It’s Friday…any plan of being a productive member of society is officially thrown out the window.”
I love discovering a new author as much as I love Friday afternoons. I’m enjoying both of those beauts right now. While researching what to read next, I came across Jillian Cantor’s The Lost Letter. Another comparison to The Nightingale caught my eye, but I’m rightfully suspicious after The Wartime Sisters. It was Georgia Hunter that pushed Cantor’s historical novel to the top of my pile. When the author of We Were the Lucky Ones boasted that she “devoured The Lost Letter…an intriguing and very personal story of resistance,” I was immediately on board. I got wholly caught up in the captivating story of Kristoff and the Fabers, the family he never had.
The story centers around an unusual World War II Austrian stamp. Frederick Faber, prominent Jewish stamp engraver, looks into the future far enough to train his young apprentice Kristoff to take his place before Kristallnacht. Despite being coerced to create stamps for the Germans, Kristoff enjoys one of the best times of his life. For the same reason I loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, I thoroughly enjoyed this great little find. Cantor created “beautifully drawn characters.” The Austrian stamp seems to have a magical quality about it, as it spans decades to prescribe love for others. This book embodies hope. The message that “There isn't just one ending, one answer, one person who can make us happy, or not. Maybe we can all begin again, become different people” is one that I needed to hear. Thank you, Jillian. So glad to have met.
P.S. I really enjoyed this read—enough to check out Cantor’s latest, In Another Time, (released just last month) real soon!