I went to Bayeux to see the Bayeux Tapestry. While in Bayeux, I went on a tour of the Normandy beach landings (Omaha and Juno). And on my tour were four women who were part of a book club. They had come to Bayeux because they had read this book. Obviously as someone obsessed by the tapestry, I had to read it.
Here’s the blurb …
The Dream Stitcher’s story moves eloquently between two time periods and places, America in 2008 and World War II Poland. Hard times are forcing Maude Fields to take in her estranged mother, Bea, whose secrets date to World War II. Bea arrives with a hand-embroidered recreation of La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde, the iconic 11th century Bayeux Tapestry. The replica contains clues to the identity of Maude’s father and the mythical Dream Stitcher, Goldye, a Jewish freedom fighter who helped launch the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. With the help of her pregnant daughter Rosie, Maude is determined to unravel decades of family deception to learn the truth about her parentage. With Poland on the brink of invasion by Nazi Germany, Goldye discovers—with the guidance of imaginary friend Queen Mathilda—that she can embroider dreams that come true. She becomes an apprentice at Kaminski Fine Fabrics, where she gains a reputation for creating wedding dresses for Aryan brides that bring their dreams to reality. She becomes known as the Dream Stitcher. Goldye meets and falls in love with Lev, a freedom fighter who wants to unite Jews and Poles to fight the Germans. Goldye sews images to help him. And she creates a powerful symbol for the resistance of the common a stitched hummingbird that spreads hope. Goldye leaves the ghetto to live with her sewing mentor, Jan Kaminski, who gains identity papers for Goldye as his Aryan niece. A Nazi commandant takes Jan and Goldye on a dangerous trip to France to decipher the symbols in The Bayeux Tapestry. The Nazis hope images in the Bayeux will reinforce Germany’s right to world domination. In California, Maude’s quest for the truth leads to family she didn’t know she had, and perhaps, love.
I loved this book. I enjoyed all of the references to stitching and embroidery. Plus I knew nothing about Poland during World War 2, so I learnt about that as well. It has a different theory about the creation of the Bayeux Tapestry than the one that is currently popular, but not unheard off. And it serves the story well.
A review.