Elise and Juliette meet in 1939 in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, they’re both American women married to French men, and they’re both pregnant. They both have a baby girl and the two little girls, Mathilde and Lucie, become best friends. Elise’s husband, an artist, rebels against the Nazi occupation and when he’s apprehended and executed, Elise becomes a target too. She flees but leaves her daughter Mathilde with Juliette. During a bombing, Juliette isn’t home, but when she gets there, everyone is dead except for her daughter Lucie.
When Elise returns after the war, she finds her daughter’s grave next to Juliette’s husband’s and sons’ graves. However, Juliette and her daughter Lucie seem to have vanished. When their mutual friend Ruth finds Juliette in New York over a decade later, she asks Juliette to write a note for Elise. She writes her a very cold note just saying that her daughter Mathilde died on this date.
Though the plot was clear from the get go, the execution was absolutely flawless. Fabulous read!
Read for the Read Between the Lines Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 20: Set in Paris, France.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
