The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel is an historical fiction novel set during World War II in France. When Eva's Polish Jewish father is taken away by the Nazis, she and her mother must immediately flee Paris and run for their lives. They find refuge in a small mountain town where Eva finds her place as a document forger who helps Jewish children escape to Switzerland.

I used to read a lot of WWII historical fiction and perhaps grew a bit burnt out with the genre, so I haven't read as much in recent years. But still I am always happy to discover a new WWII book that grabs my attention and sheds light on a different aspect of the war. I enjoyed Harmel's last book, The Winemaker's Wife, and I found The Book of Lost Names to be a compelling read as well.

This book jumps back and forth in time between modern day and the World War II period, but a majority of the book is set during the World War II period. I thought this worked well for the story. While I understand why the modern day portions existed, I liked that the story was not constantly interrupted by jumps to the modern day period. In most books with two time periods, I find the past time period to be far more interesting than the modern day. So I was glad that most of this book took place in the past.

I really enjoyed this story from start to finish. It's the kind of book that you can sit down and read in one sitting while being transported to another time and place. There are a few "twists" at the end that were a bit predictable for me but still enjoyable to read. If you enjoy historical fiction, I highly recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for sending me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Right now, WW2 is a heavy topic to take on for me, but somehow it's been exactly what I needed. The Book of Lost Names brings you to a very dark time in the history of the world, but it's also an open window to the resilience of the human spirit. It took an army of courageous people outside of military forces who were willing to risk immediate execution to save the lives of strangers. Many of these people are unsung heroes, their sacrifices forgotten as time moves on. This novel is inspired by real life forgotten heroes fighting quietly behind the scenes in the resistance's network. Forgery played an essential role in smuggling refugees out of danger, which required a great deal of talent to successfully pull off. Eva Traube never thought her natural artistic skill would play an important role in her life until she realized that with a swipe of her pen she could save thousands.

When Eva flees Paris with her mother to the free zone in Aurignon, her only plans were to make her way as fast as possible to Switzerland where the two of them would be safe. Fate had other ideas. Once they arrive at a boarding house, tired and hungry, they soon discover allies in desperate need of her skills. Tentatively at first, she agrees to help a man named Rémy forge paperwork that will fool the Nazis. Not only does she do impeccable work, but she finds a way to increase production to maximize how many people receive help. Once she joins the effort, she must admit to herself that her conscience won't let her turn her back on the helpless. What was once a temporary job turns permanent. Orphaned children were being smuggled in and housed with caregivers in the city before it was safe to move on. How could she have lived with herself afterwards if she had selfishly ignored what she was capable of contributing to those who had lost everything like herself?

Eva was a softhearted, gentle woman who acted far beyond her years as she did what had to be done without complaint. She may have fallen into the network by chance, but she eventually believed that she was put there for a reason.

After many months when she meets some of the orphans in hiding, it occurs to her that these children will never remember where they came from if there is no record of their real names. And so the book of lost names is created. In an old, dusty religious text, she and Rémy devise a secret code that will allow them to keep a record of these lost souls. The Nazis were trying to erase not only an entire race of people, but their history right along with them. Often she worried that she was forgetting her own family and religion as she worked alongside Christians in a Catholic church. She couldn't help but feel bitter and lack the will to continue Jewish traditions and prayer while the world burned around her. Honestly, I completely sympathized and understood where she was coming from. Unfortunately, her mother chose to frequently enforce the idea that could do no right.

This brings me to my one issue with the story. Eva's mother was a thorn in her side that I found so hard to tolerate. Every single scene she was in made me either want to strangle her or slap her. From the moment she discovered that her husband had been taken by the Nazis in Paris, she dragged her feet and made an impossible situation worse. In such harrowing, devastating conditions, I should have felt some shred of sympathy for her, but instead I could do nothing but despise her. A mother should always do their best to protect their children from emotional and physical harm, but she did the opposite. Not only insulting every single thing she did and said, but placing blame on Eva for events that were beyond her control. There was no redeeming her in the end as I had lost all respect for this woman who needed to be babysat and admonished constantly like a child. My issue wasn't solely that the character was unlikable, but the fact that she was only unlikable. There were no shades of grey to soften the harshness of her, no vulnerable side to make her feel fleshed out to the fullest.

