The Paris Promise
An unputdownable and heartbreaking WW2 novel
Ratings1
Average rating5
Superb Tale Of Survival And Love Offers Hope For Modern Era. This is one of those dual timeline WWII historical fiction tales that manages to create a solid amount of survival tension without ever actually going into the concentration camps... and is rare in that it offers a fair amount of modern day hope as well.
The timelines here are each done particularly well, with tension ratcheting up throughout the book in each as hints are placed and ultimately secrets are revealed, and the timelines manage to play into each other in more than the usual ways - very nearly to what I hold as the ultimate visual in the dual-timeline approach, that of the final fight in the movie Frequency and in particular *that* sequence. Kelman never goes anywhere near there really, yet also manages to very nearly create the same effect in the reader's mind at one point.
Overall simply a superbly crafted, multi layered story that offers pointers for the modern era without ever being preachy about them at all - simply using its own story to show some things that we may consider more broadly, should we so choose. And yes, we very much should take these things to heart in reality, if we truly seek to avoid the horrors shown (and not shown so directly) here.
Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.
Superb Tale Of Survival And Love Offers Hope For Modern Era. This is one of those dual timeline WWII historical fiction tales that manages to create a solid amount of survival tension without ever actually going into the concentration camps... and is rare in that it offers a fair amount of modern day hope as well.
The timelines here are each done particularly well, with tension ratcheting up throughout the book in each as hints are placed and ultimately secrets are revealed, and the timelines manage to play into each other in more than the usual ways - very nearly to what I hold as the ultimate visual in the dual-timeline approach, that of the final fight in the movie Frequency and in particular *that* sequence. Kelman never goes anywhere near there really, yet also manages to very nearly create the same effect in the reader's mind at one point.
Overall simply a superbly crafted, multi layered story that offers pointers for the modern era without ever being preachy about them at all - simply using its own story to show some things that we may consider more broadly, should we so choose. And yes, we very much should take these things to heart in reality, if we truly seek to avoid the horrors shown (and not shown so directly) here.
Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.
