The Lost Diary of Cécile Dubonnet: Forgetting the Yesterdays of World War II

by A.P. Harper

IN 1999 PARIS, Hénri Durant, a jilted photographer, was remodeling his apartment and discovered a diary under the floorboard which had been there since 1938 when Cécile Dubonnet celebrated her twentieth birthday. Cécile, a naïve, romantic young woman, had fallen in love with a German diplomat in pre-war France, which, as Germany invades Poland and France enters the war, challenges the bond between her friends and details her struggles in her diary.

Genres: Fiction

324 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2022

Reviews

[Tanja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3,5 stars

All Second World War stories are full of tragedy and hard to read. What keeps me reading them is that amidst horror there is always good to be find, amidst pain there is hope, amidst torture there is resilience...


The Lost Diary of Cecile Dubonnet is one of those books that usually leave me in tears but something just didn't work for me. Maybe pacing, maybe portraying of the characters or at times not believable development, I am not sure.

[Dana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I found this book to be poorly written. While most of us are aware of the horrors around concentration camps during WWII, Cecile’s actions and circumstances were just too unrealistic. Was any research done in preparation for this book? I definitely didn’t learn anything new and am not sure much of it was even valid.
I appreciate the ARC from Goodreads and the publisher and read the entire book but it was a waste of my time.