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A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France
A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents' mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences
In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, the author's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. The two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.
A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory. She also finds herself learning how not only to survive, but to thrive – making a home in the village and falling in love.
With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents' outsized characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.
From the Hardcover edition.
In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, the author's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. The two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.
A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory. She also finds herself learning how not only to survive, but to thrive – making a home in the village and falling in love.
With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents' outsized characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.
From the Hardcover edition.
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First published January 20, 2015
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About the author
Miranda Richmond Mouillot
8 books84 followersI was born and raised in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in a little city that's known to some as the Paris of the South and to others as the Freak Capital of the Nation - I just call it home. I came into this world intolerant of all things institutional, quit school twice, and spent a year in a mournful and drafty boarding house in Switzerland, but ultimately managed to graduate from Asheville High School and then from Harvard College, where I studied History and Literature. I moved to France in 2004 to write A Fifty-Year Silence, intending to stay just a year, but I got sidetracked by the writing process and here I still am...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 439 reviews
December 30, 2017
4 stars!
This book revolves around the author, Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s, search to discover the details of her estranged grandparents past. Through her journey, she discovers many hidden secrets pertaining to her grandparents marriage and masked details surrounding how they escaped Nazi-occupied France and ended up in separate refugee camps. It is an eye-opening and heartfelt account of a family’s history being pieced together generations after Holocaust devastation.
I fell completely in love with Miranda’s grandparents, especially her beloved grandmother. Miranda’s separate but strong relationship with each grandparent was a unique and very special bond that largely shaped her childhood and adult life.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys WWII stories. It is a unique, intriguing and well-written true account of a family’s legacy being pieced together decades later by a loved one hoping to not forget.
This book revolves around the author, Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s, search to discover the details of her estranged grandparents past. Through her journey, she discovers many hidden secrets pertaining to her grandparents marriage and masked details surrounding how they escaped Nazi-occupied France and ended up in separate refugee camps. It is an eye-opening and heartfelt account of a family’s history being pieced together generations after Holocaust devastation.
I fell completely in love with Miranda’s grandparents, especially her beloved grandmother. Miranda’s separate but strong relationship with each grandparent was a unique and very special bond that largely shaped her childhood and adult life.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys WWII stories. It is a unique, intriguing and well-written true account of a family’s legacy being pieced together decades later by a loved one hoping to not forget.
April 1, 2016
3.5 A search by a grand-daughter for the truth of the relationship between her grandparents who have not talked about or to each other for fifty years. War time experiences have left scars for many so it is not surprising that this story is filled with anguish, confusion and sadness but it is also written with a great deal of love. Yet, it was still confusing to me at times, didn't understand the motivation of her grandparents, nor why her grandmother would not tell her story nor explain even when directly asked. Her grandfather I understood a little more, as a translator for the Nuremberg trials and as a son who lost his parents in Auschwitz, he was I believe bitterly scarred. The grandmother, I believe did not want to look back and the grandfather was unable to look forward.
Still I applaud the author, her journey to know her grandparents as individual people not just family members. Her love of the little house in the south of France, the care she took of her grandfather and this book she wrote to honor their lives. Loved the pictures, they always add so much to a book, and enjoyed reading the end, which was a conversation with the author. This was an interesting book, but there were still many things I didn't understand.
ARC from librarything.
Still I applaud the author, her journey to know her grandparents as individual people not just family members. Her love of the little house in the south of France, the care she took of her grandfather and this book she wrote to honor their lives. Loved the pictures, they always add so much to a book, and enjoyed reading the end, which was a conversation with the author. This was an interesting book, but there were still many things I didn't understand.
ARC from librarything.
January 31, 2015
When I began the book I loved it, but then it becomes confusing because it goes in all different directions. What is the real purpose of the book? Are we being given a holocaust story or are we being given a philosophical message on how one should live life? Or is it about the difficult job interpreters’ shoulder? Who is the book really about? The author or her grandparents? When I finished the book I was left with too many questions and incongruities. Also, even the telling of the known facts, after the author's extensive research, is confusing. Although it is important to live your life forward rather than dwelling in the past, if you spend hours following a person's life in a book it isn't enough to be told the past doesn't matter anyway. Maybe not for the author or as a philosophical question, but for the reader it does matter. When I stop and think of what I am told more and more questions arise. Here is one huge problem: It does not make sense to me that And I must add that even before I began the book I was quite sure where the problem lay between the grandparents. It is all kind of obvious.
But let me tell you what I loved in the beginning. I was thoroughly intrigued by the two grandparents, both of them. Both were very different from each other. I loved how the grandmother expressed herself. The author too. I felt immediately that the grandfather was hurt, and I wanted to know why. However, as the details of what happened are untangled the theme becomes more a mystery to be solved than the interesting people themselves. It became more what happened than who they were. Back to the positive. I loved the description of provincial life and places in France. I could see the village in my mind's eye. All of this was genuinely described. It shows that the author knew what she was describing. I love French provincial life. It makes me all mushy and sentimental. I want to hop in a car and go there.
The author is herself an interpreter. She knows French as well as English and it was a delight to hear her speak..... as the French really do speak. Lovely French. (Don't worry; the French is also translated.) Few authors can read their own books as well as they can write them, but this author did an excellent job narrating her own book. She used one intonation for her grandmother, another for her grandfather and of course she tells her own story too. I felt that her closeness to her grandparents could be heard through the narration. It was very well done.
But let me tell you what I loved in the beginning. I was thoroughly intrigued by the two grandparents, both of them. Both were very different from each other. I loved how the grandmother expressed herself. The author too. I felt immediately that the grandfather was hurt, and I wanted to know why. However, as the details of what happened are untangled the theme becomes more a mystery to be solved than the interesting people themselves. It became more what happened than who they were. Back to the positive. I loved the description of provincial life and places in France. I could see the village in my mind's eye. All of this was genuinely described. It shows that the author knew what she was describing. I love French provincial life. It makes me all mushy and sentimental. I want to hop in a car and go there.
The author is herself an interpreter. She knows French as well as English and it was a delight to hear her speak..... as the French really do speak. Lovely French. (Don't worry; the French is also translated.) Few authors can read their own books as well as they can write them, but this author did an excellent job narrating her own book. She used one intonation for her grandmother, another for her grandfather and of course she tells her own story too. I felt that her closeness to her grandparents could be heard through the narration. It was very well done.
September 28, 2014
There is so much about this book that falls into my no, don't read it list, it is a serious memoir, it circles around and around the horrors of the Holocaust, one of the main characters is a really difficult, if not down right nasty, and yet I loved it. I even grew to love the mean guy. This book is so thoughtful, loving, and forgiving that I just wept at the end.
No one's family is perfect and Miranda Richmond Mouillot's search for the unspoken reasons her family has the flaws, quirks and supreme gifts it has was a blessing to follow. She chronicles her self doubts, her desire to get it right and acknowledges that there really is no way to get it all down on paper. We really can't get to the true heart of anyone and the whys of them, and especially when such a cataclysmic event as the holocaust blows through her family, records are lost, events converge, people forget, sometimes on purpose, memory can be the enemy of well being. One of the most poignant moments in the book is when her Grandfather is losing his memories and must be put in care and his terror of having been arrested, searched, and his possessions removed, his fears of not knowing who has taken him and where he is, and the compassion of the caretakers when Miranda apologizes for her Grandfather's anger and name calling, "It's pretty common for people with painful war trauma to lose their memory, That and marriages gone bad."
