This was the first Danielle Steel book that I have read in quite some time. It was recommend to me by a friend, and I have to admit, I loved it! I didn't want to put it down. It's a story about a German Jewish girl, Beata, who falls madly in love with a Catholic French man, Antoine, during World War II. Both of their families banish them when they want to get married. Hoping that as time passes their families will once again accept them, they give in to the strength of their love and decide to get married.
As their lives progress and they have children, they do not tell the children that they are 1/2 Jewish, considering the times and that all their lives they have been Catholic. Beata converted before they were married, and with everyone knowing that Antoine was Catholic, no one ever suspected differently. As the Germans start deporting the Jews, Beata reaches out to her family only to be denied access to them by her father, who said she is dead to them.
Beata's oldest daughter decides to enter the convent and when her mother refuses, she tells her she has been called and knows that is where she belongs. Soon after entering the convent, another sister is moved because she is a well known Jewish activist. She is considered a threat to the Germans and is moved in hopes of protecting the other sisters at the convent.
It is a very touching and heartbreaking story of trying to make it in a time where you religious denomination meant life or death. I have been on quite a war kick lately and this just happened to fit right in. There is also a hint of a love story for those of you who enjoy love stories. I myself love a good love story, but it's not a genre I could read every day.
(464 pages)
January 2009
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