Shadows of a Childhood: A Novel of War and Friendship Book

Elisabeth Gille was five years old when her mother, the Russian writer Irene Nemirovsky, was deported to Auschwitz at the height of her career and never seen again. Gille was hidden in the French countryside with her sister until the war was over. Shadows of a Childhood, winner of Elle's 1997 Grand Prix des Lectrices, is her story, a fictionalized account of one individual's - and one country's - coming to terms with the war.

VOYA

Although five-year-old Lea's parents saved her from a death camp by surrendering her to a French Resistance fighter, they were unable to spare her the alienation and despair that consumed war orphans-particularly Jewish orphans in a France not without blatant anti-Semitism. Fictionalizing her personal experiences, Gille crafts Lea's precocious character with spunk, volition, and savvy. While Lea memorizes catechism easily, she poses uneasy existential questions. She lies voraciously, creating extravagant fictions about her former life, a life that fades fast with the removal of surname, religious identity, and family connections. Initially befriended by saintly Benedicte and her parents, Lea values Benedicte not only as a confidante and co-conspirator, but as a life force providing a vicarious appreciation of goodness and potential. While adults furnish insulated sanctuary, Lea longs for truth, searching a luxury hotel turned mortuary for remnants of her parents and attending the trials of collaborators. As the full horror of the Nazi death camps unfolds, Lea realizes how quickly people who pretended not to see now want to forget-and possibly forgive. This complex novel traces Lea's life and friendship from convent school to the Sorbonne, including forays into the philosophy of Vladimir Jankelvitch. Gifted junior high schoolers and older students will value the rich descriptions, advanced vocabulary, ethical discussions, and topics begging research woven into a story seldom shared with such impact-including Lea's self-mutilation as she tries and fails to make sense of her disappearing identity. The naiveté of Sister Saint-Gabriel, discord between Catholic and Jew, and the appeal of communism in a post-war France generate significant ideas to ponder. What a compelling and intense companion to recent publications such as Gudrun Pausewang's The Final Journey (Viking, 1996/VOYA April 1997) or Carol Matas's After the War (Simon & Schuster, 1996/VOYA August 1996). The dark "shadows" Gille deftly illuminates linger with readers long after the novel's stark closure. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Will appeal with pushing, Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9 and Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).