Review: The Daughter's Tale by Armando Lucas Correa

The German Girl was such a moving tale that I was absolutely thrilled when I learned that the author, Armando Lucas Correa had penned another novel. The Daughter's Tale opens in New York in 2015. Elise Duval is almost eighty years old. One day, she unexpectedly receives a phone call from Ida Rosen and her daughter Anna who have recently been to Cuba. They have some letters for her. Initially, Elise is confused. She doesn't know anyone in Cuba ... does she?

Ida insists on a visit, and she and Anna bring the letters. As Elise reads them--letters written by a woman named Amanda for her daughter Vera--memories of a very different life in Germany and then France come flooding back. From there the reader is whisked away on a tale of survival--and the strength of a mother's love--against the backdrop of one of the most shocking and shameful events of the twentieth century. The author shines as he creates a real emotional bond between the reader and the characters, though it feels bittersweet on occasions, as the reader knows that not everyone can possibly survive the horrors of living in occupied France. We watch as Elise grows from child to woman, navigating this situation the best way she knows how and kept safe by some truly wonderful people.

More haunting is the fact that The Daughter's Tale is inspired by a true story, that of Judith a Jewish child who survived the war thanks to the cleverness of her father and the kindness of others. (Read more here.)

Highly recommended.

Author Armando Lucas Correa is touring Australia this week to promote his work. Readers can see him at the following events:


  • 12th June: Kambri Cultural Centre, Australian National University, Canberra
  • 13th June: Wollahra Library, Wollahra
  • 14th June: Sofitel Sydney, Wentworth (hosted by Dymocks)
  • 17th June: Infuse Camberwell (hosted by Dymocks)
  • 18th June: Geelong Library

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for my copy of The German Girl

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more