336 pages, paperback
Published June 2015, Berkeley
After the suicide of her fiancé, Ali leaves New Mexico for a long visit with her father in Napa. In the three weeks she is there she makes new friends and learns about the amazing life of one of her father's neighbors in the retirement community he lives in.
Edie's story, of her life in Germany during WWII and her love for a German who lost his life with the resistance that attempted to assassinate Hitler, intrigues Ali despite Edie's frosty personality. Her losses somehow resonate with Ali. So much so, that she decides to travel to Berlin to see the places where Edie lived and loved.
It took me awhile to understand how these two stories worked together. They seemed very different. But near the end, Ali and Edie discuss how the loss of a loved one doesn't mean you stop living. There can be love again with another. In this case, perhaps Edie's nephew?
A good read, for the most part. I may have skimmed over Ali's week in Berlin. It read more like a travel book and not much happens until the very last day she is there.