The romance between Rémy and Eva blossomed tenderly among the ugliness around them. I adored both of them separately, and desperately wanted them to find their happy ending together. They complimented each other beautifully; he was mischievous and she was solemn. She arrived soft-spoken and broken, and he showed her what confidence and courage looked like. Both had a fierce loyalty to those they loved that nothing could alter. In the present time POV, you really see how strong she became as a woman, yet she was essentially the same. She was still an intelligent, proud woman who never lost her love of the written word. The problem was, she she didn't allow those closest to her to understand the true depth of her character, or how the war shaped her entire life.

I thought I might feel heartbroken for all she had lost by the end, but after finishing all I felt was peace. It wasn't a cookie cutter happy ending, but it was raw, it was real, and it was beautiful. Any fan of tumultuous, wartime historical fiction with plenty of suspense should give this book a chance. It explores the often overlooked forgers of the time as well as the Nazis' role in looting priceless books. As a book lover myself I appreciated the clever way they were integrated into the central storyline. In summary, I can't recommend this book enough. It was filled with heart, faith, and enduring hope which is so necessary in a book with such heavy themes. It's an absolute must read!

I just finished The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel and I have had a good cry. This is my third book by Kristin, and I think it is the best! Using lots of research, life experiences, and wonderful writing, Harmel has created a story told in two time periods by our main character Eva Traube. Our Eva in 2005, sixty years after WWII, is a part-time librarian who sees an article about a German librarian who is trying to connect books stolen in WWII with their rightful owners. The first time period takes place during the war and finds a young Jewish Eva escaping Paris with her mother to the small town of Aurignon. Eva hand-crafted documents for them to use so they could travel. Eva ends up working as a forger for the resistance to make documents so they could smuggle children to Switzerland. The book is full of heroic characters as well as some you will despise. I have been on an emotional roller coaster for the last two days! This is my favorite book so far for 2020. I want to thank Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I can’t wait to suggest this book for our bookclub!

Rating: 4.5 Stars, HJ Recommended Read!

In The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel, As a French-born Jew, Eva Traub's parents, formerly from Poland, thought they were saving their daughter from a life of degradation and possible harm by moving to Paris. But in 1942 as World War II finds even their beloved city occupied by the Nazis, Eva and her family are not safe. And that becomes abundantly clear when her father is arrested by the Germans. Forced to leave the only home she has ever known, Eva and her mother flee for the Free Zone near the Switzerland border. But they had no idea what dangers they would encounter on their journey to freedom.

Many decades later, Eva–now a librarian in the States nearing retirement–can still remember the Book of Lost Names she and Remy, a beautiful, mysterious man created back in the small village of Aurignon. A place that became a makeshift home for Eva and her mother once they left Paris. Soon after their arrival, she was in the middle of helping the resistance by moving people–the majority of whom were children–to Switzerland by way of forging fake identity papers. Eva couldn't abide by the children losing their real names so she and Remy created a code they entered into a religious text to preserve the information safely. Only for the book to fall into Nazi hands toward the end of the war. But when it is found years later and the code uncovered but still unsolved, Eva knows it's time to step forward one more time to help those she promised to keep safe.

The Book of Lost Names was yet another incredibly moving novel set mainly in the WWII era by master storyteller Kristin Harmel. It was a story which showed that even in the middle of chaos and pain there is hope and, yes, even love to be found.

I've read a couple of Kristin Harmel's novels now and I'm always struck by the way she blends actual facts from WWII into a fictional story, making it seem utterly real. The Book of Lost Names had a dual timeline as I've come to expect from her work, set during WWII and in 2005, told strictly from Eva's POV. I was so pleased that there was actually a happy ending of sorts here compared to the bittersweet conclusions in the other books I've read–one that had me misty-eyed in a good way. Although it was a tough journey to get to that point for our heroine Eva.

After beginning with a chapter set in 2005 when Eva finds out the Book of Lost Names had been discovered, we then followed Eva and her parents, starting in 1942 Paris as many Jews were being rounded up and sent to labor camps. It was harrowing, somber, and heartbreaking. Harmel did a convincing job of conveying the emotions Eva and those around her would have had during such a devastating time. And that carried throughout the book as Eva tried to not only make it to the Free Zone in Switzerland, but when she got swept up in helping the resistance.

