To continue my WWII-related reading streak, I decided to try a book that’s been on my TBR for quite some time. It’s a dual story that takes place in the present day(ish) and in the middle of WWII – 1942. The book bounces back and forth between two generations of a family that was irreparably torn apart by the German invasion of rural Poland. The story begins with Alina and Tomasz, two teenagers who have been best friends since childhood, but whose relationship has blossomed into a romance. They have just gotten engaged and Tomasz has gone to study medicine, promising that he will return to marry Alina as soon as he is finished his studies.
But no one is expecting the Germans to invade and completely take over their small town. Everything changes overnight, making a life that was already difficult into one fraught with danger and fear for every single member of their community. Alina’s family are farmers, so they are forced to turn over the majority of their produce to the invading army. The invaders are ruthless – known for scooping up anyone who attracts their attention for their new work camps or shooting them on the spot. Anyone caught defying their orders is put at risk of this fate, along with anyone seen to work against them or have the potential to foment any form of rebellion. Alina and her family lose more than they ever expected, and are left struggling to grapple with their new reality and its risks and severe penalties.
This is an easy life, however, compared to the groups targeted by the Nazis. Any of those on their list – primarily anyone who is Jewish – are forced out of their homes and made to live in horrible conditions, barely able to find enough food to survive. Or worse, sent to one of the new camps that have been set up in the once idyllic countryside, camps that are sinister and belch foul-smelling smoke all day long. No one has been released once they’ve been sent to these camps, and no one really knows what’s happening to the increasing number of people who have been sent there. The story follows what Alina and her family go through during this occupation, and the losses and impossible decisions they must make.
Meanwhile we meet a modern mother, Alice, and her family. Alice’s life is at a crucial point because her beloved grandmother, Hanna, is in hospital having suffered a severe stroke. Alice has two kids, Edison and Callie. Edison is on the autism spectrum so she already has a lot of pulls on her time and energy making sure that he is being cared for. Her husband is preoccupied with his work and has trouble connecting with Edison (and disagrees with her level of organization and protectiveness of him), leaving her to largely handle his needs on her own.
When Alice visits her grandmother in hospital, it’s to discover that she’s no longer able to talk, and seems to be struggling to understand. She has a strong connection with Edison, however, and is able to use his digital language tool to make basic attempts at communicating. But she is insistently asking Alice for something Alice doesn’t understand, and her increasing desperation to be understood is breaking Alice’s heart. What slowly becomes clear through her limited ability to share her thoughts is that there are things Alice and her mother don’t know about Hanna’s life and past, and these questions need to be resolved even if it means taking some risks.
I really got into this book. I liked that the modern sections have their own story arc with the family dynamics and challenges that accompany a neurodivergent child, as well as the through-story of the WWII storyline. The two juxtaposed to make both time periods equally interesting, which is rare. Usually a split narrative has me wanting to speed through at least one of the stories because I don’t care about it as much. This was very well balanced and evenly paced. And the stories are so well done that they had me struggling to stop reading to do things like, you know, sleep. It had a different focus than other WWII books I’ve read – I haven’t read one set in rural Poland before, and it was an interesting – if horrifying – new perspective. This definitely fulfilled my desire for another WWII book to read, and didn’t disappoint. I’m looking for other books by Kelly Rimmer to try more of her work, because if this is anything to go by, she is worth spending more time with!
In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century.
Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief.
Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it. – Goodreads
Book Title: The Things We Cannot Say
Author: Kelly Rimmer
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Graydon House
Released: February 26, 2019
Genre: Fiction, Historical, WWII, Family, ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
Pages: 448
Date Read: February 9-10, 2025
Rating: 8.5/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 4.54/5 (215,757 ratings)