There is a lot to learn here, and it presented in a thoughtful, kind way. How her Grandparents survived the war (barely), how they used their skills to pick up life again and thrive after the war ended, her Grandmother a physician, who cared for so many and kept so many alive, and her brilliant Grandfather, who ended the War as a translator at the Nuremberg Trials, listening, and repeating the horrors of the camps, where his whole family disappeared into. Unfortunately their marriage didn't survive, but the family they made did. I am grateful I got to know the force of nature that was Anna, and the brilliant, wounded Armand.
No one's family is perfect and Miranda Richmond Mouillot's search for the unspoken reasons her family has the flaws, quirks and supreme gifts it has was a blessing to follow. She chronicles her self doubts, her desire to get it right and acknowledges that there really is no way to get it all down on paper. We really can't get to the true heart of anyone and the whys of them, and especially when such a cataclysmic event as the holocaust blows through her family, records are lost, events converge, people forget, sometimes on purpose, memory can be the enemy of well being. One of the most poignant moments in the book is when her Grandfather is losing his memories and must be put in care and his terror of having been arrested, searched, and his possessions removed, his fears of not knowing who has taken him and where he is, and the compassion of the caretakers when Miranda apologizes for her Grandfather's anger and name calling, "It's pretty common for people with painful war trauma to lose their memory, That and marriages gone bad."
There is a lot to learn here, and it presented in a thoughtful, kind way. How her Grandparents survived the war (barely), how they used their skills to pick up life again and thrive after the war ended, her Grandmother a physician, who cared for so many and kept so many alive, and her brilliant Grandfather, who ended the War as a translator at the Nuremberg Trials, listening, and repeating the horrors of the camps, where his whole family disappeared into. Unfortunately their marriage didn't survive, but the family they made did. I am grateful I got to know the force of nature that was Anna, and the brilliant, wounded Armand.
October 27, 2015
This book chronicles a woman's attempt to discover the reason behind her grandparents' mysterious and vindictive estrangement shortly after WWII. The author set the hook early: the first 5 chapters were engrossing. Sadly, I rapidly lost interest after that. It's not that the book is poorly written...the author is an educated woman and her writing reflects this...but I believe that the story peters out due to lack of information. The story becomes more about the author than the grandparents, which is a pity because, (meaning no disrespect) the grandparents were far more interesting. Both survived WWII Europe; the grandmother went on to become a physician and the grandfather was a translator at the Nuremberg trials. Now that would have been a story!
Ms Richmond-Maillot makes much of her opinion that her grandparents were holocaust survivors, a bandwagon everyone seems to jump on if the least chance presents itself. Maybe she's right: both felt the need to flee France and it is likely that they would have been given a one-way ticket to Auschwitz if they were captured. Neither spent any time in a concentration camp or had a particularly close call insofar as apprehension was concerned. To me, they are holocaust survivors the same way my parents were holocaust survivors: they were all alive during WWII and none of them were captured by Nazis. OK, I trivialize perhaps but to me a holocaust survivor is someone who was rescued or escaped from a concentration camp, someone who is in real and immediate peril. The author lets the reader know that there were plenty of hardships, but doesn't create in the reader that sense of urgency and peril.
In short, the book suffers from lack of data. The writer found scant information in records and seems to have been reluctant to interview her grandparents extensively about their past. What is left is speculation, with frequent use of phrases like "would have" and "it is likely". She might as well have written "I've got nuthin' here." She invents entire dialogues for the subjects. In my opinion, this makes the book a bit dodgy as far as history is concerned; it's at least part fabrication. But hey, as the author's own personal love story, the book isn't bad at all.
Ms Richmond-Maillot makes much of her opinion that her grandparents were holocaust survivors, a bandwagon everyone seems to jump on if the least chance presents itself. Maybe she's right: both felt the need to flee France and it is likely that they would have been given a one-way ticket to Auschwitz if they were captured. Neither spent any time in a concentration camp or had a particularly close call insofar as apprehension was concerned. To me, they are holocaust survivors the same way my parents were holocaust survivors: they were all alive during WWII and none of them were captured by Nazis. OK, I trivialize perhaps but to me a holocaust survivor is someone who was rescued or escaped from a concentration camp, someone who is in real and immediate peril. The author lets the reader know that there were plenty of hardships, but doesn't create in the reader that sense of urgency and peril.
In short, the book suffers from lack of data. The writer found scant information in records and seems to have been reluctant to interview her grandparents extensively about their past. What is left is speculation, with frequent use of phrases like "would have" and "it is likely". She might as well have written "I've got nuthin' here." She invents entire dialogues for the subjects. In my opinion, this makes the book a bit dodgy as far as history is concerned; it's at least part fabrication. But hey, as the author's own personal love story, the book isn't bad at all.
December 3, 2014
Three and a half stars: A book that is more about the author's personal journey than her grandparents.
Miranda realizes that time is running for her aging grandparents. Two amazing Holocaust survivors who endured unspeakable horror and sadness. After the war, her grandfather served as an interpreter during the Nuremberg Trials, and something occurred during that time that drove her grandparents apart. Miranda's grandmother packed up her two children and left him, and the two never spoke again. For years, the family has wondered what happened to cause them never to see one another or speak again. Now it is up to Miranda to try and learn the truth before it is too late.
What I Liked
*I was immediately drawn to the author's grandparents. They are the type of people I would love to meet in real life, to hear their amazing stories of survival firsthand. Miranda's grandmother, Anna, was a physician in 1930's Europe, who due to miraculous luck, evaded capture by the Nazis several times. Just the fact that she was a doctor in this era was amazing, but then to hear her story of escape was enthralling. Armand as well was a man who survived great heart ache, as he lost his entire family in Auschwitz. I can't even imagine the horrors he had to listen to during his time serving at the Nuremberg Trials. I thought both of these people were fascinating and I found that I wanted more of both their stories.
*It was heartbreaking to think of how this family was torn apart by the war, and then the turmoil that followed as Anna and Armand split up. I was completely invested in learning the truth about why and how they split.
Miranda interweaves her own story in between her grandparents experiences. She tells of her trip to France, and finding the little house her grandparents bought, and how she endeavored to restore it and ultimately finds her heart. I appreciated that she realized the importance of preserving her grandparents history as they grew older. Such a rich legacy, and she made me think about all the stories that have been lost.
*This is an interesting and revealing tale about how people endured the holocaust. The story of how her grandparents walked over the freezing mountain and spent the night huddled in an outhouse is unforgettable. I liked reading the stories of these brave people.
*I loved that the author included portions of letters from her grandmother that detailed the events in her own words.
And The Not So Much:
*The biggest issue I had was that the book reads like a diary and it isn't tightly written or cohesive. You get a lot of the author's personal journey which was interesting, but I found that I was much more invested in the history of her grandparents. The story is all over the place. I wished that it was better laid out.