Based on real women who forged documents and identification papers during WWII, it was so interesting to see one more way in which women were able to assist the resistance. Harmel showed us Eva's strength with every decision she made to help others and with each new friendship she forged–even later on in life after the war. It was dangerous, with some heart wrenching moments that will have readers' pulses thudding wildly. But Eva's bravery paid off in the end. As it did for those she met who stood up against the Nazis and fought to take back France.

A story of courage and perseverance, The Book of Lost Names is the type of novel that will linger in readers' minds long after the last page is read. Highly recommended.

Kristin Harmel books are always a favorite and this might be her best yet.
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.
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..
Moving, heartbreaking, informative, memorable characters and so much more. Everything a great book needs this one has.

While this book took awhile to keep me going seen as Historical fiction is not my preferred genre, the second half of the book hooked me. I was so taken in by the main characters, Eva and Remy that I couldn’t put the book down. These characters highlight the heroic acts of Jews and non Jews alike. Lives were saved by falsifying documents. The ending of this book blew me away! This book will stay with me for a long time. This book will stay with me for a long time. Read it!

I. am. a. wreck. What a stunning story! The last 100 pages had me crying like a baby the entire time, and I'm still not done. I'm utterly speechless after reading this. I don't think I've ever read anything like it before and I want SO MUCH MORE historical fiction in my life now. Eva - what a heroine! Remy - what a knight! Them together - WOW. Their bravery fighting against the Nazis in occupied France is incredibly inspirational. The fact that this story is also inspired by true events is just - WOW. It was fast-paced, witty, and heartfelt beyond belief. A must-read and definitely one of my top favorites of 2020!

What a wonderful book! I have now added Kristin Harmel to my list, I want to read all her books.

I found the story to be beautiful and powerful. It is the story of a quiet heroine who saved thousands of life by forging papers for Jews. I adored Eva and her quiet persistence. This is a deeply moving story that highlights the efforts of people that history has glazed over and their choices that saved lives during world war 2. I highly encourage people to read this book.

Available today: The Lost Book of Names by Kristin Harmel

****4.5/5 stars

It's everything you'd look for in WWII historical fiction. Sooo good you'll want to add to your 'keeper' collection.

Recommended readers:

if you like WWII historical fiction, especially based on a true story
If you enjoy a comeback story with dual plotlines
and, naturally, if you liked Kristin Harmel's other offerings, The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network.

Here's my Rankings:

4.5/5 for characters
4.5/5 for plot
4.5/5 overall
2/5 steaminess
REVIEW FROM BOOKS FOR HER:

I'm a fan of historical fiction WWII, based on a true story. And The Lost Book of Names is everything I'd want from this genre, providing the perspective from one of the world's most challenging times which brought out the best and worst of human nature.

Eva Abrahms has been forced to flee Paris after her father is arrested as a Polish Jew. On her way to escape, she stops in a small town in the Free Zone close to Switzerland, where she finds she has a talent for forgery and makes her impact on the war.

From terrible loss to brave escapes, Eva sacrifices all to save others and to record the identities of children escaping death from Nazi occupied France. You'll feel the heartbreak, successes and tragedy of the times, even as you see how Eva has tried to forget her past and live in modern times.

Available today: The Lost Book of Names by Kristin Harmel

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel is the story of Eva, a Jewish girl forced to flee her home in Paris when the Nazis arrest her father. Full of fear for the future, she and her mother make it to a small town in the Free Zone where Eva’s artistic ability is realized in making false identification materials to help smuggle Jewish children into Switzerland. This book isn’t a purely true story, but was inspired by real events which makes it that much more poignant.

It is nice to know that midst all of the craziness, 2020 still has some special treasures to offer; The Book of Lost Names being one of them. This is my favorite book of the year thus far, and it will be difficult to unseat. Kristen Harmel fully emerges her readers in the life of Eva Traube, graduate student turned forger for the French Resistance. We get a glimpse of Eva's life as an eighty-six-year-old librarian in Florida, but most of the story takes place in the early 1940s in France. The book is well-researched, well-written, and quite emotional. I give it my highest recommendation, and am grateful to have received a copy from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

This is a brilliant piece of historical fiction. I liked how Eva found the Book of Lost Names while working as a librarian decades after the war. She had thought that the memories of this time period were gone, but she has to face them again after finding this book again. I loved the bravery depicted in this character, along with the brilliant descriptions of the time period.

