In the winter of 1928, still seeking some kind of resolution to the horrors of World War I, Freddie is traveling through the beautiful but forbidding French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Dazed, he stumbles through the woods, emerging in a tiny village, where he finds an inn to wait out the blizzard. There he meets Fabrissa, a lovely young woman also mourning a lost generation.
Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, Freddie will have unearthed a tragic, centuries-old mystery, and discovered his own role in the life of this remote town.
First line: He walked like a man recently returned to the world.
My Thoughts: I loved it. I have to admit that I was initally attracted to this one by it's lovely cover. This beautifully written story was dark and atmospheric and the setting, the French Pyrenees in the late 1920s and early 1930s, was wonderful. It is a ghost story, and quite eerie, but it is no horror story. I was compelled to continue reading, I wanted to find out the rest of Fabrissa's story and see how Freddie was drawn to her. I felt so sorry for Freddie stuck emotionally in the time when his brother was lost in the war (WWI.) And Fabrissa, with her story of lost loved ones, drew me in as well.
This is the first work by Mosse that I've read, but it won't be the last.
It is not a long book, it is a quick read. I would love to recommend this one to you.
Quote: “The dead leave their shadows, an echo of the space within which once they lived. They haunt us, never fading or growing older as we do. The loss we grieve is not just their futures but our own.”
Challenges:
100+
1 comment:
I read her first book years ago, but haven't yet managed to get back to the rest of them, including this one! Must do that!
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