13 Rue Therese by Elena Mauli Shapiro

I fell in love with this book before I even read the first word.  The black and white photograph on the front cover sparks an instant sense of mystery. There is something about her shabby, unkempt hair that makes me wonder ~ Who is this woman? and Why is her appearance shaggy and unkempt, or is this just the style of the time?

Colored photographs of artifacts, again, items telling of the time and history of the world, greet the reader every few pages and was the second thing about his novel that caught my eye.  These items are the personal affects of a woman named Louise Brunet, and they open the reader to a world of mystery and wonder about their initial owner.  Letters, postcards, photographs, gloves, pen holders made from German bullets are a few of the artificats whose own stories are pieced together revealing the life behind the mysterious woman on the front cover, Louise Brunet.