4.5 STARS


Word War II is without a doubt one of the darkest times of mankind and war stories set in that era are often unsettling because they force us to take a hard look at our heritage and our own position towards race and racism. THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES showcases how harrowing times and great adversity can bring out the best and the worst in people,  it's about finding hope in places you didn't even know to look for it and joy and light in the darkest hours.

It is against the backdrop of a Paris deeply involved in World War II that bookish Eva, a young Jewish woman, who was raised sheltered is forced to grow up quickly when her father is being deported by the Nazis. On the run with her devastated mother and on the way to neutral Switzerland she finds a modicum of safety in a small town south of France. Eva's artistic talent stirs the interest of the local resistance. Her own need for documents that pass Nazi scrutiny draws her into a life of secrecy and danger and soon she's one of the most prolific forgers in France.

"I was never a hero. I was just a young woman trying to do the right thing. .”

I loved Eva, despite the atrocities happening right in front of her nose she fought courageously, looked death in the eye and did whatever she could to help save lives. She had so much honor and gentleness about her and I think that's what Remy, a man who she comes to first trust and then love, drew to her. Torn between her belief and care for her mother on one side and her love for a Catholic man and loyalty to the people she has come to care about Eva has to make some tough decisions, and life itself is at stake, especially when you don't know who you can trust.

Remy's affable and charming personality made him a favorite right from the start. There was a distinct sense of goodness and warmth that radiated off the pages. I had no idea how the author would manage not to break my heart completely but she totally accomplished that feat.

I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.

I wanted to give this story a full five stars so bad, the story itself would have deserved it but there is this one niggle I have. Eva's mother is a real piece of work, blaming her daughter for her husband's deportation, being mean and lashing out. And I so, so wished Eva would have stood up for herself, instead she tried to placate her mother  and many times it felt like Eva was the parent calming a whiny toddler throwing a temper tantrum. I could see why she was that way with her mother, still...She was such a strong heroine in every regard but not when it came to her mother.

The book jumps between wartime and 2005 and while we know the significance of The Book of Lost Names pretty much from the start, we learn so much more about it and why it is even more important to Eva than we thought.
The last 30% are a quick-moving, action-filled and emotional tour de force that left me a little breathless, as if I had lived through Eva and Remy's big finale. Riding on an emotional roller coaster that drags you through hope, love, trust, friendship, humanity and secrets, heartbreak and betrayal this story is a stark reminder that we aren't done processing and learning from this dark spot in our history by a long shot. It made me feel uncomfortable and sad and tear up, but also smile. I loved THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES with all my heart.

“Sir,” I reply, “we are only responsible for the things we do—or fail to do—ourselves. You owe me no apology.”

What a remarkable book based on a remarkable story! This was my introduction to this author and I can't wait to go back and read her previous books.
I find books concerning World War especially interesting and Harmel did a superb job of weaving her story about the subject of forgery in Europe during that time. She conveys the danger and horror of the Holocaust while juxtaposing the goodness and bravery of many involved. The history of the French involvement, those who collaborated as well as those who resisted, balance the story and makes the reader examine many aspects of war. I am a fan!

I love books about WWII and the bravery people showed by doing what needed to be done to help the resistance. Kristin Harmel has written other books set during the time, including The Winemakers Wife. I was so excited to have the chance to read the book before it is published on July 21st!

The Book of Lost Names is Eva’s story fighting for the resistance. She started out trying to help free her father by forging documents to show he should not be in Germany custody. The led to her sharing her artist skills with the resistance by forging documents for Jews fleeing from France. She know what she is doing is dangerous but she has to do what she can to help save lives.

Eva showed a lot of bravery during this story. She must go against her mothers wishes to forge documents. She has to be careful she is not spotted in the wrong place. Later in the book she helps the resistance in other ways. Some of the documents she forged are for children who had their parents taken away by the Germans. Determined to give the children a chance to reunite with their families after the war she works with her partner to crate a code in a book. She carefully records each name in the book hoping it will help.

Eva goes through so much in this book as I’m sure many did during this time. I think it’s wonderful that historical fiction books are written to help us remember the lengths people had to go to. I would highly recommend this book and Kristin Harmel’s other books to anyone who loves historical fiction.

I was unfamiliar with this author until I read this book. I will definitely be searching for other books by her. This book kept my interest and ended too soon. I wanted to find out more about some of the children that were introduced. It is horrific what those babies went through. I had never heard of the forgers during WWII but their work was so important.
Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an arc copy of this book.

