I was thrilled to see the character from The Yellow Bird Sings have a role in this book. She instilled humor and hope by portraying authentic friendships and an abundance of riddles peppered through the story between two of the characters. I loved Rosner’s quiet way of telling a story, her words chosen thoughtfully and her ability to create such longing and angst in her characters. Each of the characters are based on real stories of kids from WW2. As the war ends, families and Jewish organizations begin to search for these missing children in earnest, often uprooting them for new lives they learned to love. Whether they were stolen, given away, or don’t know how they got to where they were, these children acclimated to their circumstance. These children were separated from their parents during the war for various reasons and this story focuses on the resettling of them after the war. Told from the POV of four characters, Roger, Ana, Oskar and Renata, was the perfect way to present the story. I can’t believe her sophomore novel was just as good as her debut from 2020, The Yellow Bird Sings. Besides the incredibly interesting plot, I wanted to recall the small nuances that made this story come alive. Although I rarely reread a book, I did reread this one before I wrote this review.
Once We Were Home by Jennifer Rosner was an evocative and moving novel that kept me up ‘til the wee hours of morning to finish. I remember picking this up this at a time when I had been in a reading slump and this was the book that snapped me out of it! Great book for historical fiction fans with a twist. And interestingly, the book was based on her great-grandfather’s stories from Ireland, (obviously not the time travel part). The author used many real people in the book that led to quite a bit of googling. I think the use of the first-person point of view worked quite well.
The love story was beautiful and I found myself dog-earring many quotes as I was reading. I remember loving the Irish history during the early 1920s and how impressive Harmon’s research was.
I read this last year and gave my book to mom, who gave it my sister and somehow, during that time, I forgot to review it. Her books usually offer romance and this one had the added bonus of some time-travel. Harmon is a marvelous storyteller and excels in historical fiction. What the Wind Knows was high on my list after reading her amazing 2016 release, From Sand and Ash.
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