Historical Fiction Book Club (February)

Name: Historical Fiction Book Club (February)
Start: 2025-02-12T17:30:00-06:00
End: 2025-02-12T18:30:00-06:00
Location: 14 S. Commercial Alley, Mason City, IA, United States, Iowa 50401

Schedule

Wed Feb 12 2025 at 05:30 pm to 06:30 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

14 S. Commercial Alley, Mason City, IA, United States, Iowa 50401 | Mason City, IA

Our historical book pick for February is The French Winemaker’s Daughter by Loretta Ellsworth! Loretta is originally from Mason City and is the author of Stars Over Clear Lake.
Meetings last about an hour and discussions are led by one of our staff bookworms. This is a casual, no-commitment book club. There is no fee but we'd appreciate you buying the book club book from us or making another purchase of your choice while you're here. This will help us keep events like this going. Copies of the book are available for purchase now in the store. You can also pre-book your copy online here: https://threebellsbooks.com/item/UhelvOrckPmD-MNECL6dMw
About the book:
Set during World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, family, and loyalty told in in the voices of two women, generations apart, who find themselves connected by a mysterious and valuable bottle of wine stolen by the Nazis. 1942. Seven-year-old Martine hides in an armoire when the Nazis come to take her father away. Pinned to her dress is a note with her aunt’s address in Paris, and in her arms, a bottle of wine she has been instructed to look after if something happened to her papa. When they are finally gone, the terrified young girl drops the bottle and runs to a neighbor, who puts her on a train to Paris. But when Martine arrives in the city, her aunt is nowhere to be found. Without a place to go, the girl wanders the streets and eventually falls asleep on the doorstep of Hotel Drouot, where Sister Ada finds her and takes her to the abbey, and watches over her. 1990. Charlotte, a commercial airline pilot, attends an auction with her boyfriend Henri at Hotel Drouot, now the oldest auction house in Paris. Successfully bidding on a box of wine saved from the German occupation during the Second World War, Henri gives Charlotte a seemingly inferior bottle he finds inside the box. Cleaning the label, Charlotte makes a shocking discovery that sends her on a quest to find the origins of this unusual—and very valuable—bottle of wine, a quest that will take her back fifty years into the past. . . . A powerful tale of love, war, and family, The French Winemaker’s Daughter is an emotionally resonant tale of two women whose fates are intertwined across time. Loretta Ellsworth’s evocative and poignant page-turner will linger in the heart, and make you think about luck, connection, and the meaning of loyalty.