After reading this book, one cannot help but compare the terrible invasion of Poland in 1939 with the senseless invasion taking place in Ukraine today. Perhaps that is why Poland is so ready to assist the refugees pouring into its country today, because the memory of what happened so long ago is still in everyone's mind. Rimmer presents her story using a pair of first-person narrators. Alina Dziak, a Polish teenager living in the small town of Trzebinia during World War II, tells her experiences during the war. She also describes her love for Tomasz Slaski and the things they went through to be together. Alina’s chapters are interspersed with chapters narrated by Alice Michaels, an American mother struggling with her family life. Alice’s beloved grandmother, Hanna Wis´niewski Slaski, is hospitalized, unable to speak, after suffering a stroke. She uses an iPad app to communicate to Alice that she wants Alice to go to Poland and find the answers that Hanna has to unfinished business in her life. Another entry in the recent trend of female protagonists during WWII genre. Some of these books have been hits ( The Alice Network) and some have been misses ( The Lost Girls of Paris). It has been interesting to read them, but sometimes it feels like the genre is getting over-saturated. Because of that, I took a break for a while before trying The Things We Cannot Say, but my family kept recommending it, so I figured it was time to give it a try. Authors, if you are a member of the Goodreads Author Program, you can edit information about your own books. Find out how in this guide. The story of Alina and Tomasz, tore my heart in two, the horror of the Holocaust being a reality, a simple life becoming an unrelenting, constant bombardment of brutality and death. And it is through Alice that we find out the secrets that Hannah has hidden from her family. Secrets that she and her husband Saul could never bring themselves to reveal about their days in Poland, during the Holocaust.

This is another dual story timeline — Alina, a Polish teenager living through the early days of the Nazi invasion and subjugation of her country, and Alice, a stay-at-home mom in Florida with a gifted daughter, a severely autistic son, and a distant husband. At the start of the novel, Alice’s Babcia Hanna has a massive stroke and is hospitalized; Babcia isn’t able to communicate well, and she keeps repeating a variation of “Babcia fire Tomasz Poland” to the bafflement of her daughter (who is a workaholic judge) and Alice. Ultimately, it becomes clear that she wants Alice to return to her hometown to solve some sort of mystery — yes, yes, I’m totally summarizing this, but I don’t want to give away too many details. We are spoiler free over here, but I don’t think it’s hard to realize that Alina is Hanna; that’s not the twist — the twist comes to be how did she get to Florida in 1943. In Poland, separated from her family, Alice begins to uncover the story her grandmother is so desperate to tell, and discovers a love that bloomed in the winter of 1942. As a painful family history comes to light, will the struggles of the past and present finally reach a heartbreaking resolution? Alina’s quiet little town is taken over by Nazis, and the climate becomes divisive and hateful. At the same time, Tomasz completely disappears. She waits and waits to hear from Tomasz as Nazi soldiers patrol her family’s farm. WWII Alina and Tomasz are childhood sweethearts. The night before he leaves for college, Tomasz proposes marriage. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn't know if Tomasz is alive or dead.

As for the audiobook, I had a (minor?) issue with it. I am not sure if affected my enjoyment a lot but it's still worth mentioning. So we have a narrator for Alina and another for Kelly. The story comes together in an emotional and powerful ending that will surely have you reaching for tissues. After reading this one we were left a mess, cried a bit and then shared our thoughts with each other. This is the type of story to share with someone and I am glad to be able to share with Lindsay and a couple of our Traveling Sisters. The title gives us a clue that something kept secret in this family. But this poetically written, heartwarming, amazing story is not about the family secrets , it’s about the words we keep inside and it’s about the emotions we hide. It’s about the reconnection of the family by reaching their roots and discovering their ancestors and an epic, unconditional, never ending love story defeats the time, dead and war.

It has been almost a year since The Things We Cannot Say came out yet life has made it impossible for me to read it before now. So many friends recommended it and they were not wrong. It's a beautiful devastating story. One that will be impossible to forget. Don’t miss Kelly Rimmer’s newest novel, The Paris Agent , where a family’s innocent search for answers brings a long-forgotten, twenty-five-year-old mystery featuring two female SOE operatives comes to light! In the present day, Alice is a stressed-out wife and mother of two children—a precocious daughter and a nonverbal autistic son. Although she is married, she might as well be a single mother, as her husband is not an involved parent, choosing to occupy himself with work rather than bond with the children. In the meantime, Alice’s Babcia (grandmother) has had a stroke and cannot communicate verbally, but using her grandson’s voice-assisted app, she transmits urgent messages to her granddaughter: Find Tomasz and Babcia fire Tomasz. Although she does not understand Babcia’s command or what she’s even supposed to be looking for, Alice travels to Poland to help unravel a decades-old family mystery, while simultaneously seeking healing and solace for her own broken life. Alina’s narration describes her separation from Tomasz because he was away at college when the war started. When he returned to Alina, he was in hiding because he was helping to support Saul and Eva Weiss, a young Jewish couple and their infant daughter. They had helped Tomasz escape from his conscription into the German army so Tomasz believed he owed them any help he could give them. The couple is betrayed on the night Alina and Tomasz had arranged to escape from Poland. They were going to transport a canister of film showing the atrocities taking place at Auschwitz in exchange for their freedom. Saul’s daughter and wife were killed, but he was left alive. Tomasz decided to send Saul in his place, using his identification papers, to protect Saul. He told Alina he had to warn his family they were in danger and promised he would catch up with her when he could.

Customer reviews

Kelly Rimmer has raised the already high bar with this unforgettable novel. Fans of Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah now have a new go-to author." Bestselling author Sally Hepworth This book about finding yourself, taking risks, making sacrifices, reaching to your inner strengths, looking at your life from different perspective, fighting for your own beliefs till the end and true love stands still no matter life throws the toughest obstacles in the lovers’ way. The Things We Cannot Say had me crying and I usually don't cry when I read books, no matter how sad. But this story just tore the tears from me, in so many ways. Two time periods are linked together by one woman and the truth she couldn't tell, until her very last days.

This beautifully crafted story weaves together the present and the past seamlessly with threads of heartbreak, sacrifice, and love! Alina has known she wanted to be married to Tomasz since she was nine years old and he was twelve. Now, she is fifteen and Tomasz is ready for University. Just before he leaves to start medical school in Warsaw, Tomasz and Alina get engaged. Tomasz promises to return for her. Then WWII begins. In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the 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. I highly recommend this book to all lovers of historical fiction, domestic dramas and anyone who just loves a good, heartfelt story. It’s a story of war, yes, but it is also a story of love, hope, strength, courage and how two women, in two very different times, come into their own.Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including: Fans of The Nightingale and Lilac Girls will adore The Things We Cannot Say.” —Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author Alice’s arrival in Trzebinia showed a very different town to 1942. Her search of that past was aided by a guide who specialized in family history, and Zofia was a friendly and helpful young woman. But would they find any answers? Everywhere they looked they were met with dead ends. Alice was desperate as the time frame for her Babcia was shrinking… In America, Alina and Saul continued to use their aliases. There was never a good time for them to tell the truth. Saul took the place of Tomasz as the father of Alina’s baby, Julita. Julita never suspected Saul was not her biological father. It is only when Alice travels to Poland on her grandmother’s urging that they learn that Hanna was using an alias. Extremely engaging!!!!!EASY - ADDICTING LISTENING...the type of story that involves readers so personally - the book never needs to end. I especially loved the historical part... but the modern part becomes equally moving the closer we get to the end.