*I was disappointed that after all the buildup regarding the reason for the split and the fifty years silence ended in a fizzle. I was expecting some big revelation from one of the grandparents, but it doesn't really happen. Instead I got the author's conjectures on why they split, but nothing concrete. I couldn't believe that after all the time and heartache that no one in the family pressed the grandparents for the truth. How could you not want to understand what happened? Why didn't Miranda's mother and uncle step up? What were their feelings on their parents? What kind of relationship did they have with their parents? There was so much left out that I wanted to know.
*There is this big focus regarding Miranda restoring the little house that her grandparents owned in France, but then the story line drops. What happened to the house?
*Finally, I was upset that I didn't learn what happened to her grandfather. Did he pass away after she finished the book? There is no mention as to his health or what happened to him.
*I loved the letters and such included in her grandmother's voice, but at times they were a touch confusing, and there were terms I was unfamiliar with. I wish Miranda had taken the time to clarify some of these things.
A Fifty Year Silence was an interesting and informative story about two survivors of the holocaust who suffer unspeakable horrors that damage them forever. What happened to drive them apart? I enjoyed getting to know Anna and Armand and hearing their stories. I only wished there was more.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.
Miranda realizes that time is running for her aging grandparents. Two amazing Holocaust survivors who endured unspeakable horror and sadness. After the war, her grandfather served as an interpreter during the Nuremberg Trials, and something occurred during that time that drove her grandparents apart. Miranda's grandmother packed up her two children and left him, and the two never spoke again. For years, the family has wondered what happened to cause them never to see one another or speak again. Now it is up to Miranda to try and learn the truth before it is too late.
What I Liked
*I was immediately drawn to the author's grandparents. They are the type of people I would love to meet in real life, to hear their amazing stories of survival firsthand. Miranda's grandmother, Anna, was a physician in 1930's Europe, who due to miraculous luck, evaded capture by the Nazis several times. Just the fact that she was a doctor in this era was amazing, but then to hear her story of escape was enthralling. Armand as well was a man who survived great heart ache, as he lost his entire family in Auschwitz. I can't even imagine the horrors he had to listen to during his time serving at the Nuremberg Trials. I thought both of these people were fascinating and I found that I wanted more of both their stories.
*It was heartbreaking to think of how this family was torn apart by the war, and then the turmoil that followed as Anna and Armand split up. I was completely invested in learning the truth about why and how they split.
Miranda interweaves her own story in between her grandparents experiences. She tells of her trip to France, and finding the little house her grandparents bought, and how she endeavored to restore it and ultimately finds her heart. I appreciated that she realized the importance of preserving her grandparents history as they grew older. Such a rich legacy, and she made me think about all the stories that have been lost.
*This is an interesting and revealing tale about how people endured the holocaust. The story of how her grandparents walked over the freezing mountain and spent the night huddled in an outhouse is unforgettable. I liked reading the stories of these brave people.
*I loved that the author included portions of letters from her grandmother that detailed the events in her own words.
And The Not So Much:
*The biggest issue I had was that the book reads like a diary and it isn't tightly written or cohesive. You get a lot of the author's personal journey which was interesting, but I found that I was much more invested in the history of her grandparents. The story is all over the place. I wished that it was better laid out.
*I was disappointed that after all the buildup regarding the reason for the split and the fifty years silence ended in a fizzle. I was expecting some big revelation from one of the grandparents, but it doesn't really happen. Instead I got the author's conjectures on why they split, but nothing concrete. I couldn't believe that after all the time and heartache that no one in the family pressed the grandparents for the truth. How could you not want to understand what happened? Why didn't Miranda's mother and uncle step up? What were their feelings on their parents? What kind of relationship did they have with their parents? There was so much left out that I wanted to know.
*There is this big focus regarding Miranda restoring the little house that her grandparents owned in France, but then the story line drops. What happened to the house?
*Finally, I was upset that I didn't learn what happened to her grandfather. Did he pass away after she finished the book? There is no mention as to his health or what happened to him.
*I loved the letters and such included in her grandmother's voice, but at times they were a touch confusing, and there were terms I was unfamiliar with. I wish Miranda had taken the time to clarify some of these things.
A Fifty Year Silence was an interesting and informative story about two survivors of the holocaust who suffer unspeakable horrors that damage them forever. What happened to drive them apart? I enjoyed getting to know Anna and Armand and hearing their stories. I only wished there was more.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.
June 4, 2015
This is a book I really, really wanted to like. It is right up my alley in a lot of ways. A young girl is curious about her heritage and her family history - a mystery of why her grandparents quit speaking 50 years prior. There is travel, there is love, there is self discovery. A lot of promise in the book jacket and first couple chapters.
The problem with this book is two fold. The key is that it presents it self as a mystery to be resolved, the source of the silence. The author gathers bits and clues, from family letters to discussions (which are more like dances) with her grandparents, to archives in France and other places, she speculates, but the mystery is never solved. The reader, if said reader is invested at all, is totally failed by the lack of closure. Some may dig the "Ah, well, it is the exploring of the mystery not the solving" line of thought, but it drives me crazy!
The second problem is the book does not really know what it wants to be. The mystery book would have been great, with a better mystery. The self discovery book would have been great, with some introspection in regards to her heritage. The love story would have been great, with some development of why she fell in love and what made her/Julian special. The story of her moving to a new country and rehabbing her family property would have been great, if she had actually settled there and finished the rehab. So many genres were hinted at, yet none embraced.
I suspect this author was very busy living an interesting life of travel, love, marriage, child birth, and realized she needed to throw something together to justify the grants that funded her adventure.
The problem with this book is two fold. The key is that it presents it self as a mystery to be resolved, the source of the silence. The author gathers bits and clues, from family letters to discussions (which are more like dances) with her grandparents, to archives in France and other places, she speculates, but the mystery is never solved. The reader, if said reader is invested at all, is totally failed by the lack of closure. Some may dig the "Ah, well, it is the exploring of the mystery not the solving" line of thought, but it drives me crazy!
The second problem is the book does not really know what it wants to be. The mystery book would have been great, with a better mystery. The self discovery book would have been great, with some introspection in regards to her heritage. The love story would have been great, with some development of why she fell in love and what made her/Julian special. The story of her moving to a new country and rehabbing her family property would have been great, if she had actually settled there and finished the rehab. So many genres were hinted at, yet none embraced.
I suspect this author was very busy living an interesting life of travel, love, marriage, child birth, and realized she needed to throw something together to justify the grants that funded her adventure.
July 27, 2025
A Fifty Year Silence is a fascinating book that works on so many levels. The first is how the author coped with being a grandchild of Holocaust survivors and how it affected her own childhood. For instance, Miranda had heard all the horror stories and one day when one child locked another in the bathroom and loud music was playing Miranda yelled out:
“We have to stop. They played music to drown out the screams of the children when they were killing them.” Years later her friend recalled “that she’d been so upset by what I’d said that she’d run crying to her father.
“What did he say?” I asked her.
“He told me you came from a family of Holocaust survivors with a lot of bad memories to cope with.”
All I could think was, I wish someone had told me that.”
