When the World Goes Quiet by Gian Sardar, A Book Review by Rebecca Moll
Some say a dream is an aspiration, an ambition, or an ideal, something of the future. But as complex thinking, feeling, and spiritual beings, dreams are so much more than a future item for the calendar. Just our ability to dream, to yearn, speaks to our past and present. We can only dream because of what we were and are today. What was once our childhood fantasies filter over into our adult lives adding understanding and dimension to our everyday choices, whether in conviction or regret our successes and failures become our hopes and dreams. And as life rarely sails the straight course, these visionary aspirations tack us along the way, course-correcting for sudden squalls and errant tides, lee winds, and sunny skies and thus, the evolution of our hopes and dreams, our human experience.
But what if, just as you just step into your long-anticipated adult life, your most ardent dreams, ambitions at the core of your very self-worth, all is suddenly railroaded by one of the worst events in recent human history?
Beautiful Bruges. Belgium. 1918. WWI. Evelien, at the cusp of life, the love of her life, art. Dreams of Paris and painting. Freedom from the expected social trappings of the turn-of-the-century woman. But, rarely does life follow dreams. First, marriage, an off-to-war husband she loves only like the childhood friend he is, then, the need to care for aging in-laws, then, obligatory employment for a family that once loved her as their own. Occupation brings destruction and debilitating hunger. Needs trump all, starvation, shelter, and warmth more than the day can abide. Evelien’s dreams lay shattered, thousands of tiny pieces upon the floor where the heavy tred of war effort threatens to defeat the soul.
Danger, uncertainty, and obligation bring her to the brink of disaster in a personal request from the Resistance. A list of names in her employer’s possession. Her high-ranking German employer. As Evelien crosses the hire-wire of survival, her shattered dreams become a refuge for a soul that refuses to give up or to give in.
In an abandoned building, a mere shell of its former grandeur, Evelien steals away, one shattered piece at a time. There, a place to draw. There, a place to plant, nurture, cultivate, forbidden food for a starving family. Sunlight streams from above, shadows vanish. With pencil to paper Evelien pours forth her soul into image and likeness of all things possible and impossible. Even, love. True, passionate love.
And in this refuge, the world goes quiet. Time and space bring to birth what eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, hands cannot touch, what must only be felt: HOPE.
Beautifully written, painted with imagery, heartbreak, and thousands of tiny pieces of hope, Gian Sardar opens a window into a young woman’s soul. A great read for historical fiction lovers. A must read for dreamers.
When the World Goes Quiet, what do you dream?
But what if, just as you just step into your long-anticipated adult life, your most ardent dreams, ambitions at the core of your very self-worth, all is suddenly railroaded by one of the worst events in recent human history?
Beautiful Bruges. Belgium. 1918. WWI. Evelien, at the cusp of life, the love of her life, art. Dreams of Paris and painting. Freedom from the expected social trappings of the turn-of-the-century woman. But, rarely does life follow dreams. First, marriage, an off-to-war husband she loves only like the childhood friend he is, then, the need to care for aging in-laws, then, obligatory employment for a family that once loved her as their own. Occupation brings destruction and debilitating hunger. Needs trump all, starvation, shelter, and warmth more than the day can abide. Evelien’s dreams lay shattered, thousands of tiny pieces upon the floor where the heavy tred of war effort threatens to defeat the soul.
Danger, uncertainty, and obligation bring her to the brink of disaster in a personal request from the Resistance. A list of names in her employer’s possession. Her high-ranking German employer. As Evelien crosses the hire-wire of survival, her shattered dreams become a refuge for a soul that refuses to give up or to give in.
In an abandoned building, a mere shell of its former grandeur, Evelien steals away, one shattered piece at a time. There, a place to draw. There, a place to plant, nurture, cultivate, forbidden food for a starving family. Sunlight streams from above, shadows vanish. With pencil to paper Evelien pours forth her soul into image and likeness of all things possible and impossible. Even, love. True, passionate love.
And in this refuge, the world goes quiet. Time and space bring to birth what eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, hands cannot touch, what must only be felt: HOPE.
Beautifully written, painted with imagery, heartbreak, and thousands of tiny pieces of hope, Gian Sardar opens a window into a young woman’s soul. A great read for historical fiction lovers. A must read for dreamers.
When the World Goes Quiet, what do you dream?
No comments have been added yet.
