Above the Rain: A Novel

This is not your normal mystery, crime, or thriller type of book. It is not your traditional European mystery of detectives who are battling crimes and their own personal demons. Instead, this book follows the story of a couple of families, stricken by the tragic consequences of twentieth-century Europe and the impacts it has on their children and grandchildren trying to navigate a world that is often hostile and confusing. The book shifts between the perspectives of Miguel, Helena, and Yasmina. It can be a bit confusing at times with the skips between different places; as readers we are trying to piece together how they all fit together because it is not obvious from the beginning that they do all fit together. But both Miguel and Helena, who are facing their twilight years are trying to come to terms with the lives they have made with the hands they have been dealt with. Helena was impacted by the French occupation of North Africa falling apart, while Miguel struggled as his father disappeared into the maelstrom of the Spanish civil war.