What I would Tell You

Title: What I Would Tell You

Author: Liz Tolsma

Genre: Historical fiction, Christian fiction

Page Ct. 323

I finished a bunch of books in the last few weeks and need to catch up on all the reviews! This one, I finished a while ago and haven't made the time to write down my thoughts, so here it goes: 

What I would Tell You is an inspiring story of searching for identity and belonging and a beautiful depiction of a mother's love. This dual timeline alternates between Tessa, a 2019 college student who just discovered her Greek Sephardic Jewish heritage, and Mathilda Nissim, a young married journalist living in Salonika, Greece in 1941, when the Nazi's invade. 

Tessa is struggling with this new information and decides to travel to Greece to research her heritage.  As she learns of the horrors that her ancestors faced, she also discovers truths about herself and her mom, dad, and stepdad.  

Being Jewish, Mathilda faces horrible trials and attempts to use her writing to reach her community and promote taking a stand. She succeeds in bringing her husband home from a camp once, but they are forced into a Ghetto and face loss after loss.  

As the two storylines eventually connect, both women learn about a mother's love. This a beautifully written glimpse into a very real aspect of history.  I cried with both despair and hope while reading (I cry a lot, and actually love books that evoke so much emotion).  This is high praise and so I give high recommendations for this one!