was courageous, she was determined but she was also torn between her love for her mother, who was really a hateful difficult person, and the love of her life, Remy, who was not Jewish.

Eva is 86 years old living in the United States when she finds out a librarian in
Berlin has found the book she used, to record all the children’s birth names in, whom she saved during the war. Eva had made it her mission to record the real names of the children being taken to Switzerland, to freedom, so that they would not be “erased” from the world and so that one day “they could find their way home.”

The story is based on real life forgers and a real life librarian who has made it his mission,to reunite all the books the Nazis stole, with their rightful owners. While the storyline was predictable it did not in any way take away from my love of this book. This book was definitely a tear-jerker, so make sure to have Kleenex near by when you get near the end.

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It will be published July 21, 2020.

I fear this book may be too easily type cast as being historical fiction. While it is that it is also more. I was intrigued by the irony of the characters. Characters who are persecuted for their faith, shun others of a different faith. It also questions how we identify ourselves.. I appreciated the surprise ending.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel | review.

Genre: Historical Fiction.

Rating: Five stars.

Set in France during World War II, The Book of Lost Names tells the story of a young women with a talent for forgery and her work helping hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis. After her father is arrested, graduate student Eva flees Paris to a small mountain town in the Free Zone. Once there, she discovers a network risking everything to help Jewish children. Add in a mysterious and handsome forger named Remy and you’ve got the makings of a great book! This book was fantastic, touching and will stay with me for a long while.

Fans of The Nightingale or The Alice Network will NEED to read this book. You’ll love it!

I found this was a quick and easy read for me. I zipped through The Book of Lost Names in one weekend and couldn’t put this book down! By the end I was completely committed to this story and found myself sobbing through the end at one in the morning! It seriously touched me!

Eva’s story is very well written. You can understand her hesitation between helping the Resistance and making her mother happy. Honestly, Eva’s mother was the only thing I didn’t like about this book; she seemed very immature and hateful.

Thank you to Net Galley, Kristin Harmel and Simon & Schuster Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of historical fiction or those wanting to learn more about life in France during World War II.

Wow, what a heartbreaking, beautiful book. This subject is hard to make beautiful, but Eva is a beautiful soul. This is her story. You follow her from 2005 back to 1940's war torn Paris ,WW2 Her father is sent to the camps, she and her Mom are away when they came and don't get taken. Going into hiding and heading to the free zone.
Eve turns her talents in art to forgery and works with the resistance. This is her story.
Kristin writes such beautiful books, she deals with hard subjects but shows us the good along with the bad.
Highly recommend this book.
Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC.This review is my personal opinion.

I love historical fiction. And I gravitate to books that take place during WWII. But I’m always concerned that the book will be too emotional. Yet here I am, feeling gutted but so happy that I read The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel.

This engrossing story is set mostly in the past during the 1940s in France and in 2005 where 86 year-old Eva is going to confront her past. Widowed and living in Florida as a semi-retired librarian, she reads an article in The New York Times about a library in Berlin that has a large collection of books that were looted by the Nazis during the war and the effort being undertaken to find the true owners. Eva immediately recognizes the book she had called The Book of Lost Names. Her book.

In 1942, Eva and her mother had to flee Paris after her father was arrested. As Jews, they were no longer safe. They went to a small town in France to hide with the hopes of escaping to Switzerland. Eva soon became an integral part of the resistance using her artist skills creating new identities for Jewish children by forging official documents for them. Working secretly in a church, she takes an old religious text and encodes the pages with the real and new names of the children. Her hope was that one day the children would be able to learn of their true identities. Together with Remy, they made it possible for many children to escape through ingenious forging methods. But the Nazis are about to uncover their operation.

Based on true events, The Book of Lost Names will bring you into the horrors of the war and the dilemma of whether to try to save yourself or try to save others. And as Eva becomes more integrated into the Catholic community that is working to save the lives of Jewish children, is she losing her own Jewish identity as she erases the children’s identities on their records?

This is a beautiful yet heartbreaking story of bravery, determination and love. If you too enjoy books of this genre, this one should be at the top of your list. And as with other books that draw from history, be sure to read the Epilogue which details the brave people who inspired this book.

Now, please pass the Kleenex.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books and Kristin Harmel for an advance copy of this unforgettable book.

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel is a phenomenal read that I highly recommend. It is a WWII historical fiction novel that is set, for the most part, in 1940s France, but does occasionally come back to 2005 in the United States.

In the book.,Eva, a young Jewish female living in Paris, has to leave her home when the Germans invade, and escape with her mother to a “free zone” in France, so that their lives could be spared. Eva finds a place of service there, where she forges IDs and other “official” papers to aid refugees in escaping their fate of torture or death. Most of all, Eva, having a heart for children, worKs to give new identities/names to innocent children needing to be relocated to Switzerland. Eva and her fellow forger, Remy, work together to compile the childrens’ previous and newly assigned names in the Book of Lost Names so that their true identities would never be lost. They work out a special code so that this special book could not be easily deciphered, and then hide the book in a small library of a church. (Suffice it to say that that this review only scratches the surface of this well woven plot.. You’ll have to drink it all in yourself as you enjoy reading it.)

The Book of Lost Names elicited so many emotions in me, including fear, love, hate, anger, sadness, and suspense that left me sitting on the edge of my seat. Ms. Harmel’s characters are all well -developed, with Eva’s perseverance and courage being at the forefront.

I learned so much WW II history that I knew nothing about before I read this, and had a great appreciation for the author’s extensive research that she details in the Author’s Notes at the end of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

I’m a sucker for a great WWII book and this was the perfect one to dive into. I couldn’t put this gripping novel down!! Highly recommend this book and I will be recommending it for many years to come