ECHOES by Danielle Steel
Just when you think you have Danielle Steel pigeon-holed as to the subject matter of her stories she veers into a new direction and finds even more success. ECHOES is one of her most sweeping stories ever and it is also one of her most dramatic. In this book she uses the backgrounds of World Wars I and II and tells a multigenerational story.
The story starts in 1915 and focuses on Beata Wittgenstein. Her father is a banker in Germany and is well to do. The fact that the family is Jewish is not an issue except for the fact that he and his wife expect their children to marry Jewish. Their children include two sons and two daughters. Beata is the older daughter.
One summer Beata, her sister and mother vacation in Switzerland. It is there she meets by accident Antoine de Vallerand, a Frenchman and a Catholic. Since there two countries are at war and since they are not of the same religion, Beata and Antoine know their families would never accept them as a couple. Despite this they fall in love and plan to marry. This one event affects their lives forever and leads to estrangement from their families.
After they are married they have a daughter who they name Amadea. She is raised as a Catholic since Beata converted at the time of her marriage. When Hitler comes to power and the Jews are persecuted this is a very important factor in the lives of Beata, her mother Monika, and her daughters.
ECHOES is Steel at her best as she creates full characters who live in these perilous times. There is a lot of romance in this book but there is also drama and out and out horror. Readers of this story will be affected by the heroism of certain individuals but they will also be chilled by the brutality of others.
As good as this story is and as skilled as Steel is in her composition of the plot, her tendency to repeat phrases and passages over and over is annoying. If she had not repeated herself the book would be half as long - and that is not a bad thing.
Still you should overlook this little tick in Steel's writing pattern and dive into this story. It is an emotional journey you will relish. Danielle Steel has been a prominent writer for many years now and this new book shows that her writing skills have not diminished but have in fact gotten better than ever.
ECHOES is published by Random House. It contains 324 pages and sells for $27.00.