Memoir

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom.

This followed a teenage girl living in Nancy, France during the Second World War. It was quite interesting to see the War from a different perspective, that of the female view, but also that of day to day life. France during the Second World War is kind of a black hole with history, as it was under the control of Germany and the "puppet Vichy government". I find it quite remarkable that the people of Nancy were able to continue their every day life as if the war wasn't going on.

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As the Second World War sinks into the realms of ancient history , with very few now left who endured both it and the immediate aftermath, accounts like this one become ever more important. The military side of the action is well documented, not so much the experiences of the civilians who had to continue their daily lives as if nothing much had changed, whilst in reality, all that which was past and constant was gone forever.

These recollections of a young French girl, entering the the occupation days in her early teens, is especially poignant: old enough to remember how it was before the Germans came but still open to life's complexities and with a youthful hope for the future, her memories are clear and very moving and sometimes surprising. It cannot tell more than a tiny slice of what it was like to be caught up in the awfulness of wartime Europe. Everyone will have had different experiences, different stories to tell. But it is one piece in that huge jigsaw which can pass down through generations an awareness that the dry military facts can never give. Told with a simple naivety, I especially enjoyed her recollections of her childhood, the almost unchanging quality of that time sandwiched between World Wars One and Two, a time which was surely lost forever.
The narrator, Sally Martin, is the perfect voice for the girl, reading with a clear, innocent voice in perfect synchronicity with the text, bringing her to life in a way that reading the written word might fail to do. The whole book is atmospheric, well written and moving.

I was fortunate in being gifted a copy of Season of Suffering by the rights holder, via Audiobook Boom. My thanks for that. I have read extensively about this traumatic period of the 20th century, having been born during the war, and have heard many stories, both from relatives and others, as well as in books, of what it was like to be living in England through it all. Everyone remembers different things. So good to have the first hand experiences of a young woman's memories of her life in France to add to the overall picture.
A recommended read to everyone who is in anyway interested in people, wherever and whenever they might be.

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