Beautiful!
I was a fan of The German Girl, and Armando Lucas Correa’s newest novel crept up on me. How did I not know about it?? Sure to be on everyone’s top historical fiction list this year.
The Daughter’s tale is based on true events of the Worl War II massacre in Oradour-Sur-Glane, a small village in southern France.
Eighty year old Elise Duval has been living in New York for many years when she receives letters written to her by her mother, long ago during the war. Elise remembers and learns new secrets from her time during the war.
Beautifully told, we learn about atrocities during the war that are seldom referred to in history books. The reader is left wondering what we would do for those we love.
I finished The Daughter’s Tale a few evenings ago, but wanted time to process it before posting my review. Definitely a book that stay with you long after you finish it.

The Daughter’s Tale by Armando Lucas Correa brings us back to the Nazzi terrors in France in the 1940’s. Unfortunately this story mimics many others of this time period with heart wrenching separations, horrors and deaths, I felt like I had previously read so many similar stories that it took away from my interest in this book.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is always interesting to me to hear stories from the great wars that I have never heard before. I had never heard about the village in France that was essentially burned to the ground although there are many stories like that one from WWII especially. I had heard of the ship turned away from Cuba so that was, for me, fluff added into the story. I was invested in Elise’s story and kept reading to find out what became of her. What I didn’t like so much was the sometimes otherworldly nature of characters thoughts and movements through events and the ability to see into the future by Elise was far fetched and unnecessary. I also thought the story of the mother, Amanda was crucial to the book yet her story dropped off with only a small mention of her in the end. I thought there should be less pages devoted to characters thoughts that cycled throughout and more pages devoted to the continued stories of the main characters. Overall I would give it 3 1/2 stars and I’m sure it’s going to appeal to WWII fans

This is the second book I’ve tried to read by this author, but the style of writing is descriptive with dry prose. The read is not engaging for me.