Description
Book SynopsisThis eloquent and spirited memoir of a young Jewish girl's coming of age in Nazi-occupied France recounts her own family's difficult and brave survival and portrays as well the love and quiet heroism of her rescuers. A powerful central figure is Madame Marie Chotel, the Catholic concierge and seamstress who hides seven-year-old Odette and her mother in her broom closet while police search, who secures the child's safe haven in a distant province, and who is cherished by Odette, even in absentia, as her godmother and mentor.
The story unfolds as a drama of many parts, told in a lyrical prose rich with flashes of humor and a startling perceptivity that takes nothing for granted. Odette is hidden during the occupation, a secret Jew in a remote and conservative Catholic village. Absorbed in the village's life, she becomes a fervent Catholic child. When she returns to Paris, she struggles over her Jewish identity and religion and her fierce nostalgia for the wild countryside, bu
Trade Review
"This is an enchanting and gripping account of the formative years of a sharply observant, responsive, eager human being, ... vivid with the sense of how the several cultural strands which contributed to Odette's youthful experience continue to animate the comprehensive intelligence of the mature woman."--Denise Levertov
