The Things We Cannot Say: A heart-breaking, inspiring novel of hope and a love to defy all odds in World War Two

Product Information

Kelly Rimmer’s The Things We Cannot Say is my second World War II book set in Poland this year. This book switched between two sections, a modern-day section following Alice and a World War II section following Alina. There was nothing to bury, no body to conduct a service over. Instead, we heard that he was gone, and that was that… Nothing had changed, except that nothing was the same anymore, because once I had two brothers, and now I had one… Our oppression was loss without reason, and pain without a purpose. In the present day, Alice is a stressed-out wife and mother of two children—a precocious daughter and a nonverbal autistic son. Although she is married, she might as well be a single mother, as her husband is not an involved parent, choosing to occupy himself with work rather than bond with the children. In the meantime, Alice’s Babcia (grandmother) has had a stroke and cannot communicate verbally, but using her grandson’s voice-assisted app, she transmits urgent messages to her granddaughter: Find Tomasz and Babcia fire Tomasz. Although she does not understand Babcia’s command or what she’s even supposed to be looking for, Alice travels to Poland to help unravel a decades-old family mystery, while simultaneously seeking healing and solace for her own broken life. Their plans are jeopardized when an informant alerts the German army. Tragically, Dr. Weiss witnesses the execution of his entire family. Tomasz agrees to switch identities with Dr. Weiss and bids them farewell promising to find Alina.

Our two heroines Alice, Alina are coming from different generations. Alina is young, good hearted and always protected by her family. During the struggling war times, she loses her loved ones and her family comfort zone which pushes her take braver decisions for her life. The love she has for Tomazs help her gather her strength, fight for all the obstacles by taking dangerous risks. From the bestselling author of Truths I Never Told You, Before I Let You Go, and the The Warsaw Orphan, Kelly Rimmer’s powerful WWII novel follows a woman’s urgent search for answers to a family mystery that uncovers truths about herself that she never expected. Thank you to Edelweiss, Graydon House and Kelly Rimmer for providing me with an ARC to read and review!Life has a way of shattering our expectations, of leaving our hopes in pieces without explanation. But when there’s love in a family, the fragments left behind from our shattered dreams can always be pulled together again, even if the end result is a mosaic. A masterful piece is what The Things We Cannot Say novel is. It depicts the horrors of war, the fear, the famish, and so much death but also the bravery and the courage humanity can have during the worst of times. Rimmer presents her story using a pair of first-person narrators. Alina Dziak, a Polish teenager living in the small town of Trzebinia during World War II, tells her experiences during the war. She also describes her love for Tomasz Slaski and the things they went through to be together. Alina’s chapters are interspersed with chapters narrated by Alice Michaels, an American mother struggling with her family life. Alice’s beloved grandmother, Hanna Wis´niewski Slaski, is hospitalized, unable to speak, after suffering a stroke. She uses an iPad app to communicate to Alice that she wants Alice to go to Poland and find the answers that Hanna has to unfinished business in her life. Extremely engaging!!!!!EASY - ADDICTING LISTENING...the type of story that involves readers so personally - the book never needs to end. I especially loved the historical part... but the modern part becomes equally moving the closer we get to the end.

In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.Straddling the past and the present, The Things We Cannot Say is a mesmerizing tale of family, memory, forgiveness, and unconditional love, but it is also about retrieving lost stories. Overall, The Things We Cannot Say is about seeing the good in those around us and believing in the power of redemption. I ate this book up from start to finish, and it’s on my list of favorites this year. It’s huggable, emotional, and beautifully-written. Did I already mention you shouldn’t miss it?! Alina’s quiet little town is taken over by Nazis, and the climate becomes divisive and hateful. At the same time, Tomasz completely disappears. She waits and waits to hear from Tomasz as Nazi soldiers patrol her family’s farm. So, all in all, there were many things about the story that irritated me, some things I liked, but I still stayed up reading it way past my bed time, because I did want to see what happened in the end, even though I kind of predicted it. I think this novel will appeal to a lot of people, I just needed something a little meatier, a little less romance, and a little more depth for myself.

I also liked the narrative style, with the two separate voices: Alina’s voice recounting her life and the events she lived through in Poland after the German invasion, and Alice’s present day voice as she navigates through her own life and then an unexpected trip to Poland. Kelly Rimmer is also a great writer, and she creates a wonderful vision of the little town in Poland, life under occupation, and also Polish farm life. From the bestselling author of Truths I Never Told You, Before I Let You Go , and the The Warsaw Orphan, Kelly Rimmer’s powerful WWII novel follows a woman’s urgent search for answers to a family mystery that uncovers truths about herself that she never expected. Told in dual timelines, both narratives and storylines kept me fully engaged. The characters were unique and unforgettable. I read a lot of WWII novels and yet, this story introduced me to a completely different wartime perspective which I truly appreciate learning about. It’s why I love reading historical fiction.Kelly Rimmer has raised the already high bar with this unforgettable novel. Fans of Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah now have a new go-to author." Bestselling author Sally Hepworth This is a heartbreakingly beautiful book and is all the more meaningful when Rimmer tells us in a note that she traveled to Poland to visit her grandmother’s childhood home. She comments briefly on her inspiration for the book here : http://www.betterreading.com.au/news/... Told in two timelines, we hear from Alina Dziak in 1942 just as she gets married in a Russian refugee camp. Her decision to marry will change her life and bury a lie for decades. Don’t miss Kelly Rimmer’s newest novel, The Paris Agent , where a family’s innocent search for answers brings a long-forgotten, twenty-five-year-old mystery featuring two female SOE operatives comes to light! This is my second book by Kelly Rimmer (the first being Before I Let You Go) and she has unequivocally captured me as a fan. She captures human emotion with such heart and unflinching honesty. I urge you to add this one to the top of your must read list. You will not be sorry.

Another entry in the recent trend of female protagonists during WWII genre. Some of these books have been hits ( The Alice Network) and some have been misses ( The Lost Girls of Paris). It has been interesting to read them, but sometimes it feels like the genre is getting over-saturated. Because of that, I took a break for a while before trying The Things We Cannot Say, but my family kept recommending it, so I figured it was time to give it a try. In the year 1939, Alina lives on a family farm in southern Poland. Her heart belongs to Tomasz Slaski, a local boy who wants to be a doctor. Their love is tested when Tomasz leaves for Warsaw to pursue his studies just weeks before the Nazis invade Poland. As for the audiobook, I had a (minor?) issue with it. I am not sure if affected my enjoyment a lot but it's still worth mentioning. So we have a narrator for Alina and another for Kelly.

Browse reviews by Genre

I absolutely loved this book. The characters were multi-layered and so imperfect that they seemed real. We follow Alice, who struggles with a young son with Asperger's Syndrome, a prodigy daughter and a work-addicted husband as she travels to Poland and begins to uncover a heartbreaking story that will touch her family in more ways than one. I braced myself for the ugly cry I knew was coming and I wasn't wrong. It made me feel so many emotions. 😢 love, loss, family, relationships, autism, sacrifice, poverty, fears, horrors of the war, heartbreaking, heartwarming, The tears that I cried as I read the climax of this story would probably rival the Niagara. Although Kelly Rimmer is an established author, this was my first experience with her storytelling and now I am hungry to read more. I felt that the author's note was deeply fascinating and the fact that it is inspired by some of Rimmer's own family history makes this book so memorable.