Ms Lewis is a master storyteller and researcher.
Following Michelle's story is like looking through a window in time and being transported into her young body and mind and watching the golden moments sprinkled through her life help her perservere through the atrocitites she witness as WWII steals her homelife and homeland.
Knowing this was based on a woman's real life experience in France made the impact of the story even more powerful.
For a reader who struggles to read about accounts about WWII, I found a beautiful portrait painted in words that helped me understand to an extent how lives were affected without having to put the book down due to graphic content or a sensationalized version of the truth.
This should be required reading in any history or literature class.
A stunning tribute to the real woman behind the story and the author who meticulously cobbled it together.
A WWII coming-of age story based on three years of interviews with Michelle Naget, whose family members spent four years as captives in their own home after it was commandeered by the Nazis.
When the German march across Europe reaches France, young Michelle Naget and her family join the throngs fleeing for safety. But their flight ends in capture by the Nazis, with one member of the family taken, while the rest of the family is sent back to their village of Braquis, France, to serve the enemy who has commandeered their home.
For the next four years, the Nagets live in the crosshairs of the enemy living under their roof and of the neighbors who question the family's loyalties. Every day becomes a test of faith for Michelle-in God, in family, in the hope that the Allies will come, and in the letters from a young French rebel named Légère who promises Michelle that she will be free again.
But when the Nazis' torment increases, and the razor-thin line between life and death narrows for the Nagets, the family's motto, "We do what must be done," and Michelle's faith in God, give her the courage to face her enemy and do whatever she must to protect the family she loves.
