The Things We Cannot Say

In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It's a decision that will alter her destiny...and it's a lie that will remain buried until the next century.Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina's tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate.Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents' farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.

  

The title of this book kind of describes how I would review it, because it broke me so much that I honestly don't even know what to say.  I am a huge Kelly Rimmer and this book was absolutely brilliant!  I read this with a group of girls and everyone seemed to love it just as much as I did, even readers who don't read historical fiction.  Her writing has a way of sucking you in and I felt like the story was almost sacred.  By the end, I truly felt like my heart was on the floor, so you are being warned!  I think Kelly Rimmer is so underappreciated in the fiction world and I really hope more people will pick up her books because she is an absolute favorite, must-read author for me.  If you love historical fiction, or if you have never picked one up in your life, please, please give this one a try.  It's hands-down my favorite historical fiction of all time!

            * I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review *