This story follows a recently retired airline pilot as he struggles with what to do in retirement. His wife has recently died and he has a hard time "sitting still". He decides to go to Belgium where his plane was shot down in World War 2. Once there many of the villagers come out and tell him their memories of when the plane was shot down. Within their stories he realizes that other that helped him escape Belgium & France may also remember and be willing to share their story.
His travels take him to the French countryside and then to Paris where he rents an apartment and attempts to find more of the people that hid him and helped him through the network.
This was an interesting story for me. Purely by chance I got this from the library right after I had read a WW2 book from a German woman's perspective. (not recommending because it was sad and pretty graphic). So both stories were very insightful (and it's no secret I enjoy learning about this time in history).
I enjoyed this book - but the ending was too "neat" for me. Sometimes I don't need to story to be packaged well and ended with everything resolved...but that's just me. I thought the character development was very good as far as the main character was concerned. Although I felt he was aloof...so if he was supposed to be serious the author fail! ;-) It was interesting how the author showed both present day scenes as well as what they looked like in the man's memory.
Solid book - kinda long read.
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