⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Long Way Home by Lynn Austin is a beautifully written novel that tugs at the heart and offers a hopeful message about healing after trauma. Set in the wake of World War II, the story follows Jimmy Barnett, a shell-shocked veteran confined to a VA hospital, and Grace, a quiet young woman determined to uncover the truth behind his silence. As Grace digs into Jimmy’s past, she uncovers a moving tale of love, sacrifice, and the unseen wounds soldiers carry home. The book also weaves in a second powerful storyline: that of Gisela Wolff, a young Jewish woman trying to survive the horrors of Nazi Germany. Her family’s journey—from […]
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The Refugee Ocean: A Symphony of Struggle and Survival
The Refugee Ocean intertwines the stories of two refugees, Marguerite Toutoungi and Naïm Rahil, across time and continents through history, loss, and music. Marguerite (who is based on the author’s cousin) is born in 1922 Beirut, and dreams of becoming a composer, but societal and familial expectations keep her tethered. A romance with a Cuban tobacco farmer leads her to a turbulent life in Havana during the Cuban Revolution. Decades later, Naïm Rahil, a teenage piano prodigy from Aleppo, flees war-torn Syria with his mother, seeking solace in suburban America after losing his family and part of his hand in a bombing. Their stories are linked by Annabel Crandell, a […]
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The Wildest Sun
“I am the daughter of a proud father and a delightfully vain mother. I am a girl who has always known that her destiny must lead to greatness, and that I must achieve it whatever it costs me.”—Asha Lemmie, The Wildest Sun. This coming-of-age tale whisked me away to postwar Paris, where we meet Delphine Auber, a young aspiring writer with dreams as big as the Eiffel Tower. From the get-go, Delphine’s journey captivated me. Having shouldered the weight of her alcoholic mother’s care since she was a child, her story is one of resilience and determination. But it’s when she sets sail for the bustling streets of Harlem, where […]
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