war stories

The Girl You Left Behind is broken into two time periods: the first in 1916 with Sophie Lefevre struggling to keep herself and her family alive in a German-occupied town in France. Her beloved husband Edouard, a French artist who studied under Matisse, is fighting at the Front. When the local Kommandant takes an interest in a painting that Edouard did of his wife, Sophie is forced to make life-altering decisions regarding how much she will do to survive the war and save her husband.

Almost a century later, Liv Halston is a young widow in London, still recovering from the sudden death of her

I decided to read The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean after reading and listening to the remarkable City of Thieves by David Benioff.  Ms. Dean provides an alternate, equally creative telling of the horrific Siege of Leningrad during World War II.

The book starts in the present day with the elderly Marina as she displays the first signs of Alzheimer’s disease.  As the disease progresses she slips into memories of her past --a past she has not revealed to her two adult children.  Marina was a survivor of the deadliest siege in recorded history.  Prior to the onset of war, Marina trained as