The Book of Lost Names

By November, all of France is under direct German control, even the Free Zone, making the relocation of the children even more dangerous. Rémy and Eva can barely keep up with the increased demand for forged papers, and now their clients include wounded Allied soldiers in addition to the children. Eva finds it hard to fight her growing attachment to Rémy, and an intimate moment between the two of them in the church library almost leads to a kiss. Meanwhile, Mamusia has noticed Eva’s growing attachment to Rémy and condemns her for it, telling her she has betrayed her Jewish faith and her father by focusing her affections on a Catholic young man. Mamusia drives the wedge between her and Eva deeper by claiming that she is “brainwashing these young children” (173) by giving them Christian names and erasing their Jewish heritage. On the contrary, Eva is trying to preserve this heritage through the Book of Lost Names, the name she has given the copy of Epitres et Evangiles.

When Eva returns to the church that evening, she finds it empty except for Père Clément, who meets her with bad news. The Germans have discovered that someone in Aurignon is making false documents on the wrong kind of paper, which puts Eva in danger. One of the leaders of the cause, Gérard Faucon, wants to speak to Eva immediately. They travel to an old schoolhouse. The darkness and disarray inside make the room appear uninhabited, but Père Clément leaves her there to meet with Faucon alone. Faucon finally enters, shrouded in a large coat and hat, but Eva senses something familiar about him. When he removes his scarf, she sees that it is Joseph Pelletier, her old friend from the Sorbonne.

As Eva and Joseph share their individual paths to the resistance, Eva fights back the old attraction to him that she once felt as a child. When he asks about her mother, Eva invites him to dinner, thinking that seeing him will make Mamusia happy for a brief moment. Eva returns to the church and is surprised to find that Rémy knows Joseph—in fact, Joseph arranged for Rémy to become more involved with the cause by chaperoning children across the border to Switzerland, a much more dangerous job than forging documents. He leaves tonight, and suddenly Eva realizes she cannot bear the thought of him “alone in a snowstorm, a Nazi rifle to his head” (187). Despite her protestations, Rémy kisses her on the forehead and departs.

Thrilled at Joseph’s acceptance of the dinner invitation, Mamusia becomes a completely different woman. She seizes the opportunity to play matchmaker between Joseph and Eva, mentioning that Eva should “wind up with a nice Jewish boy like Joseph” (189). Mamusia’s enthusiasm grows when Joseph promises to check into Tatuś’s whereabouts. Although Eva is mortified by this, Joseph grabs her hand under the table and does not let go.

After Mamusia leaves to check on the food, Joseph directs the conversation to his real reason for meeting with Eva: The documents she makes are no longer passing inspection. For so long, they have been making do using the same type of paper, but different official documents are printed on all sorts of different paper, and the Germans have begun inspecting the documents with greater scrutiny. He gives her a large stack of assorted paper to use, made in Algeria and parachuted in to escape German notice. After dinner, Joseph promises again to help Mamusia find Tatuś, but when he and Eva are alone outside, he comments that Eva should surely know Tatuś “must be dead” (193) by this point. Eva protests this sense of false hope that he has given Mamusia, but Joseph reminds her that they are all “pretending to be something [they]’re not” (194) in this war. He leans in to kiss her goodnight.

Days go by without Rémy’s return, and Eva stays distracted by working with the new papers flown in from Algeria. Joseph arrives at the church with more papers, and his obvious desire for intimate behavior with Eva feels wrong to her, as if he was “sitting in a chair that belonged to someone else” (197). Shortly after Joseph leaves, Rémy returns, covered in new scratches and bruises but alive. The mission has been a success, and all the children were delivered safely to Geneva. But despite Eva’s desire that he stay with her and continue forging the documents, Rémy is no longer satisfied with forgery, preferring to take a more direct role in saving the children. Eva blurts out that she needs him, and it is clear to both of them that she is not referring to his forgery talents.

That evening after dinner, Mamusia chastises Eva for not giving in to Joseph’s affection. She sees Eva’s obvious care for Rémy as an abandonment of her Jewish faith, and once again she blames Eva for wanting to erase who she is. Her disappointment is apparent, and she accuses Eva of “betraying [her and Tatuś] in a way [Eva] can never take back” (201).

When a hurt and distraught Eva turns to Père Clément, he tells her that no one can define her relationship with God but herself. To remind her of what she is risking her life for, he brings her to the home of a woman named Madame Travère where a few of the Jewish children are kept—the same children for whom she is forging documents. While there, she feels drawn to one of the younger children Anne, who is reading a copy of The Wizard of Oz. Eva’s composure fades when Anne mentions that she will be led back home to her waiting family by the yellow brick road one day, just like Dorothy. Père Clément has to remind her that all of the children can be saved with courage and faith.

Eva begins visiting the children once a week and is awed by how mature Anne is for a six-year-old. Although she knows that the reality of her family being alive is slim, Anne prefers to live in the magical world of books, because “otherwise, things become too frightening, and it’s hard to go on” (213-14). That same afternoon, Père Clément requests emergency documents for the children, as their temporary home is to be raided by German officers under the suspicion that Madame Travère is hiding Jewish children. There is no time for Eva to say goodbye, and although she is heartbroken, she is glad that Anne has reminded her of why she is doing this work.

Rémy arrives to help her, and while he works he tells Eva that he and other men have been preparing to fight back against the Germans—not with false papers but with guns. Devastated, Eva cries while filling out Anne’s papers. In his attempt to console her, Rémy wraps her in a tight embrace and kisses her, leading to a passionate encounter that he cuts short in his fear of hurting her. As he rushes out the door, Eva foreshadows that she will always be haunted by the fact that she did not run after him but “stayed where she was, shame and loyalty to her mother rooting her to the spot” (220). When Père Clément returns, he reveals that Rémy has requested to escort the children from Madame Travère’s this evening—especially Anne, for whom he knows Eva cares so much. According to Père Clément, Rémy may never return; his previous background in chemistry makes him a valuable man for creating explosives. Eva hands him the freshly-created documents, fearing she may never see Rémy alive again.