The Book of Lost Names

Sixteen months later, France has been freed from the German grip, and Eva returns to a Paris she hardly knows. She waits daily on the Mazarine steps hoping Rémy will return to her, but as months pass, she knows that he, along with everyone else she knew, probably did not survive the war. Freed Jewish prisoners return from concentration camps, shadows of their former selves. Something compels Eva to search for Tatuś daily, until the day when a familiar voice calls her name. It is Tatuś, barely recognizable but alive, and Eva falls into his arms and confesses that Mamusia did not make it. She shares with him the story of Rémy, and Tatuś encourages her to return to Aurignon to look for answers.

A week later, she steps off the bus into an Aurignon that looks just like it did when she and Mamusia first arrived. The church has been rebuilt and restored, and Père Clément is there, frail and skeletal but alive. After a short conversation, Eva brings herself to ask about Rémy, but the answer is not one she is ready to hear.