The Daughter’s Tale

by Armando Lucas Correa

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Elise tried to stand up but could feel her heart failing her. She was losing control over herself, over the life she had so carefully constructed. She could see her own face at a distance, staring at the scene from afar like another witness in the room.

 

Since his schooldays in Leipzig, Julius had been fascinated by the heart—its irregular rhythms, its electrical impulses, its alternating beats, and silences. “There’s nothing stronger,” he told her when they were newlywed and he was still at the university, always adding the caveat: “The heart can resist all kinds of physical trauma, but sadness can destroy it in a second. So no sadness in this house!”

 

Whenever you’re afraid and can feel your heart racing, start counting its beats. Count them and think of each one, because you’re the only person who can control them. As the silence between one beat and the next grows, your fear will start to disappear. We need those silences to exist, to think.

 

From this dark, cold place I can hear your heart. I know from memory all its movements. When you are asleep or awake, happy or sad, like today. My Amanda, I want you never to forget that we were happy once.

 

Claire looked down anxiously at the ebony box on Amanda’s lap. In the half-light, her friend’s face lost its soft outline and looked severe, imposing. “The only thing that unites me and my daughter is in here, Claire. Can you imagine that something so big could fit into such a small space?” There was no answer to a question like that.

 

 My Review:

 

This was my first exposure to the phenomenal artistry of Armando Lucas Correa, and I will confess to being a smitten kitten. I quickly fell into his vortex as if under a spell, Mr. Correa appears to be a deftly skilled and superior Wizard of Words as I was definitely mesmerized. His premise was based on actual events and several of the horrific and diabolical atrocities dreamed up by the Germans – military and citizenry alike.

Mr. Correa’s writing was poignant, highly emotive, devastatingly evocative, and required occasional breaks in reading as my eyes were too wet to continue. His insightful and moving prose squeezed my chest, burned my eyes, and put hot rocks in my throat. His compelling characters were intricately drawn and I became so entrenched in their captivating storylines that their struggles became quite real to me.

Like most Caucasian Americans of European ancestry, I am unsure of much of my heritage as basically, we are all mutts and have absolutely nothing to feel superior about. I am uncertain if I have much if any German heritage in my DNA, but if I do, I want to know if it can be removed – pronto!