Half in Shadow
The beginning of this book starts off with a bang—literally. A bomb dropped on a village in Belgium by the Germans in 1914 kills a young boy and devastates his family, especially his older sister, Josephine Descharmes. Liviero does an excellent job of describing the horrors faced by the unsuspecting Belgians as Germans invade their country, pillaging, murdering, and raping. The first section of the book is filled with excitement and drama as the Descharmes family try to escape the encroachment of German soldiers, losing family members along the way. Perhaps a little too much excitement is crammed into this opening section, however, as we don’t quite get a chance to know the characters, and there are a number of them.
The next section takes us to London where middle-aged Arthur has his life and marriage upended by an unexpected loss. To cope with his grief, he leaves his wife and joins the army as a private. Here the story moves a little slower, and the writer’s descriptive power and character development shine as Arthur’s story is skillfully and movingly rendered.
The lives of Josephine and Arthur converge in Brussels where the situation grows dire, especially for the Belgians who resist the invaders and for soldiers like Arthur, trapped behind enemy lines. The invasion of Belgium is a little-known aspect of World War I. As the author explains in her commentary at the end of the book, thousands of Belgians died from execution, hunger, and disease, and many more lost their property and livelihood. Readers will find this a fascinating, if heartbreaking, topic even though the story gets a bit convoluted at times.
