Kristin Harmel: The Book of Lost Names, Welbeck publishing, 9781982151553, paperback, read the ebook

(German edition: Das Buch der verschollenen Namen, Droemere Knaur)

Holiday reading ,  escapism book no. 1, recommended by a friend.

I love books with historical background and "The book of lost names" was no exception.  Inspired and based on true life events of forgers working in the underground French resistance in the 1940ties  risking their lives by producing false passports for hundreds of  Jewish children or anyone who needed a new identity to flee being sent to Nazi concentration camps, Harmel tells the story of Eva Traube who is able to escape from Paris with her mother, a Polish Jew, to the mountain village of Aurignon after her father was rounded up by Nazis. 

 In Aurignon Pere Clement uses his church to provide a set up for forger Remy who is soon joined by Eva who has been recruited  to the cause and becomes one of their best forgers. The story is mostly set in the 1940ties but also has a current timeline where the book of Epitres et Evangiles plays an important role. It is a great story about never giving up even if the odds are terrible, a bit smaltzy towards the end but I  found it moving and engrossing. The author  provides interesting historical data towards the end.