The Daughter's Tale

A Novel

By: Armando Lucas Correa

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

From the internationally bestselling author of The German Girl, an unforgettable, “searing” (People) saga exploring a hidden piece of World War II history and the lengths a mother will go to protect her children—perfect for fans of Lilac Girls, We Were the Lucky Ones, and The Alice Network.

Seven decades of secrets unravel with the arrival of a box of letters from the distant past, taking readers on a harrowing journey from Nazi-occupied Berlin, to the South of France, to modern-day New York City.

Berlin, 1939. The dreams that Amanda Sternberg and her husband, Julius, had for their daughters are shattered when the Nazis descend on Berlin, burning down their beloved family bookshop and sending Julius to a concentration camp. Desperate to save her children, Amanda flees toward the South of France. Along the way, a refugee ship headed for Cuba offers another chance at escape and there, at the dock, Amanda is forced to make an impossible choice that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Once in Haute-Vienne, her brief respite is inter­rupted by the arrival of Nazi forces, and Amanda finds herself in a labor camp where she must once again make a heroic sacrifice.

New York, 2015. Eighty-year-old Elise Duval receives a call from a woman bearing messages from a time and country that she forced herself to forget. A French Catholic who arrived in New York after World War II, Elise is shocked to discover that the letters were from her mother, written in German during the war. Her mother’s words unlock a floodgate of memories, a lifetime of loss un-grieved, and a chance—at last—for closure.

Based on true events and “breathtakingly threaded together from start to finish with the sound of a beating heart” (The New York Times Book Review), The Daughter’s Tale is an unforgettable family saga of love, survival, and redemption.

Beautiful and heartbreaking

Beautifully written and so sad. The kind of book that leaves you thinking about how different the fate of the daughters could have been if different choices were made at different times. And it shows how a mother’s love of her children is like nothing else.

Excellent Book!

Best read in 2019! Highly recommend this book, especially for those who are interested in the WWII time frame!

Decent story

The story was slow at times due to building background and events that shaped the historic sequencing of various peoples’ lives.

Depressing

The narrator is excellent. The prose is very good. The story is one sad tale after the next. Every bad thing that happens in WWII stories is retold once again. Every event is pitiful. The story starts with the main character dying of a heart attack and then reviews her sad life. It ends with her death. I think I have read too many WWII books!

Easy, if painful historical fiction.

Well written. i learned, once again, how the evil Nazi regime was the epitome of satanic infiltration in this time period.