The Boy with the Star Tattoo
A Novel
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4.0 • 20 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From acclaimed author of The Third Daughter comes an epic historical novel of ingenuity and courage, of love and loss, spanning postwar France when Israeli agents roamed the countryside to rescue hidden Jewish orphans—to 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. By the time Claudette is able to return years later, her son has disappeared. Unbeknown to his anguished mother, the boy has been rescued by a Youth Aliyah agent searching for Jewish orphans.
1968: When Israeli naval officer Daniel Yarden recruits Sharon Bloomenthal for a secret naval operation in Cherbourg, France, he can’t imagine that he is the target of the agenda of the twenty-year-old grieving the recent loss of her fiancé in a drowned submarine. Sharon suspects that Danny's past in Youth Aliyah may reflect that of her mysterious late mother and she sets out to track her boss’s extraordinary journey as an orphan in a quaint French village all the way to Israel.
As Danny focuses on the future of his people and on executing a daring, crucial operation under France’s radar, he is unaware that the obsessed Sharon follows the breadcrumbs of clues across the country to find her answers. But she is wholly unprepared for the dilemma she must face upon solving the puzzle.
Customer Reviews
Humanizing the horrors of WW2
I wish I could get everyone to read this book. This story has touched me deeply. The Boy with the Star Tattoo is a very emotional story. It gives so much insight into the happenings during World War 2 and the years afterward. To really get everything you can from the book, I highly recommend reading the Postscript, Author's Note and Acknowledgements.
You can read many historical fiction books that illustrate the horrors of the war. What I found interesting about this story was the details illustrating the prejudice against the innocent Jewish children. The innocents of the war were treated with such distain. No matter the circumstances, they were not treated well by so many. You might want to grab some tissues. I know I needed them.
The story doesn't end with the surrender of Germany. Travel along with Uzi as he tries to locate Jewish children that have gotten lost in red tape, adopted by Christians or treated as less than. The goal is to take them to Israel. His job was a very challenging, not without risk. He has to struggle through bureaucratic red tape but the many different groups that think they know better.
One of the children Uzi saved had a star tattoo on the bottom of his foot. The child had been passed around among those that weren't his family and was living in squalor when he was found. Uzi becomes attached but he was too young to be smuggled into Israel. The rescue of the boy connects timelines within the story.
World War 2 did not end the Jewish peoples struggles. In 1969, Israel is acquiring ships from France. The hatred from the past will influence the production and sale of the boats. One of the men in charge has a star tattoo on his foot. The reader learns of the the man's past since coming to Israel.
That isn't enough for Sharon, the woman he recruits to help with the mission. Her journey to find his past takes the reader back to the war, to his conception and what his mother did to save him. All these years he thought his mother was dead. Sharon takes the reader deep into France to find the truth.
There was so much to learn from this book. I spent hours on Google gaining more knowledge about the history of the Jewish people. They say hindsight is 20-20. We need to make sure we look at the past and avoid repeating it. I didn't realize that the Jewish people were kept from their own country and parts of their country were given away. Shame on us for not rectifying our mistakes.