The Lost Letter by Jillian Cantor is an adult historical fiction novel, with an alternating narrative, set in the late 1980’s and the start of WWII.
In Los Angeles 1989, Katie Nelson is going through a rough patch. She is in the midst of a divorce she didn’t see coming and helping her father, who was recently put in a home because of his increasingly losing battle with Alzheimer. Not knowing what else to do with her father’s massive stamp collection, she takes it to a deal who finds an unopened love letter, with an interesting stamp.
Decades earlier in Austria, 1938, Kristoff is a young apprentice to Frederic, a master stamp engraver, who quickly comes to love the engraver and his Jewish family. When Frederic disappears on Kristallnacht, Kristoff is forced to engrave stamps for the German. But secretly, alongside Elena, Frederic’s daughter, and the Austrian resistance, Kristoff will enter a dangerous world, he may not be ready for.
Together these two stories will intertwine to reveal the past and enlighten the future.
This was a recommendation from a friend when I was in an audio book lull. And it was a pretty good one to pass the time with. I wasn’t overly wow’ed, but I was never bored and it definitely passed the time.
I actually like Katie’s journey more than Kristoff’s. I really enjoyed her hunt for the past and having it set in a time where those databases and resources were only just being created, made the hunt more interesting for me.
Don’t you just love reading books about hobbies. I swear, every time I read something about someone who collects something or trains for a marathon, or whatever, I totally envision myself going out there and doing the same thing. And after this one, a small part of me was like, “go ahead, become a philatelist.” Then you finish the book and are like no, no. It’s fun to get inside the character’s heads.
This one gets a solid 3.5 stars from me.
That’s all for now!
-M-
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