Book Club
Dear Fellow Readers:
We have read two of Talia Carner’s books and this one follows her pattern of creating an exciting historical novel based on well-researched facts. This epic novel is one of ingenuity and courage, of love and loss. The novel begins in 1942, describing the war years in France, progresses to 1946 in postwar France when Israeli agents roamed the countryside to rescue hidden Jewish orphans, and ends with the 1969 daring escape of the Israeli boats of Cherbourg.
1942: As the Vichy government hunts for Jews across France, Claudette Pelletier, a young and talented seamstress and lover of romance novels, falls in love with a Jewish man who seeks shelter at the château where she works. Their whirlwind and desperate romance before he must flee leaves her pregnant and terrified. When the Nazis invade the Free Zone shortly after the birth of her child, the disabled Claudette is forced to make a heartbreaking choice and escapes to Spain, leaving her baby in the care of his nursemaid.
1946: By the time Claudette is able to return after the war has ended, her son has disappeared. Unbeknown to his anguished mother, the boy has been rescued and brought to Israel by a Youth Aliyah agent searching for Jewish orphans in war-torn France.
1968: Israeli naval officer Daniel Yarden recruits Sharon Bloomenthal for a secret naval operation in Cherbourg, France. She is an orphan, raised by her loving Savta (her father’s mother) and grieving the recent loss of her fiancé in a missing submarine. Sharon was orphaned as an infant and while there is much information about her father, her mother, who was one of those who were smuggled into Israel in the 50’s is an enigma. When Sharon finds out that Danny was also brought to Israel by Youth Aliyah, she intends to research and find the connection, and hopefully more about her mother.
Danny focuses on the future of his people and on executing a daring, crucial operation under France’s radar. Sharon follows the breadcrumbs of clues across France to find the answers to her personal questions. But she is wholly unprepared for the dilemma she must face upon solving the puzzle.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
“The Boy with the Star Tattoo” links all these events that have dwelled in my psyche. Each episode in this extraordinary historical saga stands on its own. Woven together, they create a story of the resilience and fortitude of the Jews who reasserted their right to self-determination in their own homeland. Without Israel, we Jews would have been the Kurds and Romani of the world—landless, oppressed, disrespected, and exploited. Israel continues to offer refuge to Jews whenever the need arises, and thanks to that security, along with the nation’s achievements in science, technology, and medicine, Jews everywhere can walk tall. We belong.