Thanks to Gallery Books and Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

With all of the WWII historical fiction the last few years, I've found I've been getting fatigued but I really enjoyed The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel. Told through the viewpoint of a young Jewish women who escapes from Paris in 1942 to a small town where she starts forging documents to help children cross the border into Switzerland. She devises a code in a book to record the names of those children who she gives a new identity to. There are a few jumps to 2005 where as an older women she reads a news article about the Berlin librarians who have been trying to re-unite books with their owners and she sees the book where she recorded the names.

While I liked this book and the premise, I wish there had been more of the 2005. I love books with a dual timeline. Also at times Eva is quite naive and immature, which distract from the story, but overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend it, even to those who have read a lot of WWII historical fiction!

Kristin Harmel, author of four previous WWII historical fiction novels, draws readers in from The Book of Lost Name’s opening page. Eighty-six-year-old Mrs. Abrams, a part-time librarian, is dumbstruck when she sees “it”—a New York Times front page photo of a book she last laid eyes on when she was in her twenties, a book she thought had vanished forever, a book that meant everything to her. The headline accompanying the photo of a man holding a faded leather-bound book announces, “Sixty Years After End of World War II, German Librarian Seeks to Reunite Looted Books with Rightful Owners.” She thinks how the book once belonged to her—and to Rémy, a long dead man she vowed to never think of again after the war.

Knowing what she must do, elderly Mrs. Abrams buys a plane ticket to Berlin. She worries how she will tell her only son Ben that neither he nor her deceased husband Louis ever knew who she really was. Perhaps the time has come for Ben to learn.

The second chapter shifts from May 2005 to July 1942. Eva Traube, a French-born Jewish student in the English Department, is standing outside the main doors of the Sorbonne’s university library when a fellow student, Joseph Pelletier, warns her of an impending Nazi roundup of Paris Jews. When Eva’s parents refuse to listen to the warning, she and her mother escape capture only because they are called out of the apartment to help a neighbor. Her father is not so lucky.

Harmel gives us the story of Eva and her mother’s escape to a remote village in Southern France where they have heard the locals are helping Jews escape to neutral Switzerland. Rather than crossing the border, Eva joins a forger named Rémy, working to create fake documents to help orphaned Jewish children escape to safety. In addition to her artful forgeries, she soon begins keeping a coded record of the children’s real names in an old book in the church library where she and Rémy work.

The emotional and eventful novel has just begun.

In notes at the end of The Book of Lost Names, Harmel explains how she first heard about the forgers comprising part of the French resistance and how she got the idea to center her latest novel around an obscure old book in a small Catholic church library near the Swiss border.

Filled with suspense and based on history, The Book of Lost Names tells a fictional story of bravery and betrayal, of love and loss, of dangerous identities and changed identities, of losing one’s identity and finding it again.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books/Simon and Schuster, and Kristen Harmel for providing an advance reader copy.

Honestly - I have been so deep in a romance mode that I really had to talk myself into reading this one. Come to find out, it was totally worth it. I was worried that a WW2 story would feel too heavy right now, but Kristin Harmel made this into a people story in the space of the war. I needed to know more about Eva and about Remy and about their families and the children. I was turning pages as fast as I could because the dual timeline of the war and present day were both so exciting to me. How she managed to make both story lines feel so compelling is remarkable. I am very excited to dig into her backlist now.

If you like Beatriz Williams and historical fiction with a good story to it, this is for you.

Thank you to Gallery for letting me read and review.

This is a very emotional story that you are not going to forget quickly.
Eva felt that everything was her fault when she really didn’t have any control over what was happening. The mother’s attitude even if she was stricken by grief was not been fair to her daughter and more than once she endangered her daughter and herself.
Eva was betrayed by a friend, who killed and informed the Germans on the movements of the resistance in order to save his own life. Many died on account of him.
We have the catholic priest who did everything possible to get the Jewish children to freedom assisted by the French women who risk their lives in doing so.
We have the collaborator (policemen) who turned in his own countrymen in order to be on the good side of the Germans and get promoted. In contrast the German soldier who understood how wrong everything had become ended up helping the priest.
Often because of all the confusion after the war people were not able to find out the status of their loved ones for many years and sometimes never.
This is historical friction. The characters and events might not be real in the true sense of the word but they represent real events and people during those war years.