What I Would Tell You

I haven't read a book by Liz Tolsma that hasn't affected me greatly.  She reaches down into the souls of her readers through her characters who are very real and very relatable. These characters aren't the fluffy kind of people who sail through life without a care in the world.  These characters struggle with big, important, real-world problems and do so with a call to right the injustices of the world.  Thus is the story of Mathilda and Asher Nissim--Sephardic Jews who live in Greece after the Sephardic Jews had been expelled from Spain.  

In a parallel story, Tessa Payton has taken a DNA test and found out that she and her cousin, Riley, are not blood related at all.  She goes home for the summer with a desire to know the ancestors who carried her DNA.  Because Tessa's internship for the summer is a remote assignment, she decides to go to Greece and find out "who she is" in this world.  

While doing some research in a museum, Tessa meets Giannis who takes on her research  because of his own interest in the era.  Tessa knows her mother knows more than she is telling but can't get around the barriers she has put  up.  Giannis has found Mathilda's diary and copies it for Tessa to read.  In learning about Mathilda's life, Tessa learns more of who she is.  She learns the strength that has run through her family for many years. When she finally gets her mother to tell her about her family history, she gains a richer understanding of who she is.  

As the narrative goes back and forth between Mathilda's and Tessa's lives, one thing comes across in such a clear way it is hard to ignore:  it doesn't matter what era of time, those who follow God will be opposed by the world.   

What I Would Tell You is a five star book, with two thumbs up, and an ancestral diary to give you a perspective into your own history.  

Barbour Publishing provided the copy I read for this review.  All opinions expressed are solely my own.