Colby Cedar Smith

Written in verse, this story is loosely based off of her grandmother Mary, of whom she includes pictures at the end. This is a story about family, grift, loss, and strength.

Set firstly 1930’s Detroit, Michigan, the reader follows Mary who is a Greek-American teenager describing what she sees and experiences at the tail-end of the Great Depression. She is supposed to be a “good Greek girl” but starts to try to voice what she wants for her life. One day she finds a box of letters and doesn’t know who the people who wrote them are. This then brings in two other characters, Gio and Jeanne, who wrote the letters back in WWI.

Gio is in Greece when WWI breaks out. When an unfortunate event takes place, Gio must flee. He ends up in the United States and when he is caught as a stowaway on a ship, he is entered into the Army and shipped to France to fight in the war. At the same time we are following Jeanne, who is in France when her father, a doctor, leaves to help in WWI. She starts volunteering at a hospital to help wounded soldiers. She then encounters Gio at the hospital when he is wounded. They start to develop feelings for each other right as they are separated—Gio is sent back to fight, Jeanne sent to a convent. They are reunited again when Gio is discharged at the end of the war. This is a love story where love prevails. A family story about staying together during hard times. This is a beautiful story that I… (plus d'informations)