"The Book of Lost Names" by Kristin Harmel. I read this in the last 24 hours and could. not. put. it. down! I read "The Paris Daughter" almost 2 years ago and just couldn't read this right away. My advice though is if you read one and like it read the other fairly soon after. I picked it up 3 times and just couldn't...I highly recommend even though it is so chilling to read with such detail the atrocities when we are in such peril right now here in the US. 5 star!

So Eva and Rémy create a secret plan:

They take an old religious book from the church library and inside it, they write a *coded list* - using numbers that correspond to letters. Each false name linked to the child's true, original Jewish name.

That is The Book of Lost Names.

As the war gets worse, tensions grow. Eva's mother disapproves of her work with the Resistance and of her love for Rémy, who is not Jewish. Their Resistance cell is eventually betrayed, and Rémy disappears. Eva is told he is dead.

She spends the rest of her life wondering if he ever got her last secret message hidden in the book.

*In Berlin in 2005*, Eva will finally learn the truth: what happened to Rémy, and whether the children whose names she saved ever got their identities back.

*Theme:*

It's about identity - that a name is not just a name, it's history, family, faith. The Nazis tried to erase Jewish people completely, starting with their names. This book is about the small acts of resistance - forgers, priests, librarians - who risked their lives to say: _You will not be erased. We will remember who you are._