Nancy Huston

Set in late 1950s Paris, a city still somewhat traumatised by its WWII experiences, this is the story of Saffie, a somewhat inscrutable young Swiss woman who applies to me the maid of a successful flautist Raphael. Bewitched by her strange remoteness, he marries her, and they have a child together, despite their distant, cool relationship. And then she meets Andras, who enters the story to repair Raphael's flute. This is their story, and the story of the bloody Algerian conflict tearing show more Paris apart at the time. It's the story of Jews in France, and it's a dramatic and tragic story: one illustrating how much our lives, however we might wish it otherwise, are shaped by external events. I liked Huston's arch, yet confiding and conversational tone, and was engaged by it to the very end. show less

This multi-generational family saga explores the impact of World War II and Nazi Germany, from some very unusual angles. It's told through the eyes of four 6-year-olds, each from a different generation. The reader meets each generation through Sol, a precocious boy living in California in 2004. His father Randall works as a computer programmer, and circumstances have recently forced him to take a job with higher pay but a much longer commute. Randall has a distant relationship with his show more mother, Sadie, and is closer to his grandmother, Erra, a professional singer known as Kristina in her youth. Sol's section of the novel ends as the entire family arrives in Germany to visit Erra's dying sister.

From there, author Nancy Huston takes us back to 1945 one generation at a time, from Randall to Sadie to Kristina (all age 6). She peels the onion of family relationships and secrets to show how they came to North America, and the physical and emotional toll wrought by the Nazi regime. I can't say much without spoilers, but their story was not at all what I expected. Judaism and Nazi atrocities played a part, but in unusual ways. And both the family tree and the inter-generational relationships were much more intricate than they first appeared.

I found Erra/Kristina the most interesting character, perhaps because she appeared in each generation's story. She arrived on the scene first as a staunchly independent elderly woman who dearly loves her great-grandson, and is appalled at some of his parents' philosophies. She despairs over their plans to surgically remove a birthmark. Her fears seem irrational, but by the time Kristina appeared as a child, I understood the birthmark's significance and her modern-day reaction was completely understandable. Fault Lines was filled with revelations like this, that really drove home the importance of understanding the societal and familial forces that shape each generation. This was a well-written, enjoyable, and thought-provoking novel. show less

An extraordinary book about innocence. A young German woman, Saffie, takes on the job of housekeeper for a Parisian Flautist twelve years after the end of WWII. Her reserve combines with a submissiveness that shocks, yet appeals to, Raphael. In short order he marries her, looking for the ideal married life. His blindness to reality keeps him in the dark while she finds a lover, Andras, a Hungarian Jew, and lives a double life.

Saffie is intent on making a normal life for herself after show more suffering the loss of her family in the war, and only after much time is she able to talk at all about what she remembers. Andras is caught up in the Algerian war for independence from France, which is brought home to Algerians living in Paris in a horrifying way. He joins a resistance movement and can't comprehend Saffie's lack of sight. Raphael is not exactly oblivious to the atrocities committed by his own countrymen while he plays his flute sublimely, but he justifies his lack of a response by pointing to the music he makes.

In the end, who is innocent? Now or then? Beautifully written, often sad but with wit that made me smile, this novel brings the Algerian-French war to the forefront without forcing us to choke on it - although perhaps we should. show less

Can we ever really know another person? That is the question this book asks and for which there seems to be no answer.

Cosmo is dead and several witnesses give testimony at an inquest into his death. Huston casts her readers into the role of magistrate and each of her characters speak directly to the reader about Cosmo's life and what they know about him. I love the slightly surreal feel of this novel where even the author and the knife that killed Cosmo get a chance to give testimony. A show more delightful and facinating read. show less