On another level is her family dynamic, being brought up Jewish and, it seems (at least from my reading) the main person to check on and care for her grandmother, who is a very pragmatic and quite funny old woman. And her difficult grandfather living alone in Geneva.
There is on another level the mystery of why her grandparents stopped speaking to each other which of course fascinates Miranda and is the reason for the book’s existence.
There is the actual war itself as it affected two different people. How they coped living in hiding, evading authorities and what happened in their lives when they separated. It really might be stating the obvious but in my readings on the subject it is the resourceful who survived the war. And Miranda’s grandmother was definitely that!
When Miranda is sent to a boarding school in Geneva, she begins to see more of her very difficult and prickly grandfather and then in a life changing moment she visits a house he owns. It is in the small village of La Roche near Alba Castle. In that instant she feels strangely connected to the house.
“I stood in the doorway and gazed up and down the stone street, the vines making green curtains over the power lines, the young trees growing out of abandoned stone walls, the grey green and yellow lichen and the tiny succulents creeping over everything. It was warmly, thickly silent. “
The house casts a spell on the author and she determines to live and work there. To comb letters, archival materials, maps - everything she can get her hands on to unravel the mystery of what happened to her grandparents. A very satisfying and enlightening read.
“We have to stop. They played music to drown out the screams of the children when they were killing them.” Years later her friend recalled “that she’d been so upset by what I’d said that she’d run crying to her father.
“What did he say?” I asked her.
“He told me you came from a family of Holocaust survivors with a lot of bad memories to cope with.”
All I could think was, I wish someone had told me that.”
On another level is her family dynamic, being brought up Jewish and, it seems (at least from my reading) the main person to check on and care for her grandmother, who is a very pragmatic and quite funny old woman. And her difficult grandfather living alone in Geneva.
There is on another level the mystery of why her grandparents stopped speaking to each other which of course fascinates Miranda and is the reason for the book’s existence.
There is the actual war itself as it affected two different people. How they coped living in hiding, evading authorities and what happened in their lives when they separated. It really might be stating the obvious but in my readings on the subject it is the resourceful who survived the war. And Miranda’s grandmother was definitely that!
When Miranda is sent to a boarding school in Geneva, she begins to see more of her very difficult and prickly grandfather and then in a life changing moment she visits a house he owns. It is in the small village of La Roche near Alba Castle. In that instant she feels strangely connected to the house.
“I stood in the doorway and gazed up and down the stone street, the vines making green curtains over the power lines, the young trees growing out of abandoned stone walls, the grey green and yellow lichen and the tiny succulents creeping over everything. It was warmly, thickly silent. “
The house casts a spell on the author and she determines to live and work there. To comb letters, archival materials, maps - everything she can get her hands on to unravel the mystery of what happened to her grandparents. A very satisfying and enlightening read.
January 14, 2015
This is a very moving memoir and is the personal story of both author, Miranda Richmond Mouillot, and that of her grandparents – Anna and Armand. Miranda was the only grandchild of Anna and Armand. Although her parents were divorced, she was close to both her mother and her father and her step-parents. However, although her childhood was happy and she felt loved, she was also unsettled by conversations and snippets which she hardly recalled hearing, but which affected her. Her beloved grandmother, who lived next door, was a holocaust survivor , as was her grandfather, who she became closer to when slightly older. However, she was aware of her grandmother’s keeping things, “just in case,” and Miranda herself dreamt of flight and the fear of losing her home. She was also always aware that her grandparents – joyful, outgoing Anna and grumpy, difficult Armand – were estranged. In fact, they had not spoken for many years –ever since Anna left their house in France with her two children and a typewriter…
In this book we follow Miranda’s discovery of her grandparent’s story. Her gradual closeness to her grandfather and how she visits the house he shared with Anna in Alba, in the South of France. Miranda falls in love with the house and is devastated when Armand announces he wants to sell it. However, difficulties arise when his wish means that he needs Anna’s agreement. Miranda travels back to France with her eighty seven year old grandmother and, as events unfold, she decides she needs to discover what happened between her grandparents which led to a silence of over fifty years between them. During her research, both Anna and Armand become elderly and frail. Miranda’s life changes and she comes to terms with both her grandparent’s pas t and their legacy. This is a lovely read, which is incredibly moving and you really feel the weight of history as the book unfolds. Miranda writes of her grandparents with deep love and I feel grateful that she shared her story, which is wonderfully told. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
In this book we follow Miranda’s discovery of her grandparent’s story. Her gradual closeness to her grandfather and how she visits the house he shared with Anna in Alba, in the South of France. Miranda falls in love with the house and is devastated when Armand announces he wants to sell it. However, difficulties arise when his wish means that he needs Anna’s agreement. Miranda travels back to France with her eighty seven year old grandmother and, as events unfold, she decides she needs to discover what happened between her grandparents which led to a silence of over fifty years between them. During her research, both Anna and Armand become elderly and frail. Miranda’s life changes and she comes to terms with both her grandparent’s pas t and their legacy. This is a lovely read, which is incredibly moving and you really feel the weight of history as the book unfolds. Miranda writes of her grandparents with deep love and I feel grateful that she shared her story, which is wonderfully told. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.
August 1, 2014
This is the story Miranda knew about the life of her grandparents. They met, married, had two children, separated, never met or spoke again. Miranda is one of the last links left between them and is compelled to find out more of their history. She wants to understand how they could have survived so much together only to retreat into fifty years of silence. She researches their experiences as Jewish refugees in war torn World War II Europe, their marriage at the end of the war, her grandfather's service as an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials. By piecing together and telling their story, Miranda Richmond Mouillot gives her grandparents the ultimate tribute: she makes them unforgettable.
A moving examination of love, chance, family, belonging and memory. A great choice for book clubs.
A moving examination of love, chance, family, belonging and memory. A great choice for book clubs.
July 24, 2014
A Fifty Year Silence embodies the rare triple achievement of telling a compelling story in beautiful language, while offering profound insights into the human condition. The author's quest to explain her grandparents' half-century estrangement leads her not only through the labyrinth of their gripping wartime escape from Nazi-occupied France and its aftermath but also to an exploration of her own lifelong deep psychic entanglement with her family's past. This beautifully-told double investigation gives the reader a gripping detective story and a subtle psychological (and spiritual) bildungsroman.
Mouillot writes in rich, vivid language studded with images so poetic that several times I stopped to reread them. Her fascinating, unforgettable characters are drawn with almost novelistic subtlety and depth, and she seamlessly interweaves the two compelling plots of wartime adventure and struggle with contemporary self-discovery.
Through this bifurcated tale, Mouillot addresses the tension between silence and secrets and the legacy of collective memory. The reader travels with her to explore silence as a defense, a comfort, and finally a burden. Simultaneously, we discern that memory, with all its potential dangers, ultimately is the vehicle for self-definition and liberation.
Mouillot writes in rich, vivid language studded with images so poetic that several times I stopped to reread them. Her fascinating, unforgettable characters are drawn with almost novelistic subtlety and depth, and she seamlessly interweaves the two compelling plots of wartime adventure and struggle with contemporary self-discovery.
