Kristin Hannah is quite a story teller. Her tale of two sisters in France when it is overwhelmed by the Nazis moves along at breakneck speed and is always interesting and suspenseful. The older sister, Vianne, who is married with a child, wants to keep a low profile and endure quietly, trusting that the enemy will eventually be overcome by others. The younger sister, Isabelle, wants to fight in any way that she can to aid in the cause of freedom. Vianne stays in her home village, where she is forced to house a German officer and must make one hard decision after another to keep her family safe. Isabelle goes to Paris, where she becomes an important cog is the Resistance, leading downed airmen from England and America across mountains to safety in Spain.
The only problem with this novel is that it is too melodramatic and overly sentimental, causing it to read somewhat like a young adult novel. In fact, I am going to pass it along to my teenage granddaughters. It does highlight an aspect of history worth examining: the plight of the French people in determining how to react to an enemy occupation.
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