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    The Daughter's Tale: A Novel
    The Daughter's Tale: A Novel
    The Daughter's Tale: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Daughter's Tale: A Novel

    Written by Armando Lucas Correa

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMay 7, 2019
    ISBN9781508267966
    Author

    Armando Lucas Correa

    Armando Lucas Correa nació en Guantánamo, Cuba. En 1991 llegó a Miami, donde trabajó como periodista en El Nuevo Herald. Luego, en 1997, se mudó a Nueva York y fue contratado como escritor para la recién inaugurada People en Español, de Time Inc., donde desde 2007 es el director editorial. Actualmente vive en Nueva York.

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    Reviews for The Daughter's Tale

    4/5

    121 ratings15 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great story and fantastic audio. Thanks for last chapters of information
    • 5/5
      Sad but very good. Seems our country still struggles with people who are “ different “
    • 5/5
      A sad amazing story of Life during a horrible World War! Very Emotional realization of what war is about!
    • 3/5
      This story was hard to follow. No drama or plots. It was similar to reading entries in a diary. I had different expectations.
    • 5/5
      Excellent! One of the very best WW2 books that I have ever listened to!
    • 4/5
      Great historical book I listen to the book,I had a little difficulty following the transition from names and times, each time I begin listening again I wanted toBack up the rating so I could figure out where the story picked up again. But great book
    • 5/5
      The story the courage to survive against all odds and sacrifice and the great amount of love
    • 4/5
      This book is based on a part of history that will live on in infamy along with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Holocaust will forever be a scar on the past. In this book, the terror-filled lives of the children, during World War II, is highlighted along with the day-to-day horrors that the adults faced. Children were often forced to witness the cruel, brutal acts of the Nazis before they could understand what was happening. If no sane person could comprehend it, how could a child? The barbarism of that time is well documented, but no matter how much is written about that shameful era of hate, there is always some new atrocity that is revealed in every book.Although millions were murdered, that was not the entire story of the times. Parents, though they tried, often could not protect their children. They were forced to abandon them to others in order to save their lives. They were uprooted; their religion was changed or forgotten, along with their true identities. Sometimes rescues were arranged and the children were shipped to other countries, never to see their parents again. Reunions were rare for a number of reasons. Even as the resistance to Hitler grew, the war raged on and on. Madmen continued to follow his insanity and refused to give up. Nazi behavior was often beyond the scope of anything anyone could have imagined possible. Who could have believed that people would be locked into synagogues to be burnt alive? Who could have imagined graves would be dug to contain hundreds of victims that were mass murdered? Who could have imagined such inhuman and inhumane treatment of any human being? It was incomprehensible, yet, it did occur.This is the story of Elise Duval “aka” Lina Sternberg, daughter of Julius and Amanda and sister of Vera. Lina spent her formative years under the threat of capture by Hitler’s thugs. There were strangers who risked their own lives to save the innocent victims, but if caught, they would be subjected to the same punishment and death. Undesirables were beaten, murdered, shamed, starved, robbed and worse. Normal life no longer existed for them. They were considered inferior to the Master Race, a race of pure Aryans. For six years, as Hitler attracted the vermin to his cause, to carry out his savage orders, Lina and her mother and sister Vera were on the run. Danielle’s mother, who became known to Lina as maman Claire, protected her, at first, but ultimately, Danielle Duval and Lina, soon to be known as Elise Duval, were sheltered in a church. The children never knew who might turn on them; they never knew whom they could trust. They lived with constant terror.Elise Duval who was once Lina Sternberg, doesn’t regain her own identity for eight decades, and then, it almost kills her.
    • 4/5
      Such a sad story. People of the 1940s sure had guts and stamina. :(

      SO this is my review from JUNE when I read this one already... I read the first line and said... I READ THIS ALREADY lol.

