A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents’ mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, Miranda’s grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South … village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. Aside from one brief encounter, the two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.
A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife’s name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory. She also finds herself learning how not only to survive but to thrive–making a home in the village and falling in love.
With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents’ outsize characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.
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The wonderful story of a family who were finally able to see one another again, but it is very sad to read about what the family went through during the second World War, It is very interesting and you hardly want to put it down once you start reading it. Again, an example of man’s inhumanity to man, as applies to the Jews who were persecuted during World War II.
The story is woven so wonderfully,that you almost feel that you know this family. English not being my first language I enjoyed the easy and colorful flow of the story.
Quite a study in characters and places.
An easy to read book with a nice little story.
This is a true story, and the story itself kept me guessing as to what could have caused the 50 years of silence. Without spoiling the story, the ultimate reason for her grandparents’ parting is heartbreaking. The love between the author and her grandparents, and ultimately the love between her grandparents touched me deeply. It is a story well worth reading.
It was very inspiring to read what these wonderful people did despite the danger to them.
The granddaughter writing the book never really found out why her grandparents hadn’t seen each other in 50 years, other than they both went thru terrible times in the Holacaust. It was sort of a let down.
Oh my goodness what a story! Excellent writer and outstanding read. Thank you for sharing you story.
Thought-provoking about the effect of the holocaust on the family generations beyond those actually wounded by the events. The author’s insights and discoveries while trying to see the past through her grandparents’ eyes was rich and touching.
Very good, informative, but sad!
Good story
A book of exceptional beauty, wisdom and pathos.
The same concepts, storyline were repeated over and over. Whole story could have been told in a couple pages. Story is about writer discovering the story and imagining some of it. Basically someone wanted to write, sell a book.