Through this bifurcated tale, Mouillot addresses the tension between silence and secrets and the legacy of collective memory. The reader travels with her to explore silence as a defense, a comfort, and finally a burden. Simultaneously, we discern that memory, with all its potential dangers, ultimately is the vehicle for self-definition and liberation.
June 4, 2016
I could not put this book down from the moment I received my advanced reader copy and am only sad I cannot purchase a copy yet to send to my mother. Part mystery, part memoir, "a Fifty Year Silence" takes the author on a journey to France to discover what caused the rift between her grandparents after WWII. During Mouillot's search I became more and more interested to an obsessive degree needing to know what happened to these people and as such, could not put the book down.
The book makes you journey this couple's life and story in reverse and along the way, the author creates her own life guided by her grandparent's past. I do not want to give too much of the story away, but I was as frustrated with Anna and Armand's unwillingness to speak of the past as the author and heartbroken when I found out what had happened to each of them during the war. I was particularly struck by Armand's time as an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials and cried for the last twenty pages or so.
This book 5 stars across the board, and opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes you don't need to know the whole truth to be effected by it. five stars.
The book makes you journey this couple's life and story in reverse and along the way, the author creates her own life guided by her grandparent's past. I do not want to give too much of the story away, but I was as frustrated with Anna and Armand's unwillingness to speak of the past as the author and heartbroken when I found out what had happened to each of them during the war. I was particularly struck by Armand's time as an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials and cried for the last twenty pages or so.
This book 5 stars across the board, and opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes you don't need to know the whole truth to be effected by it. five stars.
April 13, 2024
The absolute joy of libraries or bookstores is finding a treasure that you didn't expect when you pulled it off the shelf. "A Fifty-Year Silence" by Miranda Mouillot was such a gift for me. I became lost in this beautifully written story of her search for her grandparent's history. Slowly, Anna and Armand's story is revealed....Jewish survivors of WWII that experienced small miracles that kept them from the concentration camps, but still were forever shaped by their experiences resulting in a fractured marriage and 50 years of silence between them. Anna, in particular, was remarkable in her ability to "sourrwvive" as she pronounces it. Miranda's journey to uncover their past makes for a compelling story and allows her to move on with her own life in France. This was an amazing book....loved it.
January 13, 2015
I promised myself no more memoirs but made an exception because the description of this one sounded close enough to a mystery that I felt I would be propelled through any unnecessary navel gazing. I am very glad I did. That's not to say this is perfect; the 'mystery' is never 100% solved (the author does make a good case for her assupmtion/conclusions). But when an author can write you will follow them anywhere. This book is less about the mystery than it is about a glimpse into WW2, refugee camps, Nazis, family dynamics, and the author's journey in researching and learning. This was an extremely well written book.
January 31, 2015
I didn't finish this book. About two-thirds of the way through I realized I was forcing myself to read it, and I just didn't care what happened. At the two-thirds point I felt like I hadn't learned anything to help solve the promised mystery of the house in France. The constant bitter hatred between the author's grandparents was depressing, and even if the love story that was promised ever did eventually come it would be tainted by this hatred. Which is, I know, why we fall in love first, so the knowledge of the future will not taint the present. I think there would have been more profound, swiftly-moving, and gentler ways to make this point.
October 15, 2014
I am fortunate to have received A Fifty Year Silence from a Goodreads Giveaway.
Miranda is on a journey to find the reason her grandparents didn't speak for Fifty Years. She writes beautifully. Every word flows. Her writing is deep, but very easy reading.
I was so touched by the profound love she had with her grandmother Anna and her gentleness with her grandfather Armand when he started to have some memory problems.
This book shows how the Holocaust can have an effect for generations in a family. It's also about strength, love, letting go and finding yourself.
Wonderful book.
Miranda is on a journey to find the reason her grandparents didn't speak for Fifty Years. She writes beautifully. Every word flows. Her writing is deep, but very easy reading.
I was so touched by the profound love she had with her grandmother Anna and her gentleness with her grandfather Armand when he started to have some memory problems.
This book shows how the Holocaust can have an effect for generations in a family. It's also about strength, love, letting go and finding yourself.
Wonderful book.
January 11, 2015
Simply, I loved this book, though it took me quite some time to realise that.
Miranda Richmond Mouillot, an American woman whose maternal grandparents were Jews living in France at the time of the Second World War, was driven to discover the truth about the effects of that devastating time on her grandparents, individually, and on their relationship
Her grandparents had a seemingly rather unusual story : they met, at some point in the 40s, as two very different people, trying to make sense of themselves in a time and place without sense. Anna was a doctor, specialising in lung medicine. Armand did not have such a clear vocation, although later he was an interpreter at the Nuremburg trials (he spoke German as well as French) More specifically he was one of the interpreters and translators involved in translating Goering’s spoken testimony.
At some earlier point, as part of a group of Jews trying to stay a step ahead of the Nazi occupation of France, the two met. Actually, they seem to have met, lost contact and made contact on a few occasions. It is assumed that they fell in love. They certainly married and had two children. And at some point bought a house in Alba-la-Romaine. However, something hidden, not addressed by either, some family secret, happened in that marriage, and after a very short period Anna left France with her children, and the two never spoke to each other again, though certainly Anna’s daughter, Miranda’s mother, and Miranda herself, stayed in contact with both of them. Armand moved to Switzerland. Armand particularly would neither speak to, nor about, Anna. Mention of her threw him into cold rages
Miranda needed to understand what had happened in her family, but for more than purely individual reasons.
The book is her quest, through visits and conversations with her beloved grandmother and her more distant, erratic grandfather, to get to the narrative of those lives – and the lives of others, in that time. Through her own experience as the grandchild of European Jews, she shows how the dark events of those times still continue a presence handed down to later generations.
The book is fascinating as a piece of investigation, but is much more than that. There is the objective truth which might be provided by records and the like, and then there are the personal stories, the memories which overlay the stories, and indeed may come to feel more real than what may be indicated by records. There is something also, mysterious, some sort of ‘collective unconscious’. For example, Miranda’s potent, overwhelming response to the sight of the dilapidated, decaying, neglected house her grandparents had bought half a century earlier – her sense of coming home.
I’m not revealing any of the rather complex personal stories which Miranda found, as answers to her quest, as that is the reader’s journey to make. There is also much that she failed to discover, and the failures, the not-knowns, became in the end as potent as what was known, in terms of what the whole process of finding precise causes and effects to her family mystery. Indeed the mystery of that time, goes wider than purely the narrative , or attempt at a narrative, of one particular family; so much of what happened in Europe at that time still seems beyond any rational comprehension
Mouillot writes very well – and, at times, but not too often, she writes beautifully, arrestingly. And what I mean by that, is that the reader is along for the journey, and from time to time the author will make a comment which stops the reader in their tracks, and makes them think – often a statement which needs to be reflected on, and sometimes a passage of description of the landscape, the country, the people, which rather grabs the reader by the heart and takes them inside the experience she wishes to help us feel.
As I progressed deeper onwards through the book, I found myself, often, with tears pouring down my face, because something of the heart of the experience of ‘another’ – other lives, had struck me. And I did not always rationally know where those tears had come from. In the end, I discovered pages and pages of highlighted text, where Mouillot had made me pause, pause, pause again and understand something of experiences of another time and place, filtered down the generations.
