Book of Forbidden Words by Louise Fein
Book of Forbidden Words
by Louise Fein
My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to
Random Things Tours for inviting me onto the tour.
Synopsis
"What power lay there in words on a page. And with that thought, Charlotte knew she would not rest until she had seen what was in the manuscript that Lysbette so desperately wanted to preserve in print.”1552, Paris: Against a backdrop of turmoil, suspicion, and paranoia, the printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives one day at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas.1952, New York: Milly Bennett, lonely and unmoored, is a seemingly ordinary housewife with a secretive past. Balancing the day-to-day boredom of keeping house and struggling to find her way with the mothers at her children’s school, she finds her life taking an unexpected turn as conspiracies spread amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. When a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, she is reluctantly pulled into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world.From the risky backstreets of sixteenth-century Paris to the unpredictable suburbs of mid twentieth century New York, the stakes couldn’t be higher when, 400 years apart, Milly, Lysbette, and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.Dramatic and affecting, and inspired by the real-life encrypted Voynich manuscript, Book of Forbidden Words is both an engrossing story about a timeless struggle that echoes through the ages and a testament to the indomitable spirit of those who dare to let their words be heard.
My Thoughts
This is such a powerful read on so many levels that I found I had to take my time with it in order to process what was happening, and why. This is a book that , in my case, introduces you to certain aspects of history that I didn’t know a lot about and how frightening it must have been to live through these times.
The link, through the three different women, Lysbette, Charlotte and Milly along with the encrypted manuscript , is strong and binds their stories together through the different eras in an incredibly emotive way as you realise the horrors that lies and fanaticism could , and can, bring. All three women are incredibly strong characters who believe in right over wrong, even if it puts themselves in danger and Louise’s portrayal of each of them,and the environment they find themselves in, makes you feel as though you have known them personally.
I also really appreciated that Louise has included a chapter about the background to the book which then led me to research more into Thomas More along with America in the 1950’s.
By the end of the book, if you haven’t done so before, you will realise what a fragile state of peace and security we live in and how we must all work together to keep the peace and freedom we have. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time through the thoughts it has provoked, and rightly so.
About Louise
Louise Fein is the author of Daughter of the Reich, which has been published in thirteen territories, the international bestseller The Hidden Child, and The London Bookshop Affair. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from St Mary’s University. She lives in Surrey, UK, with her family.
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