Clemantine Wamariya’s memoir of loss and endurance is told across two time periods. Her period of living in the United States includes a 2006 Oprah appearance, Yale, and her success as an international spokesperson, where she is safe but profoundly alienated. Alternating chapters recount how her childhood was stolen and she survived as a refuge after the war in Rwanda started in 1994.
A captivating part of the book is her evocation of middle-class life in Kigali. She builds a complete picture of her family, food, raising babies, clothes, beatings from men who were “decimated inside”. These memories never leave her; at the end of the book, she is still trying to come to terms with her longing for the past. Her sister Claire almost steals the book – she is a hustler and survivor, always leading the way, sometimes into disaster. Claire does not try to ponder the meaning of it all as Clemantine does; she “existed in a never-ending present, not asking too many questions”.
An important part of the story are the books that Clemantine comes across, especially “Night” by Elie Wiesel. The writing of this book has started Clementine’s mission to find a cohesive life; it continues.

In Paris, as the Eiffel Tower is being built, Cait, a Scottish widow, and Emile, an engineer in the Tower project, struggle to move forward, together or apart. We see the impact of new technologies and opportunities on every aspect of peoples’ lives when Cait travels to Paris as paid companion for two highly impressionable Scottish charges. Cait and Emile “meet cute” in a hot-air balloon, introducing the theme of simultaneous attraction and fear of change. There are naysayers all along the way, against the Tower, against departures from the status quo. The novel throughout illuminates fascinating parallels between the emerging soaring Eiffel Tower and the building of uplifting human relationships.