The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer

Alina is young, good hearted and always protected by her family. Our two heroines Alice, Alina are coming from different generations. It’s about the reconnection of the family by reaching their roots and discovering their ancestors and an epic, unconditional, never ending love story defeats the time, dead and war. But this poetically written, heartwarming, amazing story is not about the family secrets, it’s about the words we keep inside and it’s about the emotions we hide.

The title gives us a clue that something kept secret in this family. The Things We Cannot Say is an unshakable reminder of the devastation when truth is silenced…and how it can take a lifetime to find our voice before we learn to trust it.įive remarkable, epic, tear jerking stars! Slipping between Nazi-occupied Poland and the frenetic pace of modern life, Kelly Rimmer creates an emotional and finely wrought narrative that weaves together two women’s stories into a tapestry of perseverance, loyalty, love and honor. But for now, even deafening silence is preferable to grief. Where Alina used to measure time between visits from her beloved, now she measures the spaces between hope and despair, waiting for word from Tomasz and avoiding the attentions of the soldiers who patrol her parents’ farm. Then, as the fabric of their lives is slowly picked apart, Tomasz disappears. But little by little, injustice by brutal injustice, the Nazi occupation takes hold, and Alina’s tiny rural village, its families, are divided by fear and hate. Now fifteen and engaged, Alina is unconcerned by reports of Nazi soldiers at the Polish border, believing her neighbors that they pose no real threat, and dreams instead of the day Tomasz returns from college in Warsaw so they can be married.

Since she was nine years old, Alina Dziak knew she would marry her best friend, Tomasz. It’s a decision that will alter her destiny…and it’s a lie that will remain buried until the next century. Just beyond the tents of the Russian refugee camp she calls home, a young woman speaks her wedding vows. In 1942, Europe remains in the relentless grip of war.

The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer