What I Would Tell You is a dual timeline novel, set in the present and during World War II.
As you can expect, the World War II aspect of the story is not the typical happy-ever-after story I often read and review.
Mathilda Nissim is a Sephardic Jew living in Salonika, Greece, at the outbreak of World War II. She writes and publishes a newsletter for her fellow Jews … an activity she continues at great risk after the Germans invade. She is a quiet leader who is determined that her people resist the Germans so they don’t suffer the rumoured fate of German and Polish Jews.
It’s not hard to see this is going to be the bittersweet part of the story.
Even this introduced two new aspects of history to me. First, the fact there were Jews in Greece (which shouldn’t surprise me given the number of Paul’s letters which are addressed to Jewish-Christian communities in Greece).
Second, I have never heard of Sephardic Jews before. Tolsma explains at the beginning of the novel that the Sephardic Jews were forced to leave Spain in 1492 and scattered across north Africa, southern Europe, and western Asia. Many ended up in in Greece, where this story begins.
One of the things I like most about reading historical fiction is learning new things about history.
In this respect, Liz Tolsma more than delivered. The historical story was strong and fascinating. Mathilda was a great character, and the only problem with reading the historic scenes was that unwanted and uncomfortable foreknowledge of how the story is likely to end (there are very few happy endings for Jews in German-occupied territory of World War II).
Tessa Payton is an American psychology student who undertakes a DNA test and finds she has Spanish and Sephardic Jewish heritage. Her cousin doesn’t … which means they’re not actually related. She decides to go to Thessaloniki, Greece, to see if she can figure out the mystery.
While I enjoyed watching Tessa travel around Greece (and eat all that wonderful Greek food), I found Tessa considerably less intelligent than Mathilda, to the point of being annoying (it is possible to be Jewish and Christian, and we both worship the same God). I also thought there were a few too many coincidences in the current-day timeline. Yes, I know it’s fiction, a made-up story, but it does need to be believable.
What I Would Tell You is a dual timeline story, and I found the past story stronger than the present … at least until the end. The ending definitely ticked all the boxes.
Recommended for fans of dual timeline fiction and historical fiction set in World War II.
About Liz Tolsma
Passionate might best describe Liz Tolsma. She loves writing, research, and editing. Her passion shone through in her first novel which was a double award finalist. On any given day, you might find her pulling weeds in her perennial garden, walking her hyperactive dog, or curled up with a good book. Nothing means more to her than her family. She’s married her high-school sweetheart twenty-eight years ago. Get her talking about international adoption, and you might never get her to stop. She and her husband adopted three children, including a son who is a U.S. Marine, and two daughters.Find Liz Tolsma online at:
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About What I Would Tell You
Determined to resist the invading Nazis, a Greek Jewish woman’s greatest dream has become her worst nightmare, and now she faces an impossible choice whose consequences echo across the generations.
2019—College student Tessa Payton and her cousin take a popular DNA heritage test only to discover they don’t share any common ancestors. In fact, the test reveals Tessa is a Greek Sephardic Jew. This revelation threatens her tenuous faith. Always the overlooked child in her family, she empties her savings account and jets off on a journey to Greece to discover where she belongs and which God demands her allegiance. The enchanting curator at the Jewish museum guides her as she navigates life in Thessaloniki, helps with her genealogical research, and loans her a fascinating journal written by a Jewish woman during WWII. Tessa’s search, however, may open old wounds and uncover long-hidden secrets that could fracture her family forever and leave her with more questions than when she started.
Based in part on true accounts of Jews in Salonika, Greece, What I Would Tell You traces two women’s journeys, delving into what faith looks like and where it leads us as they navigate difficult circumstances and impossible choices that have ripple effects across the years.
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