A Fifty-Year Silence Book Review

This is a moving story of family, memories and wartime, that I could not put down!

Miranda Richmond Mouillot pieces together the lives of her Grandparents from their escape from the Nazis, wartime marriage and then a sudden estrangement in the early 1950s.

This story begins as a family history investigation, but evolves into a semi-travelogue, a journey of a race against time and self-discovery.

I love the way she makes lyrical like sentences, that I will savor. Here’s a couple of examples. (my favorites)

“I saw an infinity of forgotten details dancing across history's dizzying expanse.”

“Here the past was everywhere, an entire continent sown with memories.”

Miranda's book moves at a sedate pace, but you become more and more involved with the characters and I was particularly moved by the touching poignant changes in her relationship with her grandfather as the story unfolds.

The final pages give an indication of the possible causes of her grandparents rift which are all the more tragic when you realise the burdens her grandfather was carrying.

This is not your average holocaust memoir, but one that does illustrate how people’s personalities are as a result of experiences of which we are unaware or cannot even imagine.

I know I will read this again most certainly! A Fifty Year Silence is definitely on my top 2015 to read list!

Got this book form bloggingforbooks.org. ~Summer 🌠

Author Info