"Kelly Rimmer has done it again..."
The Things We Cannot Say
By: Kelly Rimmer
Genres: Women's Fiction Historical | Women's Fiction Time Slip
Posted: September 5, 2019
During 1942, Alina Dziak, a young woman, has recently married the love of her love, Tomasz Slaski, or so others believe. Although her wedding day is not how she thought it would be, she is determined to make a new life with this stranger in America, even if her heart will pine for her missing love.
In the present day, Alina's granddaughter Alice has her hands full with a precocious young daughter and her autistic son. Alice's grandmother, Babcia, Alina Slaski, has recently been admitted to the hospital, and while she's there awaiting news and trying to help her grandmother, Alice begins to learn of the many secrets that Babcia has kept from her family, and its also there that she will conclude and finalize the ending that has been missing from Babcia's life.
I was lucky enough that I had a chance to read BEFORE I LET YOU GO by Kelly Rimmer, a tale of two sisters and one baby that I'll never, and I felt even luckier reading THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY by Kelly Rimmer, a WWII novel. As a testament to her writing, I am not sure I will ever be able to pick up another WWII novel without remembering the impact that THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY have had on me.
THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY is unlike other WWII novels that I have experienced because Kelly Rimmer knows the right way to dig deeply into the human heart and leave impressions deep inside. This is a gut-wrenching tale and some images within the pages, especially as a mother, are embedded deeply into my heart.
Words such as heartbreaking and tearful don't really do justice to Kelly Rimmer's writing because when she writes stories they are of the highest quality possible and will stay long after the last page is turned.
If you are looking for a trip to WWII that is more deeper and meaningful, then THE THINGS WE CANNOT SAY by Kelly Rimmer should be a perfect read and to ponder long after the cover is closed.
Book Summary
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 that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. 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.
Read an Excerpt
by: Kelly Rimmer
Graydon House
March 1, 2019
On Sale: March 19, 2019
Featuring: Alina Dziak
448 pages
ISBN: 1525823566
EAN: 9781525823565
Kindle: B07D5FC8JP
Trade Size / e-Book