The Book of Lost Names Audiobook By Kristin Harmel cover art

The Book of Lost Names

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The Book of Lost Names

By: Kristin Harmel
Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
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About this listen

“A fascinating, heartrending page-turner that, like the real-life forgers who inspired the novel, should never be forgotten.” (Kristina McMorris, New York Times best-selling author of Sold on a Monday)

Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this “sweeping and magnificent” (Fiona Davis, best-selling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue) historical novel from the number one international best-selling author of The Winemaker’s Wife.

Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books when her eyes lock on a photograph in the New York Times. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in more than 60 years - a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II - an experience Eva remembers well - and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an 18th-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from - or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer, but does she have the strength to revisit old memories?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris and find refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, where she began forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.

©2020 Kristin Harmel Lietz (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction War & Military Women's Fiction Military Heartfelt War Feel-Good
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Exceptional Storytelling • Emotional Resonance • Excellent Character Voices • Historical Significance • Authentic Accents
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While I appreciated the attempt to create a wide variety of accents, languages and characters, the reading felt forced and choppy. While one dimensional, the story was worth the read.

Narration did not add to the story

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such a beautifully bitter sweet story. my heart hurts for eva and remi.

such a beautifully bitter sweet story

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I had tears running down my face the last hour and a half. The plot was absorbing and the characters very real and engaging. I have read many novels and biographies about this time in history, and this was a very emotional and satisfying story. The reader was excellent too.

Achingly Beautiful

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The narration isn’t amazing but the story makes up for it. This needs to be on your list.

A must read

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This important story is beautifully written and narrated. I am so humbled by the bravery and courage of the Resistance. We should never forget. Thank you Ms Harmel for writing this book.

A timeless treasure

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This book was riveting and so amazing. This should be a movie. It’s an amazing story!!!

Is this a movie it should be

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Fabulous story. Historical fiction with a surprising ending. Suspenseful and author is a talented storyteller!

A great read....

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I’m probably reading too many WWll books because I see the formula play out over and over. This was as all books I’ve read by the author, well researched and compelling.

I got a bit frustrated with Ava’s getting herself into unnecessary danger such as returning to get her mother as if she could negotiate with Nazis. I also easily guessed the traitor. But overall an interesting story.

Lovely Story but Predictable

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This was a good listen! The whole way they were able to make a system to record the young children's original and new names within the old library book was so so clever. My one regret is the we never learn if it was beneficial to any of the children. The act of recording the names was beneficial to those involved in doing it. They could see a purpose in doing it and it aided their connection to the work.
Whether this book was based on real people or not is immaterial the fact that is could have been real and the fact that people had to do such activities for others to live is gut wrenching.
The amount of secrets and the general lack of trust of other people and the basic needs of people which were not met was astonishing that so many did survive.
The ending was sweet and not completely surprising for a novel but not exactly how I thought the book would end.

an amazing book/story

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First off , this is not a Holocaust book , it’s a love story like u’ve never read about a subject I never knew happened , but there was so much that went unknown in World War 11 that we we’re unaware of but this novel fills our lack of knowledge .
I won’t give anything away as it’s too good to ruin , just read or listen to a beautiful story !

Unbelievable

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