Book Review – The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel @kristinharmel @GalleryBooks @SimonSchuster #historicalfiction

Book Title: The Book of Lost Names

Author: Kristin Harmel

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publishing Date: 21 July 2020

No. of Pages: 400

Line Summary:

Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, this book is about a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis

My Review:

Wow! What a lovely historical fiction! After “ The Nightingale “ I was looking for a similar WWII related book and this one is amazing! Though I liked the nightingale more than this, I enjoyed this too! The story was emotional and heart wrenching! The characters were heroic! The narration was fluid and crisp. Some chapters were raising my heartbeat and I was hastily turning pages to find out what happened next! But other than that few chapters its a slow-paced story for its setting! For a world war 2 related book it lacks bold adventuresome scenes but replaced them with emotional ones. I couldn’t ignore that some scenes were similar to “The Nightingale! But the climax was astonishing!!! A must-read brilliant historical fiction!

Thoughts while reading :

This book satisfies my historical fiction thirst after “The Nightingale “. One of the things I admired in both books was the heroine oriented story, in spite of its war-related setting.
I was so mad at Eva’s mother at each and every stage. And I wish Eva should have stand up for herself. And what about all the characters defend her mom?
Sometimes I felt the story lacks in bold adventurous scenes and so it fails to be a page-turner. Definitely, you need a little bit of patience to finish some chapters.
I could guess the traitor from the beginning when things going wrong! so not much surprise there, which I believe very important to keep the story’s upbeat and so failed to do so!
Without mentioning the war’s real cruelty and atrocities it tough to understand the importance of the forgery works unless you read or know about it from other books/sources. The book failed to make us understand it.
The initial America scene and the unsung unknown hero of war were much similar scenes from “The Nightingale”.
Though it’s unbelievable I loved that emotional climax. Finally happy tears and reunion.