This book. I wanted to love it so much. And there were things about it that I did love. De Rosnay is a wonderful storyteller. She does a great job of making you want to turn the page. But some of the story gave me pause. The story of Sarah was well done. The story of Julia....well, that's where my problem lies. But let's back up.

I had a really, really hard time with the back and forth in the beginning. To go from reading something so emotional and devastating, to jump back into (nearly) present day to some lady who's whining about her husband and an apartment was tough. It was incredibly hard to give a crap about Julia when it was like a light switch from catastrophe to fluff. Then I paused and thought that perhaps that's why the author structured it this way - to make it hard. To show the stark difference between such a soul crushing story and the la-di-da way of living so many years after. To make you care more.

I do think if that was the point, it backfired a bit, because it didn't make me sympathetic to Julia at all. It didn't make me care. I wasn't getting any depth out of her so when the story about Sarah ended and the story became 100% about Julia, I didn't really believe or care about her. I didn't believe that simply doing some research and talking to a few people made Julia care so much that she'd upend her entire summer plans (and her daughters) to chase after some random lead.

Julia and her actions just weren't believable. And not in the "oh my gosh that's unbelievable!" way but in a you-haven't-shown-me-enough-depth-to-care way. Julia was so surface, and I felt we didn't get enough understanding of her and her emotions and her WHY to make anything she does feel believable. It seems self-centered and odd and out of character given what we know. And then - when William comes along - my head screamed THAT'S THE STORY! Why didn't de Rosnay write THAT story?!?!

It would have resonated SO MUCH MORE to me if the Sarah story was interspersed with the WILLIAM story instead of Julia. Just imagine - you get a chapter of Sarah, then a chapter of William - telling about his childhood with his mother (never naming her so - surprise! - it's Sarah), his move to Italy, his family life there. Then, when Sarah's story is done, you get the meet up with this reporter who randomly reached out, and POOF - story changes. You follow William along with his processing - hell, you can even have him meet up with Julia again in the end (which I did find to be a little ridiculous as her feelings seem so unfounded). THAT would make me care. Sarah's his MOTHER. Not some randomly focused on survivor of the Holocaust. And that's why I just didn't love this book.