Just Two People #BookBytes 27

World War I. Germany has taken over France. It’s Christmas Eve as a German Kommandant stands before a French girl saying:

“You shall forget that I am part of an enemy army, I shall forget that you are a woman who spends much of her time working out how to subvert that army, and we shall just . . . be two people?” 

Jojo Moyes, The Girl You Left Behind

Doesn’t this remind you a little of the famous dialogue from Notting Hill?

It’s incredibly romantic of course. My brain says it’s also highly unlikely outside of a book.

Tell me, is it possible to think of a man as ‘just a person’ when you’ve watched him shoot down your countrymen? Can one connect with the enemy on a human level? Can one have enough perspective to realise that there are no winners in a war? And that perhaps the perpetrator is just as troubled as the victim?

Perhaps it is. Perhaps one would never know unless one is in that situation.

I picked this quote from Jojo Moyes’ The Girl You Left Behind – a book that traverses two time zones. Do drop by for the complete review soon.

What’s the most romantic book you’ve read?

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The next edition of BookBytes goes live on 2nd June 2020.