This is a very tender book, soulful and authentic, and took me to many more reflective places than I initially expected. Recommended without reservations
This is released on the 28th January to download and in hardback in the UK, and in America on 20th Jan. I received it as an ARC, via NetGalley. With gratitude
Miranda Richmond Mouillot, an American woman whose maternal grandparents were Jews living in France at the time of the Second World War, was driven to discover the truth about the effects of that devastating time on her grandparents, individually, and on their relationship
Her grandparents had a seemingly rather unusual story : they met, at some point in the 40s, as two very different people, trying to make sense of themselves in a time and place without sense. Anna was a doctor, specialising in lung medicine. Armand did not have such a clear vocation, although later he was an interpreter at the Nuremburg trials (he spoke German as well as French) More specifically he was one of the interpreters and translators involved in translating Goering’s spoken testimony.
At some earlier point, as part of a group of Jews trying to stay a step ahead of the Nazi occupation of France, the two met. Actually, they seem to have met, lost contact and made contact on a few occasions. It is assumed that they fell in love. They certainly married and had two children. And at some point bought a house in Alba-la-Romaine. However, something hidden, not addressed by either, some family secret, happened in that marriage, and after a very short period Anna left France with her children, and the two never spoke to each other again, though certainly Anna’s daughter, Miranda’s mother, and Miranda herself, stayed in contact with both of them. Armand moved to Switzerland. Armand particularly would neither speak to, nor about, Anna. Mention of her threw him into cold rages
Miranda needed to understand what had happened in her family, but for more than purely individual reasons.
The book is her quest, through visits and conversations with her beloved grandmother and her more distant, erratic grandfather, to get to the narrative of those lives – and the lives of others, in that time. Through her own experience as the grandchild of European Jews, she shows how the dark events of those times still continue a presence handed down to later generations.
The book is fascinating as a piece of investigation, but is much more than that. There is the objective truth which might be provided by records and the like, and then there are the personal stories, the memories which overlay the stories, and indeed may come to feel more real than what may be indicated by records. There is something also, mysterious, some sort of ‘collective unconscious’. For example, Miranda’s potent, overwhelming response to the sight of the dilapidated, decaying, neglected house her grandparents had bought half a century earlier – her sense of coming home.
I’m not revealing any of the rather complex personal stories which Miranda found, as answers to her quest, as that is the reader’s journey to make. There is also much that she failed to discover, and the failures, the not-knowns, became in the end as potent as what was known, in terms of what the whole process of finding precise causes and effects to her family mystery. Indeed the mystery of that time, goes wider than purely the narrative , or attempt at a narrative, of one particular family; so much of what happened in Europe at that time still seems beyond any rational comprehension
Mouillot writes very well – and, at times, but not too often, she writes beautifully, arrestingly. And what I mean by that, is that the reader is along for the journey, and from time to time the author will make a comment which stops the reader in their tracks, and makes them think – often a statement which needs to be reflected on, and sometimes a passage of description of the landscape, the country, the people, which rather grabs the reader by the heart and takes them inside the experience she wishes to help us feel.
As I progressed deeper onwards through the book, I found myself, often, with tears pouring down my face, because something of the heart of the experience of ‘another’ – other lives, had struck me. And I did not always rationally know where those tears had come from. In the end, I discovered pages and pages of highlighted text, where Mouillot had made me pause, pause, pause again and understand something of experiences of another time and place, filtered down the generations.
This is a very tender book, soulful and authentic, and took me to many more reflective places than I initially expected. Recommended without reservations
This is released on the 28th January to download and in hardback in the UK, and in America on 20th Jan. I received it as an ARC, via NetGalley. With gratitude
October 14, 2014
A good book, stunning in it’s revelation of the human tragedy. Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s maternal grandparents haven’t spoken to each other for fifty years. The lure of this enigma draws the author inexorably into the search for answers. At some point surely, they must have loved one another. Why else marry and eventually give birth to Miranda’s mother, Angele. Both grandparents, Anna and Armand, found themselves Jewish refugees in Nazi occupied France during World war II. After evading capture and deportation to a concentration camp, the couple sought sanctuary in neutral Switzerland. Their marriage in 1944, did not work for very long. After the war, Anna would pursue her medical studies and practice apart from Armand. He found work as an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials in Germany where many of the leading Nazis were brought to justice. Miranda is mesmerized by the fact that her grandfather, after enduring so much together with her grandmother during the war, cannot even hear Anna’s name without flying into a rage. Traveling to France, Miranda settles into an old medieval stone house that her grandmother, Anna, bought after leaving her husband. The ramshackle house reflects the current state of the relationship between Anna and Armand. Miranda resolves to rescue not only the house, but perhaps the relationship as well. If nothing else, she determines to solve the riddle of her grandparents breakup. Much heart warming emotion and love are evident in this book. It is well worth reading. This book provided for review by Crown Publishers.
April 21, 2015
If the blurb is to be believed, this is a book about why the author's maternal grandparents split up to never speak to each other again, even after 50 years. More than that each goes out of their way to not even be in the same country as the other at the same time if possible. Sounds like a great story? I would never had read this had the book been more accurately titled, "why I wanted to move to France" or "everyone but me seems to think my grandparents are obnoxious, sometimes mean people but I just don't get why they didn't stay together." The first few chapters held promise, but the book devolved from there into a random mix of history and the present focusing more on the author's self discovery rather than any interesting family history.
November 4, 2014
Absolutely beautiful and meet my high expectations, I highly recommend A Fifty-Year Silence by Miranda Richmond Mouillot.
February 23, 2016
I was not looking forward to reading this book as I am into Holocaust overload right now, but Miranda Richmond Mouillot's memoir of her parents flight from the Nazi's, their surviving refugee camps in Switzerland, and their marriage, divorce and refusal to talk about any of it for over 50 years is both compelling and gives a new twist on a story that has been told so many times that it's almost a cliche.
Mouillot grew up knowing that something was terribly wrong in her family even though no one would discuss it. She developed strange a vague fears as a child: leaving her shoes by the door for a quick escape, for instance. While close to both grandparents, it was difficult for her to understand them. Her grandmother frequently spoke in what appeared to be riddles, while the mere mention of her grandmother's name would and her grandfather into a terrifying rage.
Finally, when Mouillot graduated from college, she decided to discover the answer to her questions. She won a fellowship to study her grandparents' lives and decided to live in a ruin of a stone house her grandmother had purchased right after the war in Alba-La-Romaine, in southeast France.
There, using letters, records from refugee camps and whatever she could pry out of her grandfather, Mouillot pieces together their story. It's not the story of her fantasies, but it is an honest, heroic tale of love, luck and survival.
The passage that stuck me the most came at the end of the book when she writes:
"I Thought of Anne, the daughter of friends of my grandmother, and her crusade to record and preserve survivors' memories of the time before the war, before that generation had been reduced to remembering the Shoah for the benefit of history. I shuddered thinking of the endles punishment it must be to live with both the personal and cultural aftereffects of a trauma.....my grandparents were hounded not only by the memory of what they'd lived through in the war, not only by the loss of all that had been destroyed in those six years, but also by the exhausting injunction, 'never forget.'"