      Onward.
    • 4/5
      A Daughter’s Tale is Correa’s second book of historical fiction, following the publication of The German Girl in 2016. In ‘A Letter to the Reader’ penned by the author he explains the story was inspired by a conversation with a holocaust survivor, and his desire to tell another forgotten story of WWII.Despite the troubling unrest in the streets of Berlin, and then the forced purge and closure of her bookstore, Amanda and her cardiologist husband Julius, naively believe their family, which includes young daughters Viera and Lina, will come to no harm from their German compatriots. It’s not until Julius is forcibly dragged from his office to serve the Führer in 1939, that Amanda finally realises the danger she and her girls are in, and when the pogrom begins, she is forced to flee. One of Julius’s last acts was to secure passage for their daughters on a refugee ship destined for Cuba, but unable to abandon both her children to an unknown fate thousands of miles away from her, Amanda sends only Viera to her brother’s adopted homeland. With three year old Lina in tow, Amanda makes her way to a friend’s home in southern France, hoping to escape the persecution she and her daughter face as German Jews.Correa’s tale is one of courage, hope, desperation, and tragedy, as Amanda and Lina fight to survive among those that hunt, and fear, them. I appreciated the way in which he shows how Amanda struggles with each decision she makes, never certain if her choices will save, or condemn them. A brief period of respite with her friend Claire and her daughter, Danielle, renews Amanda’s optimism for the future, and she writes loving letters to Viera on the few pages she rescued from her favourite book, a botanical encyclopaedia, hoping they will find her in safe in Cuba. But their situation worsens when France surrenders to the Nazi’s, and Amanda grows ever more determined that Lina will have a future, and eventually reunite with her sister, no matter the cost to herself. The strength of A Daughter’s Tale is in the characterisation, Amanda and Lina in particular are fully realised and sympathetically rendered. I was especially affected by the guilt Amanda felt, and the sacrifices she made. Where it suffered, I felt, was in the pacing. Though I liked the way in which the story was introduced, and ended with Elise in 2015, I think the tale in Germany perhaps began too early. Only a fraction of the story, barely a few pages in fact, actually features the horrific event in 1944, where the villagers of Oradour-Sur-Glane in the south of France, were brutally massacred by soldiers, though the tragedy becomes a pivotal moment for Lina. Such a heinous act is difficult to convey, and while I think Correa gave it the gravitas it deserved, I’m not sure the brevity had the impact within the story that the author hoped for.A Daughter’s Tale is a moving novel, also exploring larger themes such as identity, home, family and faith, it’s impossible to be unaffected by the experiences portrayed by Correa.
    • 2/5
      This book alternates between WWII Berlin and France and the present day. In the present day, 80 year old Elise receives a phone call, and then a box of letters written from her mother during WWII. In the past, Amanda and her two young daughters are forced to flee Berlin after Amanda's husband is arrested. Amanda makes a heartbreaking decision to send her oldest daughter alone to Cuba, and take her youngest daughter with her to France. This book had a surreal/dreamy quality to it that made it seem less than real. There was some problems with the writing style and point of views that took away from the story line. At seemingly random times, the author would switch pov, which took away from the flow of the story. Overall, not a book I would re-read or recommend.
    • 5/5
      A read that will pull you in and not let go, the ultimate sacrifice of a mother when she gives life to her daughters twice, and knowing that she will most likely never see them again.Knowing that a lot that is presented in this book is sadly true, and hoping while I was reading that history would change, but as you will see no.What begins with an old woman receiving letters, and then we are given the background from whence they came, but then end with the recipient.A book that does become a compelling page turner, and is filled with people that gave all they had for their fellow man, selfless acts of love, but also a read that we hope will never be repeated by mankind.I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Atria Books, and was not required to give a positive review.
    • 4/5
      I’ve read quite a few books set during World War II and always seem to come across a piece of history that I didn’t know much about. With this novel it was a mix of events I was aware of and some events that I had heard of only in the vaguest sense. The story centers around a young mother and her two daughters and begins at the start of World War II. The mother, Amanda Sternberg, was to place her two daughters alone on a ship bound for Cuba, then she was to go to the home of a family friend in France to wait out the war until the family could be re-united. Shockingly, Amanda decides to send the older daughter alone at the last moment.I was a bit surprised that readers were not privy to the older daughter’s journey. Instead, the author focused on Amanda and the younger daughter named Lina or Elise. The story begins and ends in 2015, but delves back into the past to chronicle the events that occurred during the war.Most notable was the horrific act the Nazis carried out on the small small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. From here on, the story centers around young Lina/Elise and what ends up happening to her.I think avid historical fiction or World War II enthusiasts will not find this book holds anything new, but others who aren’t as well read in these areas will be captivated by the story. I felt that most of it revolved around the plight of the displaced children and from reading the book, it had me wondering just how many people survived the war with no family and possibly not even knowing who they really were or even who their parents had been.Many thanks to Net-Galley and Atria Books for allowing me to read an advance copy of offer an honest review. 
    • 3/5
      I received this from GoodReads giveaway.I started to read this one when I realized I also had the author's debut novel, The German Girl. Figuring this second one was a sequel, I read the debut first, which I really enjoyed. When I finished with The Daughter's Tale, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it is a good story, not a sequel, but about another family on that same ship St Louis. I was disappointed in that it felt a little too muddled, parts of were cut short (it seemed), and the ending not as satisfying as The German Girl. I would like to have heard more about Elise's life in New York. These two novels are based on true events.
    • 5/5
      I know we are barely into 2019 but I have a feeling this could end up being my favorite historical fiction read of the year. This book gripped me pretty darn near close to the start and didn't let up until the last page. I highly recommend this one even if you feel like you have read one too many WW2 historical fiction books. It's worth reading.Eighty year old Elise Duvall has been living in New York for the past seven decades when she receives quite a shock. A woman has contacted her and wants to deliver letters written to Elise by her mother during World War 2. Time has a way of helping you forget your past but now all of it will come back to the surface for Elise along with so much she never even knew about.I like when historical fiction books are able to teach me something. In this case there were two things I didn't know about prior to reading. One was the tragic massacre of a village in France in 1944. Another thing that was part of the plot was the ship that left Germany with refugees bound for Cuba. The way both were weaved into the plot made for a compelling story and I am thankful the author chose to include them as it made me interested in looking up more information about both after I was done reading. Most people liked The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and I think if you enjoyed that one you should definitely check this one out. While I thought that book was well-written it took me until almost the end before I felt a strong emotional connection to the characters. With this one it was so easy to immediately feel for the character of Amanda and your heart breaks with the choices she and other characters had to make not knowing how history would play out. One of the themes of the book is what you would be willing to do for someone you love and the different scenarios that played out have left me thinking about them still even though I finished the book days ago. I love when stories just stay with you in your head and that's why this was just a really good reading experience.I won a free advance copy of this book in a giveaway but was under no obligation to post a review. All views expressed are my honest opinion.