The Book of Lost Names: A Novel by Kristin Harmel

    The end of The Book of Lost Names almost made me cry.  I was fine until the last few pages.  Then something happened and I was almost a goner.  It would have been a mix of tears, too.  Because the ending was happy and sad all at the same time.

    Eva Traube must escape.  She, her parents, and all the other Jews in 1940s Paris are at risk of being rounded up.  Taken away.  To never be seen again.

    Eva tries to warn her father, Leo, about what is going to happen.  She learned about the roundup from a trusted friend, Joseph Pelletier.  But her father will not listen.  Sadly, he is taken early the next morning.  By chance, Eva and her mother escape being captured.  They were across the hall taking care of a neighbor’s children.

    Knowing she and her mother, Faiga, need to get out of Paris, Eva goes to her father’s boss for help.  He gives Eva the materials needed to forge documents, and tells her to go to a town called Aurignon.  It is where Jewish children are hidden before they are taken over the border to Switzerland.

    Eva is ready to go with forged documents, but she needs to convince her mother to leave.  Faiga wants to stay in Paris until they can be reunited with her husband.  She does not believe the danger they are in.  Eventually, through much insistence, Eva gets her mother to leave Paris and they travel to Aurignon.

    Once in Aurignon, Eva encounters a priest, Père Clément.  He has learned about Eva’s artistic ability with forged documents.  He wants her help in making more documents.  Documents which will allows others get to safety.

    At first Eva is reluctant to help.  She has plans to save her father, and then intends on moving her entire family to Switzerland.  But when Eva finds out Leo has been sent to Auschwitz, her plans change and she agrees to do what she can.

    Eva goes to work in a secret library in Père Clément’s church.  While there, she works alongside fellow forger Rémy Charpentier (at least that is the name on his documents).  It takes a while for Eva and Rémy to get used to working with each other.  As they do, they find themselves falling in love.

    Forged documents are not the only thing Eva and Rémy work on while they are in the library.  They also keep a secret book.  Inside is a code; revealing the true names of the children helped across the border.  To cross them safely, the children are given false names.  Eva is concerned as they grow up these children will forget who they really are.  Keeping a straight list of names is too dangerous, though.  Everything must be recorded in code.

Knowledge/Artwork by Kate Dorsey

    Eventually forging is not enough for Rémy.  He wants to be more active in the Resistance.  To do that, he leaves his work in the library, disappearing for long periods of time.

    With Rémy gone, Eva continues her work.  She befriends the new forger, Geneviève, but never tells her about the book.  It would be too much risk to do so.

    Eva is also in constant worry about Rémy.  She never knows whether he is safe or even alive.  Her mother does not make this easier, as she believes Eva spending time at the church is a betrayal to her family.  She regularly yells at Eva about what she is doing.  Eva is left torn between her mother, her work at the church, and her love.

    One day the forging mission is compromised.  Eva must escape with her life, but she can’t just leave those she cares about behind.  Instead, Eva risks her life to save all those she has come to care about and love.

    This was a good book with some definitely hard parts to read.  I found the parts with Eva and her mother especially difficult.  First Faiga wouldn’t listen to Eva about leaving Paris.  Then she kept berating Eva over what she was doing at the church.  She did not care how important the work was.  In her eyes, Eva was betraying her family.  I understand Faiga was mourning her husband, but the understanding only goes so far.  She unjustly treated her daughter badly, making the parts with her in them hard to read.

    Thankfully, there were a lot of other characters who supported what Eva was doing.  Both people in the town and those she worked with.  Many of the children she makes documents for she never meets.  When Eva is finally able to, she is reminded how important her work is, no matter what her mother says.

    I won’t tell you anything specific about what made me want to cry in the end.  If I did, a big part of the story would be ruined.  But, even if the ending were different, this would be a book worth reading, because there is a great story along the way.