Review by Booklist Review
Escobar's latest (after The Teacher of Warsaw, 2022) starts at the end of the Spanish Civil War and bleeds over into the beginning of WWII. Isabel, born in Barcelona, married an American, Peter, who she had met during the Spanish Civil War sometime before 1939. Elisabeth came to Spain from Switzerland with the Red Cross to render aid to children in 1937. Each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the main characters, Isabel, Peter, or Elisabeth. It isn't until all three of them end up in France, fleeing the Spanish fascists, that their paths cross. The horrors of war as seen from the perspective of noncombatants, including children dying, rape, starvation, and suicide, are presented, making the book sometimes difficult to read. For those who want a sense of the chaos surrounding war, this story conveys that well. It also spotlights a little-known maternity hospital that did its best to save as many as possible in an impossible situation, providing a little bit of hope to otherwise hopeless people.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
