“A study in character developement, Mrs. Tuesday’s Departure is a mezmerizing historical fiction for WWII readers. Highly recommended!” ~ The Kindle Book Review ABOUT MRS. TUESDAY’S DEPARTURE:When Natalie and Anna, sisters and life-long rivals, hide an abandoned child from the Nazis, their deception resurrects the scars of a star-crossed love triangle that threats their safety and tests the bonds of their loyalty. Hungary’s fragile alliance with Germany insured that Natalie, a renowned children’s book author, and her family would be safe as the war raged through Europe. But, as the Führer’s desperation grows in the waning years of the conflict, neighbors now become traitors. Beautiful but troubled Anna, poet and university professor, is losing her tenuous hold on reality, re-igniting a sibling rivalry that began with a poetry contest in childhood. It boils over when Deszo, Anna’s unrequited love, re-enters their lives with a promise of safety. As the streets of Budapest thrum with the pounding boots of Nazi soldiers, danger creeps to the doorstep and the sisters’ disintegrating relationship threatens to expose the child they are trying to protect. In one night, Anna’s rash behavior destroys their carefully made plans of escape, and Natalie is presented with a desperate decision. Interwoven with Natalie and Anna’s story, is Mila’s. The abandoned child whose future Natalie lovingly imagines in a story called Mrs. Tuesday’s Departure. A story that takes on a life of its own seventy years later. Mrs. Tuesday’s Departure is a haunting tale of un-requited love and the un-breakable bonds of sisters.
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Sexual Content - 1/5
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Violence - 2/5
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Language - 1/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 1/5
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Summary
Overall Mrs. Tuesday's Departure by Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson is a heart wrenching picture into the saga of a Hungarian family during the time of the Nazi invasion of WW2. The novel has an interesting setup: the prologue and the epilogue feature 80 year old Mrs. Tuesday and a certain package. It's the chapters between that unfold the saga and give meat to the bones of the weight of sorrow I felt as soon as I engaged Mrs. Tuesday in the prologue. The middle chapters are Mrs. Tuesday's backstory. The author paints a story of great tragedy, yet of ultimate sacrifice. Tragic enough are the horrific details of a people cruelly swept up in the invasion of Budapest, Hungary; but in addition to that is the robbing of a brilliant intellect by early onset Alzheimer's. The story unfolds in such a way that the reader feels the craziness, the fearfulness of the whole situation. We also learn that there has been a significant strain in the once close relationship of twin sisters, and an ongoing estrangement with a much younger sister. I like how the author shows us through symbolism that Natalie realizes too late the that there were signs of a diseased psyche that had infected not only the people of Hungary, but also her family, leading them to succumb and separate. Mrs. Tuesday is the little girl, Mila, part Jew, needing to stay hidden. I would have loved for the details of the \"guts\" of the story to go on, but I think the author made a good choice in doing things like she did. In some
ways it took us to that place in which Mrs. Tuesday had lived for so many years. Had the package not arrived, she would still have been there lacking answers to her questions. Much food for thought to be had by reading this novel.
Violence WW2 + Nazis = violence