The Things We Cannot Say

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis (from Amazon):  In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.

Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate.

Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.

Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.

One (or more) Sentence Summary:  Beautifully written.  It seems there are a lot of books written about WWII in the past 3 or so years.  I enjoy them, even more, when they have a different twist to them.  The Things We Cannot Say is one of them. You will need tissue - it is a tearjerker (and worth the swollen, red eyes the next day).

Would I Read Other Books by the Author:  Oh my word, Kelly Rimmer, has so many books that look really, really good.  Start Up in the City series looks great.  When I Lost You, Me Without You, and Before I Let You Go all like great reads (and gut-wrenching).

Kelly Rimmer is a USA Today bestselling author of five novels, including Me without You and The Secret Daughter. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, two children, and fantastically naughty dogs Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages.

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