This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.
Freddie Watson is a stilted young man who has not gotten over older brother George's disappearance on the Western Front during WWI. It is now 10 years since the Armistice, and Freddie, after a stay in a mental institution, has come to the French Pyrenees to find peace. While motoring through a snowstorm, he crashes his car and ends up in the small village of Nulle, where he meets a beautiful young woman named Fabrissa. In the course of an evening, Fabrissa tells Freddie a story of persecution, resistance, and death, hinting at a long-buried secret. By the next morning, she is gone, leaving Freddie alone to unlock a ghostly mystery hidden for 600 years.… (more)
countrylife: Historical fiction also about religious persecution & the inquisition, Rora is a much longer book, and recounts the story of the Waldenses and their defense of their homes and territory against the inquisition's army.
The Great War took much more than lives. It robbed a generation of friends, lovers and futures. In Freddie Watson's case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. Unable to cope with his grief, Freddie has spent much of the time since in a sanatorium. In the winter of 1928, still seeking resolution, Freddie is travelling through the French Pyrenees - another region that has seen too much bloodshed over the years. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Shaken, he stumbles into the woods, emerging by a tiny village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful local woman, also mourning a lost generation. Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories of remembrance and loss. By the time dawn breaks, he will have stumbled across a tragic mystery that goes back through the centuries. By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, this is a story of two lives touched by war and transformed by courage. [return][return][return]Shortish read, based 10 years after the Great War, when Freddie still hasnt recovered from the loss of his older brother in unknown circumstances whilst at the front.[return][return]It is a story about loss and memory, both for Freddie and his brother, and those in the area of France where he stops and who have a longer memory of all the people who have been lost over the centuries due to wars and battles. As ususal Mosse's work reflects an interest in the "memory of place"
This is the first book I've read by Kate Mosse and I will be reading more of her work. This is beautifully written, there is a real sense of place and atmosphere to the story. I read this over two days and it's unusual for me to get through a book this quickly. However, I was stopped from giving it the full 5 stars as I found myself wanting more from it: more supernatural events leading up to the climax maybe, or just a longer read. I also guessed the ending when I was not far into the book. But overall I really enjoyed the story. ( )
'Known unto God' Rudyard Kipling (epigraph carved on the tombstones raised to the memory of unknown soliders and airmen)
Dedication
First words
He walked like a man recently returned to the world.
Quotations
...for all its rituals grief is a solitary business.
”The dead leave their shadows, an echo of the space within which once they lived. They haunt us, never fading or growing older as we do. The loss we grieve is not just their futures but our own.”
“We are who we are because of those we choose to love and because of those who love us...”
Last words
The he turned and walked back up the rue des Penitent Gris, his shadow striding before hi.
Freddie Watson is a stilted young man who has not gotten over older brother George's disappearance on the Western Front during WWI. It is now 10 years since the Armistice, and Freddie, after a stay in a mental institution, has come to the French Pyrenees to find peace. While motoring through a snowstorm, he crashes his car and ends up in the small village of Nulle, where he meets a beautiful young woman named Fabrissa. In the course of an evening, Fabrissa tells Freddie a story of persecution, resistance, and death, hinting at a long-buried secret. By the next morning, she is gone, leaving Freddie alone to unlock a ghostly mystery hidden for 600 years.
▾Library descriptions
No library descriptions found.
▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
Do you believe in ghosts?
In the winter of 1928, still seeking some kind of resolution to the horrors of World War I, Freddie is traveling through the beautiful but forbidding French Pyrenees. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Dazed, he stumbles through the woods, emerging in a tiny village, where he finds an inn to wait out the blizzard. There he meets Fabrissa, a lovely young woman also mourning a lost generation.
Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories. By the time dawn breaks, Freddie will have unearthed a tragic, centuries-old mystery, and discovered his own role in the life of this remote town.
Haiku summary
It's the feast of St Etienne: let's eat, drink and be Merry! - Oh, you're ghosts ... (passion4reading)
)
Google Books — Loading...
(3.29)
Wikipedia in English (1)
1