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Apr 22, 2014maipenrai rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
In 1929 he United States Congress passed legislation to fund travel for mothers of the fallen soldiers of World War I to visit their sons? graves in France. Over the next three years, 6,693 Gold Star Mothers made the trip. This novel imagines the experience of five of these women. They are strangers at the start, but their lives will become inextricably intertwined and altered in indelible ways. These very different Gold Star Mothers travel to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery to say final good-byes to their sons and come together along the way to face the unexpected: a death, a scandal, and a secret revealed. None of these pilgrims will be as affected as Cora Blake, who has lived almost her entire life in a small fishing village off the coast of Maine, caring for her late sister?s three daughters, hoping to fill the void left by the death of her son, Sammy, who was killed on a scouting mission during the final days of the war. Cora believes she is managing as well as can be expected in the midst of the Depression, but nothing has prepared her for what lies ahead on this unpredictable journey, including an extraordinary encounter with an expatriate American journalist, Griffin Reed, who was wounded in the trenches and hides behind a metal mask, one of hundreds of ?tin noses? who became symbols of the war. **** I was unaware of this program for the mothers of soldiers lost in WWI before reading this book. I enjoy historically based novels. This book certainly had the potential to illuminate the horrors of trench warfare, the tremendous destruction of France, and the effects of loss on American mothers. It did this, but I think some of the power of the story was lost in side events such as a minor romance, a predatory officer and an unexpected death. It is sort of like adding a fictional romance to the story of the sinking of the Titanic because the traumatic loss of 1500 lives and the demonstrations of true love and sacrifice are not interesting enough to hold one's attention. I wish the author had kept her focus on the amazing true events concerning World War I. It is not a bad book, but I think Ms. Smith's work in television shows up in the sacrifice of heart and valuable historical knowledge for entertainment.