Beautiful premise, some difficult characters
Told in 3 timelines (1989 Czechoslovakia, 1996 Berlin and present day Paris), this is a powerful work of historical fiction following Laure's life as a half French half English girl aged 20 as an au pair for a Czech family moving from Paris back to Prague. She finds mystery and love and turmoil in Prague. Some years later she has taken life into her own hands in Berlin and present day she runs the Museum of Broken Promises.
The Museum is a place where people bring in the pieces of their life which represent an injustice against them, a promise not kept. Centre stage is an artifact of a promise she did not keep. The guilt lives on in her.
This is powerful, as I said. It was incredibly emotionally evocative. Does it end happy? Should it end happy? It has a resolution, we can say that. A history this dark, this troubled, it won't always be everything you want it to be. If you know nothing about Communist Czech Republic or post Berlin Wall Berlin, this might be a good place to start. Larue's friends in Prague were a part of the resistance in their own way. Her employer Petr was a part of the Party. These facets of her lives conflicted heavily and preyed so easily upon a naive little English girl who knew only of Capitalism.
***I'm gonna pick a bone about some characters below. I personally don't think there are any spoilers from this that you wouldn't pick up in the first couple of chapters but best to stop here if you don't want to know who I didn't like***
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Whilst the story was well told, certain characters were off-putting for my taste. Laure I have to give some slack because she was ignorant - she wasn't to know any better but I felt bad for how often and how long it took Tomas and his friends to get her to take things seriously. May, modern day journalist was everything I disliked about journalists with her "it's my job" nonsense. Petr, to be expected but he's still gross and I didn't like him and I personally didn't need as much healing as Laure after reading the story so no I absolutely did not forgive him.
The Museum is a place where people bring in the pieces of their life which represent an injustice against them, a promise not kept. Centre stage is an artifact of a promise she did not keep. The guilt lives on in her.
This is powerful, as I said. It was incredibly emotionally evocative. Does it end happy? Should it end happy? It has a resolution, we can say that. A history this dark, this troubled, it won't always be everything you want it to be. If you know nothing about Communist Czech Republic or post Berlin Wall Berlin, this might be a good place to start. Larue's friends in Prague were a part of the resistance in their own way. Her employer Petr was a part of the Party. These facets of her lives conflicted heavily and preyed so easily upon a naive little English girl who knew only of Capitalism.
***I'm gonna pick a bone about some characters below. I personally don't think there are any spoilers from this that you wouldn't pick up in the first couple of chapters but best to stop here if you don't want to know who I didn't like***
.
.
.
Whilst the story was well told, certain characters were off-putting for my taste. Laure I have to give some slack because she was ignorant - she wasn't to know any better but I felt bad for how often and how long it took Tomas and his friends to get her to take things seriously. May, modern day journalist was everything I disliked about journalists with her "it's my job" nonsense. Petr, to be expected but he's still gross and I didn't like him and I personally didn't need as much healing as Laure after reading the story so no I absolutely did not forgive him.