This is a hauntingly beautiful book about how the horrific events of the war continue to reverberate in the generations that have followed. Thank you to Library Thing for sending me this ARC
Mouillot grew up knowing that something was terribly wrong in her family even though no one would discuss it. She developed strange a vague fears as a child: leaving her shoes by the door for a quick escape, for instance. While close to both grandparents, it was difficult for her to understand them. Her grandmother frequently spoke in what appeared to be riddles, while the mere mention of her grandmother's name would and her grandfather into a terrifying rage.
Finally, when Mouillot graduated from college, she decided to discover the answer to her questions. She won a fellowship to study her grandparents' lives and decided to live in a ruin of a stone house her grandmother had purchased right after the war in Alba-La-Romaine, in southeast France.
There, using letters, records from refugee camps and whatever she could pry out of her grandfather, Mouillot pieces together their story. It's not the story of her fantasies, but it is an honest, heroic tale of love, luck and survival.
The passage that stuck me the most came at the end of the book when she writes:
"I Thought of Anne, the daughter of friends of my grandmother, and her crusade to record and preserve survivors' memories of the time before the war, before that generation had been reduced to remembering the Shoah for the benefit of history. I shuddered thinking of the endles punishment it must be to live with both the personal and cultural aftereffects of a trauma.....my grandparents were hounded not only by the memory of what they'd lived through in the war, not only by the loss of all that had been destroyed in those six years, but also by the exhausting injunction, 'never forget.'"
This is a hauntingly beautiful book about how the horrific events of the war continue to reverberate in the generations that have followed. Thank you to Library Thing for sending me this ARC
November 24, 2014
Miranda Richmond Mouillot wanted to find out why her grandparents, Anna and Armand, were estranged and hadn't spoken in fifty years. The tale she tells weaves together the life stories of this couple who escaped Nazi-occupied France and the Holocaust, landing in separate refugee camps in Switzerland. After the war, they bought an old stone house in a remote village in the south of France, but a few years later, the marriage fell apart.
The author reconstructs the story as best she can, but she doesn't have a lot of help from her grandparents, whose memories are either sparse or firmly locked away. She goes so far as to move to the house her grandparents bought in France in an attempt to bring the past to light.
I was interested in the story for a few chapters, as the story begins to unfold. But very quickly it becomes clear that her grandparents were stubborn and disagreeable people, her grandfather in particular. He was verbally cruel to his wife, and it was his lifelong pattern to cut people off forever. Once that became clear, I lost interest in the story, as no other explanation seemed necessary.
Ms. Mouillot's chapters about her grandparents' experiences in the refugee camps were interesting in and of themselves, and her grandfather's work as a translator during the Nuremberg trials after the war was also interesting to read about. But the author's pained attempts to explain what already is clear to the reader just weighed down the story. It would have been a fine book without that element.
The author reconstructs the story as best she can, but she doesn't have a lot of help from her grandparents, whose memories are either sparse or firmly locked away. She goes so far as to move to the house her grandparents bought in France in an attempt to bring the past to light.
I was interested in the story for a few chapters, as the story begins to unfold. But very quickly it becomes clear that her grandparents were stubborn and disagreeable people, her grandfather in particular. He was verbally cruel to his wife, and it was his lifelong pattern to cut people off forever. Once that became clear, I lost interest in the story, as no other explanation seemed necessary.
Ms. Mouillot's chapters about her grandparents' experiences in the refugee camps were interesting in and of themselves, and her grandfather's work as a translator during the Nuremberg trials after the war was also interesting to read about. But the author's pained attempts to explain what already is clear to the reader just weighed down the story. It would have been a fine book without that element.
January 8, 2015
A moving story of family, memories and wartime.
Miranda Richmond Mouillot pieces together the lives of her grandmother and grandfather from their escape from the Nazis, wartime marriage and then sudden estrangement in the early 1950s.
The story begins as a family history investigation, but evolves into a semi-travelogue, a journey of self-discovery and a race against time.
I loved the lyrical language she uses making some sentences a delight to savour. Here’s a couple of examples.
“I saw an infinity of forgotten details dancing across history's dizzying expanse.”
“Here the past was everywhere, an entire continent sown with memories.”
The book moves at a sedate pace, but you become more and more involved with the characters and I was particularly moved by the touching poignant changes in her relationship with her grandfather as the story unfolds.
The final pages give an indication of the possible causes of her grandparents rift which are all the more tragic when you realise the burdens her grandfather was carrying.
This is not your average holocaust memoir, but one that does illustrate how people’s personalities are as a result of experiences of which we are unaware or cannot even imagine.
April 9, 2024
This biography/memoir was tenderly written by an American granddaughter, Miranda Richmond Mouillot, about her Jewish grandparents, years after the Holocaust. Her grandmother Anna is a doctor and lives in thw beautiful town of Asheville, North Carolina, USA, whereas her grandfather, Armand, who was significantly involved in the Nuremberg Trials, lives in France. 🇫🇷
Miranda becomes involved in the saving of Anna and Armand’s long-deserted cottage in the south of France, which the grandparents never occupied before their escape. In fact, they haven’t spoken to each other in almost 50 years.
We learn of some of the horrors this couple and their family endured during the Nazi invasion and occupation of France, 🇫🇷 and of their good fortunate and escape to Switzerland.🇨🇭
Miranda, while pursuing her advanced university studies in France, begins to work on the very basic of repairs to the deserted cottage. I don’t mean restoration because that would give you a very different impression of the condition in which she found the cottage.
Enjoy this important and heartbreaking story. This was a well done audiobook narrated by the author, Miranda. Never forget.
Miranda becomes involved in the saving of Anna and Armand’s long-deserted cottage in the south of France, which the grandparents never occupied before their escape. In fact, they haven’t spoken to each other in almost 50 years.
We learn of some of the horrors this couple and their family endured during the Nazi invasion and occupation of France, 🇫🇷 and of their good fortunate and escape to Switzerland.🇨🇭
Miranda, while pursuing her advanced university studies in France, begins to work on the very basic of repairs to the deserted cottage. I don’t mean restoration because that would give you a very different impression of the condition in which she found the cottage.
Enjoy this important and heartbreaking story. This was a well done audiobook narrated by the author, Miranda. Never forget.
March 23, 2025
Book club ‘25. I really enjoyed this book. Was it a little slow at the start? Yes. But I love the fact that it was a real story and didn’t wrap it up neatly yet gave so much insight to an average family and how they dealt with the most horrible circumstances. It received mixed reviews in book club, but that also made for interesting conversation.
February 5, 2024
Well written! The story takes you through an interesting twining of a Jewish couple surviving the Holocaust.
September 22, 2025
This book was rather odd. It felt disjointed and like the author wasn't sure where the journey was going herself so you read along until you got to the end of the book. There really wasn't any resolution or message. It jumped around a lot between her story and her estranged grandparents' survival during WWII. It was actually kind of boring. I read it for my yearly reading challenge because I needed a book with a country in the title. I probably would have abandoned it long before the end of it hadn't been for my booklist.
