Review: The Award - Danielle Steel

Review: The Award - Danielle Steel - November 2016

To try and clean my bookshelf and clear the books that have been sitting on there for quite a while, I picked up a Danielle Steel title. I haven't read her books in years, I think the last time I did was her book The Apartment. Back in March, I helped out with the Lions Booksale and the closedown. Unfortunately due to not having any space to store their books, after the sale what doesn't get sold ends up getting chucked out. I ended up with a box of about 50 books including a stack of Danielle Steel's which were in near to brand new condition. The Award was the first one I grabbed out and started reading it. Normally I am not a historical fan but this one had me hooked as we meet Gaelle who is a grandmother at 95 years old. After her granddaughter Dauphine's efforts, her grandmother is finally getting an award for her contribution during World War 2. She helped get children to safety and also returned stolen paintings to the French museums after the war had ended. Gaelle was persecuted and called a traitor, and by the end of the war in France - she had lost her entire family and her best friends Rebekah and the rest of the Feldmans. The novel is set in her past and takes a look at her journey to the present time. It talks about her time from the beginning of the Germans invading France, the round-up of the Jews, her family deaths, her journey after the war modeling for Christian Dior, and then her journey across to New York where she married Robert, had a child and then became a widow to meeting her second husband and having more children and her rocky relationship with her daughter from her first marriage.  The Award was a powerful yet easy-to-read novel and gave a different perspective of the Holocaust through the eyes of the French rather than the German side. I am now looking forward to reading more of Danielle Steel's books.


Amazon: https://amzn.to/44Z4z1X