How Huge the Night Book Review

A teenager's choices in the shadow of World War II will change him forever...

For fifteen-year-old Julien Losier, life will never be the same. His family has left his childhood home in Paris and relocated to southern France as Hitler begins to threaten their country. But Julien doesn't want to run. He doesn't want to huddle around the radio at night, waiting to hear news through buzzing static. Julien doesn't want to wait.

Angry, frustrated, and itching to do something, Julien finds a battle everywhere he turns.

His family opens their home to a Jewish boy needing refuge. His country falls to the Nazis. And in the new life they all are forced to make for themselves in the aftermath, Julien meets Nina... a young Austrian who has fled her country by her father's dying command. Nina also is Jewish, and in grave danger. Julien suddenly realizes the enormity of having someone's life or death depend on... him.

How Huge the Night is a novel by Heather and Lydia Munn, inspired by the true story of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the town in the south of France that became a refuge for Jews during World War II. A compelling story that will keep both teens and adults turning the pages, How Huge the Night explores both the darkness of the World War II experience in Europe and its moments of piercing light.

About the authors

Growing up in the savannahs of northern Brazil as a missionary kid, Lydia Munn did five years of homeschooling because there was no school where her family lived. There were no public libraries either, but she read every book she could get her hands on. As she grew up this led naturally to her choice of an English major at Wheaton College. Her original plan to teach English to high school students went through some changes along the way, becoming in the end a lifelong love of teaching the Bible to both adults and young people as a missionary in France. She and her husband Jim have two children, their son Robin and their daughter Heather.

Heather Munn was born in Northern Ireland of American parents and grew up in the south of France. She decided to be a writer at the age of five when her mother read her Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, but worried that she couldn't write about her childhood since she didn't remember it. Her favorite time of day was after supper when the family would gather and her father would read them a chapter from a novel. She went to French school until her teens, and grew up hearing the story of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, only an hour's drive away. She now lives in rural Illinois with her husband Paul, where they offer free spiritual retreats to people coming out of homelessness and addiction. She enjoys wandering in the woods, writing, gardening, and splitting wood

                                                       Questions for a Book Club

Mandie's Thoughts -  It's a young adult historical fiction but I really enjoyed it. (& I'm not a teen)

Beautifully written based on actual facts from a Southern French perspective from a difficult time in our history. The characters have a way of tugging at your heart and the best part is you get to see the true Christianity put into action. God can do with people who will stand up and fight against the wrongs of the world. 

                       This is one I'm keeping for my children to read when they get a little older.

Finding Emilie [Book Review]

My Thoughts

Before this book, I had never heard of Émilie du Châtelet, the controversial woman who was a brilliant mathematician of the 18th century who had many lovers, including Voltaire. Sadly, she passed away in her early forties just 6 days after giving birth to her youngest daughter Lili. 


Although Lili herself died at the age of 2, the author, Laurel Corona, has brilliantly divined a creative storyline telling the story of Lili had she lived. In the story, after her mothers death, her father sends her to live with her mother's friend Julie de Bercy and her daughter Delphine. Julie lovingly raises Lili as her own and Delphine and Lili become the closest of friends. 

This pageturner takes place during the time of Enlightenment and right before the French Revolution. Lili must face a conflicting battle within herself between what she has learned in her early years at the convent and the ideas she is exposed to in Julie's Parisan salon. She must choose between pleasing others and discovering who she truly is and where she comes from. 


If you are a lover of 18th century historical fiction, as I am, I think you will really enjoy this book.

 Chapter 1 Excerpt |  Reading Guide From the Back of the Book...

Lili du Châtelet yearns to know more about her mother, the brilliant French mathematician Emilie. But the shrouded details of Emilie's unconventional life -- and her sudden death -- are elusive. 

Caught between the confines of a convent upbringing and the intrigues of the Versailles court, Lili blossoms under the care of a Parisian salonnières as she absorbs the excitement of the Enlightenment, even as the scandalous shadow of her mother's past haunts her and puts her on her own path of self-discovery. 

Laurel Corona's breathtaking new novel, set on the eve of the French Revolution, vividly illuminates the tensions of the times, and the dangerous dance between the need to conform and the desire to chart one's own destiny and journey of the heart. 

Disclaimer - I received this book for my honest opinion, no other compensation was received.