Bookworm Challenge: A country in the Title
Bookworm Challenge: A country in the Title
February 17, 2016
Miranda had a close relationship with her grandmother Anna. Born in Romania and going to college in France, Anna came to the United States after World War II and worked as a psychiatrist. Her last job was the supervising psychiatrist at a New York state mental hospital. She was a perpetually optimistic woman. She called the war “The university of my life” And “took pride in all the ingenious ways she figured out how to survive.” She believed everything came with a message. As to the terrible memories, she shut them out of her mind. A deeply religious woman, she believed everything happened for a reason and that everyone was as lucky or luckless as she. Miranda’s father said of her “She’s not hard of hearing, she’s hard of listening.”
Armand, Miranda’s grandfather lived in Geneva. He did not believe he was lucky. To punish God, who failed him, he became an atheist, which he reminded God everyday. He believed that since God didn’t exist, people had to do what was necessary. His was a cold, orderly, strict man. He had retired from UN civil service and had been an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials. After his retirement, he went to Geneva. His house was filled with books on the Holocaust.
Miranda didn’t know very much about her grandparents relationship with each other. When Armand left New York to return to Geneva, Anna suddenly took their children and went to Israel. They had divorced (the process took twenty years) and hadn’t spoken to each other for fifty years. The few comments they made about each other were filled with anger and dismissal. When Miranda tried to learn more, each of them changed the topic.
When Miranda said she was bored with high school, Anna suggested that she continue her studies in Geneva. She did so and was able to learn more about her grandfather. Eventually, he began to mellow. One thing she learned was that he had a house in France. She fell in love with it and decided she would like to live there someday.
When Miranda grew up, she realized how strongly her own life had been influenced by them. She remained in France and set out to learn more about her grandparents and their relationship, or lack thereof.. She kept running into a wall of silence. As she said in her notes at the beginning, “Any inaccuracies I may have unwittingly introduced are due to the inherent difficulties of writing about a subject no one is willing to discuss.” While they didn’t speak to each other, someone noted that they were “more emotionally involved with each other than most married couples who have been together that long.”
While she searched for the story of their marriage and divorce, she learned a lot about their own histories. One thing she learned was the effect of the Nuremberg trials on her grandfather. “Interpreter’s breakdowns became so common that they kept a team of substitutes waiting at all times.”
While it does play a part in A FIFTY YEAR SILENCE, this is not a traditional Holocaust book. It is a story of the search to learn about her grandparents unusual relationship and the effect it had on her life and she had on their lives. Well-written, easy-to-read, and thought provoking, it does leave a couple questions unanswered, e.g., information about how her uncle fit into the picture and why her grandmother decided to run to Israel without informing her grandfather.
I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
Armand, Miranda’s grandfather lived in Geneva. He did not believe he was lucky. To punish God, who failed him, he became an atheist, which he reminded God everyday. He believed that since God didn’t exist, people had to do what was necessary. His was a cold, orderly, strict man. He had retired from UN civil service and had been an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials. After his retirement, he went to Geneva. His house was filled with books on the Holocaust.
Miranda didn’t know very much about her grandparents relationship with each other. When Armand left New York to return to Geneva, Anna suddenly took their children and went to Israel. They had divorced (the process took twenty years) and hadn’t spoken to each other for fifty years. The few comments they made about each other were filled with anger and dismissal. When Miranda tried to learn more, each of them changed the topic.
When Miranda said she was bored with high school, Anna suggested that she continue her studies in Geneva. She did so and was able to learn more about her grandfather. Eventually, he began to mellow. One thing she learned was that he had a house in France. She fell in love with it and decided she would like to live there someday.
When Miranda grew up, she realized how strongly her own life had been influenced by them. She remained in France and set out to learn more about her grandparents and their relationship, or lack thereof.. She kept running into a wall of silence. As she said in her notes at the beginning, “Any inaccuracies I may have unwittingly introduced are due to the inherent difficulties of writing about a subject no one is willing to discuss.” While they didn’t speak to each other, someone noted that they were “more emotionally involved with each other than most married couples who have been together that long.”
While she searched for the story of their marriage and divorce, she learned a lot about their own histories. One thing she learned was the effect of the Nuremberg trials on her grandfather. “Interpreter’s breakdowns became so common that they kept a team of substitutes waiting at all times.”
While it does play a part in A FIFTY YEAR SILENCE, this is not a traditional Holocaust book. It is a story of the search to learn about her grandparents unusual relationship and the effect it had on her life and she had on their lives. Well-written, easy-to-read, and thought provoking, it does leave a couple questions unanswered, e.g., information about how her uncle fit into the picture and why her grandmother decided to run to Israel without informing her grandfather.
I received a copy of this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
May 17, 2015
I love France and personal histories, particularly WWII histories. I had hoped this would recreate for me a true tale of courage against the Nazis. Sadly, it is only tangentially so. It is mostly a tale of a personal search for roots with the emphasis on the searcher, not the searchees.
When I started reading the writng was so awkward and self-absorbed it kept intruding. Furniture "hunched" and "squatted." Wine was "elderly." I hoped the since the author was writing about her adolescence that perhaps, as a literary device, she was writing like an adolescent and, as the character matured, so would the writer's voice. No such luck.
The writing so detracted from the story, I wanted to abandon it. The title and some early events, however, suggested there would be a payoff. Spoiler alert! The "Fifty Year Silence" is followed by...more silence. No payoff. No reveal.
Like the author, I have led a happy life except that I didn't go to boarding school in Switzerland or attend Harvard. Thus, I could never write about my existential angst. Somehow the author claims to feel deep suffering but gives us not the slightest hint of its source.
Oy vey!
When I started reading the writng was so awkward and self-absorbed it kept intruding. Furniture "hunched" and "squatted." Wine was "elderly." I hoped the since the author was writing about her adolescence that perhaps, as a literary device, she was writing like an adolescent and, as the character matured, so would the writer's voice. No such luck.
The writing so detracted from the story, I wanted to abandon it. The title and some early events, however, suggested there would be a payoff. Spoiler alert! The "Fifty Year Silence" is followed by...more silence. No payoff. No reveal.
Like the author, I have led a happy life except that I didn't go to boarding school in Switzerland or attend Harvard. Thus, I could never write about my existential angst. Somehow the author claims to feel deep suffering but gives us not the slightest hint of its source.
Oy vey!
November 27, 2014
I like reading these types of books. This time period of WWII just fascinates me. The people who lived this era draw me into their stories. Each story is different but good. I thought that the author did a good job compiling her grandparents stories and memories into this book. Not to take anything away from the author's grand parents but I liked them but was not in love with them. I missed this from this book. From other books that I have read in this genre that was part of the magic that I enjoyed from these books is that I felt like I had an open window to these peoples lives and thus I became really close to them as if I was part of their extended family or a really close friend. So again with this book I felt like I got to know Miranda's grand parents but I still felt like I was at a distance and just a bystander. As I read the story I could see the clues all coming together as to the reason for Miranda's grandparents silence. Which was fine but I was kind of wishing it was something more grand as to the silence. Overall a nice read.
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