INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this unforgettable historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the “epic and heart-wrenching World War II tale” (Alyson Noel, #1 New York Times bestselling author) The Winemaker’s Wife.
Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. She freezes; it’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in sixty-five years — a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names.
The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II — an experience Eva remembers well — and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from — or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer — but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?
As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.
An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.
Fiction
The Book of Lost Names
January 13, 2020
Discussion Questions
Inspired by true stories of the Resistance in World War II, this novel of historical fiction begins in 2005. Eighty-six year old Eva Traube, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, sees an article in a magazine about how the Nazis looted libraries across Europe during World War II. There is a photograph of an eighteenth-century religious text Eva has not seen in sixty-five years but recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. The book, now housed in Berlin, appears to contain a code but researchers do not know what the code means. Eva decides she must go to Berlin because she has the answer.
The novel then returns to Germany’s occupation of France. In 1942, Eva, then a graduate student, flees? Paris with her mother after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. They find refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone. She begins forging identity documents to protect the identity of Jewish children whose parents were sent to concentration camps. The children will escape to neutral Switzerland. Eva knows the children are too young to remember who they really are and she must find a way to preserve their real names. She and Remy, a member of the Resistance underground and a forger, keep a record of each child secretly coded in an old religious book which she names The Book of Lost Names.
Eva and Remy fall in love and make a plan to meet in Paris when the war ends. Their Resistance cell is betrayed and Remy disappears. Eva leaves a code for Remy in the book, which is now in Berlin. It will tell her if Remy survived, and allow the researchers to preserve the names of all the children. This is a story of resilience, courage and love.
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