Dec 23, 2022
When Liz Tolsma told me about her trip to Greece and all that it entailed, I watched eagerly for information. We saw the places she went, the things she ate--everything on Facebook. She's a great traveler who shares everything, and now the research has paid off. Though the paperback doesn't release until January 1, 2023, the eBook is even here already! EEEP. So if you need a last-minute Christmas gift, What I Would Tell You makes a great gift. Send the Kindle from Amazon or print out her fun notices of a coming paperback from her website and wrap that! How fun would that be?
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What if You Had a Heartbreaking History You Didn't Even Know about?
I can't even imagine, but Liz Tolsma has written a DNA surprise story that will rip your heart out and just might teach you a bit about little-known Greek WWII history.
What I Would Tell You by Liz Tolsma
Determined to resist the invading
Nazis, a Greek Jewish woman's greatest dream has become her worst
nightmare, and now she faces an impossible choice whose
consequences echo across the generations.
1941—The pounding of Nazi boots on the streets of Salonika, Greece,
reverberates in Mathilda Nissim’s ears, shaking her large community
of Sephardic Jews to its core and altering her life forever. If
only her people would rise up and resist their captors. At great
risk to herself and those around her, she uses the small newspaper
she publishes to call them to action, all to no avail. Her husband
encourages her to trust God to watch over them, but God has once
again deserted His people. Amid the chaos, Mathilda discovers she’s
expecting a longed-for child. Still, nothing stops the occupiers’
noose from tightening around their necks, and she may have to
resort to desperate measures to ensure her daughter’s survival.
2019—College student Tessa Payton and her cousin take a popular DNA
heritage test only to discover they don’t share any common
ancestors. In fact, the test reveals Tessa is a Greek Sephardic
Jew. This revelation threatens her tenuous faith. Always the
overlooked child in her family, she empties her savings account and
jets off on a journey to Greece to discover where she belongs and
which God demands her allegiance. The enchanting curator at the
Jewish museum guides her as she navigates life in Thessaloniki,
helps with her genealogical research, and loans her a fascinating
journal written by a Jewish woman during WWII. Tessa’s search,
however, may open old wounds and uncover long-hidden secrets that
could fracture her family forever and leave her with more questions
than when she started.
Based in part on true accounts of Jews in
Salonika, Greece, What I Would Tell
You traces two women’s
journeys, delving into what faith looks like and where it leads us
as they navigate difficult circumstances and impossible choices
that have ripple effects across the years.
- Split time fiction: WWII and 2019
- Stand-alone novel
- Approximate book length: 91,000 words
- Includes author’s notes
If you want to learn all about this book, get the bonuses, find out about upcoming books (including Liz's "little French secret") then you'll want to sign up for her newsletter on her WEBSITE.