How do you write a review for a book that blew you away so much that you're afraid you'll do the book a disservice? Gah!
"What I Would Tell You" by Liz Tolsma is probably the best book I read in 2022. Historical fiction taking readers back to the Nazi era of WWII, particularly in Greece. Being from Hawaii, we were not taught much about where the Jews might have lived or how they were forced to relocate throughout the centuries. In fact, it was rare to know a Jew here in the Aloha State when I was growing up.
Anywho, I thoroughly enjoyed the perspective of a young woman in the middle of Nazi tyranny and how she defied the norm by printing a paper to share her views and encouraging her people to rise up and take a stand over the Nazi bullying. While her printing is not well received by the Germans, her husband supports her efforts. Mathilda Nissim made good friends with not only another Jewish woman, but a Christian one as well.
It's when Mathilda is eye witness to the old butcher's beating and death by the German's that she realizes no one will come out to help in fear of going through the same brutality. Little do the Jews in Salonika, Greece realize is that they'll be tricked into boarding trains for a "work camp." Mathilda's own husband was taken to such a place, luckily to return to her just before she gives birth to their first child. He isn't the same man he was prior to the work camp nor would he talk about what he experienced, in order to save her from the images.
Fast forward to modern day, an American college student does a DNA test along with her cousin. Except their results are drastically different and Tessa wants to know why. Her mother refuses to discuss it. Tessa takes the next flight to Greece to find out more about her people, Sephardic Jews. Tessa finds herself being educated at a museum by a handsome man who shares with her a journal, written by none other than Mathilda Nissim herself. The journal was found in the flat he was renovating in a building he and his family own. He had it translated from Greek in order to share it with more people, like at the museum extension that's being built.
It's fascinating to see how Mathilda and Tessa's stories come together. I was so enthralled that I couldn't get any sleep, so I finished the book quicker than I usually do! I give this book 5 out of 5 tiaras. I've already recommended it to my fellow reader friends to read in 2023. I especially love when Mathilda's Christian friend shares the Gospel with her. It's the most detailed I've ever seen in a fiction book. It's one reason I believe. It's the best book I read in 2022. Thank you for this, Liz Tolsma, NetGalley, and Barbour Fiction!
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