“Chez moi was the place your parents came from, or maybe even the region of your parents’ parents. The food you ate at Christmas, your favorite kind of cheese, your best childhood memories of summer vacation-all of these derived from chez moi. And even if you had never lived there chez moi was knitted into your very identity; it colored the way you viewed the world and the way the world viewed you.”
This beautifully written book captures World War II in a way that hasn’t caught my attention in a very long time. Told in two time periods we see not only the effects of the war as it happens but the everlasting effect that it has had on a culture.
Mah does something that I haven’t seen many Historical Fiction novelists do, she shows the many shades of gray in which people operated in order to survive. When we look back at history it is easy to see it through the winner’s perspective or from a hero’s perspective because we don’t have to face the ugly truth that there were no good decisions during war. Through “The Lost Vintage” we see the consequences of these decisions in a very human way.
In the present storyline, we explore what one’s culture means to a person and how to reconcile tradition with change.
This book covers a lot but it does it with heart and beauty. It was by far one of my favorite books of 2018.
Creating Herstory 