A Fifty-Year Silence

Love, War, and a Ruined House in France

By: Miranda Richmond Mouillot

Narrated by: Miranda Richmond Mouillot

A young woman moves across an ocean to uncover the truth about her grandparents' mysterious estrangement and pieces together the extraordinary story of their wartime experiences

In 1948, after surviving World War II by escaping Nazi-occupied France for refugee camps in Switzerland, the author's grandparents, Anna and Armand, bought an old stone house in a remote, picturesque village in the South of France. Five years later, Anna packed her bags and walked out on Armand, taking the typewriter and their children. Aside from one brief encounter, the two never saw or spoke to each other again, never remarried, and never revealed what had divided them forever.

A Fifty-Year Silence is the deeply involving account of Miranda Richmond Mouillot's journey to find out what happened between her grandmother, a physician, and her grandfather, an interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials, who refused to utter his wife's name aloud after she left him. To discover the roots of their embittered and entrenched silence, Miranda abandons her plans for the future and moves to their stone house, now a crumbling ruin; immerses herself in letters, archival materials, and secondary sources; and teases stories out of her reticent, and declining, grandparents. As she reconstructs how Anna and Armand braved overwhelming odds and how the knowledge her grandfather acquired at Nuremberg destroyed their relationship, Miranda wrestles with the legacy of trauma, the burden of history, and the complexities of memory. She also finds herself learning how not only to survive but to thrive - making a home in the village and falling in love.

With warmth, humor, and rich, evocative details that bring her grandparents' outsize characters and their daily struggles vividly to life, A Fifty-Year Silence is a heartbreaking, uplifting love story spanning two continents and three generations.

©2015 Miranda Richmond Mouillot (P)2015 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Charming, understated… A wonderful evocation of the way that the Holocaust has haunted many generations." ( Publishers Weekly)

"A moving family history researched with dedication and completed with a granddaughter's love." ( Kirkus Reviews)

" A Fifty-Year Silence is one of those exceedingly rare books that touches you deep down - page by page - through the rawness of its story and its sheer insight. The extraordinary quality of the prose, the elegance of the storytelling, and the genius with which Miranda Richmond Mouillot has laid down the twists and turns make this a book to treasure. It is a memoir that sings to us all." (Tahir Shah, author of The Caliph's House)

An Amazing Story

What made the experience of listening to A Fifty-Year Silence the most enjoyable?

Such a personal account

What other book might you compare A Fifty-Year Silence to and why?

None

What about Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s performance did you like?

I loved the way she imitated her Grandmother's accent.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The whole book was moving

bio and auto biography in one

excellent story of reality and strength and growth. wow! captivating.. as if I were just waiting for the very ending and gifts the grandchild was due.

Excellent historical fiction

I loved the character development of Anna and Armand by the author so much I wanted to believe it was true. What started out as a Fairy Tail became much deeper as their grandaughter (the author ) delved into their personal experiences during World War II. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy history, romance and fiction.

So what happened?

This is the true story of what happened to the author's maternal grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors, who got married, bought a house, had two children, and who then didn't talk again. Thus the title, A Fifty-Year Silence. Anna, the grandmother, had a joyous outlook on life till the day she died, and who called the war (WWII) "her instruction book on life". Armand, the grandfather, hated the cards life had dealt him and became a mean-spirited atheist, although it was obvious he loved Miranda, his granddaughter. I greatly enjoyed this book, about love and loss, about how love can be so precarious and easily crushed when trampled. It was the story of a journey, a how-did-this-happen? expedition. You'll have to read it yourself to find out if there's a tidy answer or a sense of "Ah, I understand".

Oh, how I loved this story..

What did you love best about A Fifty-Year Silence?

This brilliant author could have made this so morose. It is serious history and most of these books are horrible memoirs of man's inhumanity. But she gave this book a life or several lives of it's own. She intrigues you with the mystery then intermingles it with her life and the growth of relationship. My great grandmother had the same essence as her grandmother, oh, the flood of memories I experienced. This book has good writing, heart, hurt, love, change, mystery, and love. I have listened to it twice. Yes there were very sad parts but the hand of destiny gives that magical and tempers the things we can roll with or bury our feet in cement.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Fifty-Year Silence?

When she tried to tell her grandmother how she felt about her and the reaction of her grandmother could have been perceived with pain, hurt but it is shown to be the way she says, "I know, I know, lighten up,". That is not exactly it but maybe you get it. My great grandmother would have reacted exactly like that and I adored her. She and I were connected. Maybe that is the theme here. Her grandfather and her found that relationship that could of just as easily not happened. Awe but the grandmother just seems to see a little further down the road than the rest of us. Beautiful.

Which scene was your favorite?

Oh, I see this entire book as a scene. But the finding of the photo of her grandparents stands out. Amazing what we can see in a moment captured.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

What is a tag line? The title would work, this is real, while the time in history is not happening now. there is always a place in world in which there is war and terror and certainly we are at no lack of family difficulties.

Any additional comments?

Thank you so much. This book was a meteor in my head, touch my heart, and is now a part of me forever. I love it. Thank you
*The author's narration was beautiful also, her voice is a teaser though. I felt I had heard it before. Reminded me of young Ellen Burstyn.

Not enough France, mystery, or answers.

This book is an historical mystery but as the mystery is researched, the author is on her own journey of healing and self-discovery. Her own journey and love story are interesting and carry life lessons. The story of her grandparents (which appears to be the point of the book) is poignant and inspiring and powerful. Her grandparents unwillingness to just either tell her to stop asking questions or conversely to just sit down and frankly and directly answer her questions creates several rather tedious chapters. But alas, we can suspend logic for a good story.

While I definitely enjoyed the book, the writer's love of France is only sporadically conveyed in its pages. For me, the placement of the story in rural France is the reason I bought the book. So I wanted more old stone house renovation sagas or happy picnics with the stray cats, dodging mistral winds and harmless scorpions. Even laughable anecdotes of dealing with french bureaucracy or old divorce property laws would have been entertaining. But we Francophiles were not indulged during nor at the end of this book.

The middle third of the book was a tangle of voices, facts and ideas and it was hard to grasp the mystery we were trying to solve. Did she want us to solve Why her grandparents got married ? Why they separated ? Were they in love ? When did they break apart ? Where did they live ? What are the life-lessons we were supposed to learn ? Most mysteries have one question we are trying to deduce. This was much muddier. And also during the middle third, the mix of supposed possibilties was hard to separate from the thread that was loosely sewing factual tidbits together. As I write this now, I'm left wondering how much of what I believe was the grandparents story was fact and how much was the authors conjecture. Is that the point ?

I found that the questions that I wanted answered were left unanswered: what happened to her grandmother's house in France ? Who owns it now ? Will it every be renovated ? Why did the author and her capable husband emotionally abandon it ?

Although it was not a favorite book, it was worth a read. To the author, thanks for sharing your grandparent's story (and yours.)

What she learned, brought her closer to family.

She set out to learn why her Grandparents were not together, why they hadn't spoken to each other in 50 yrs. and was hoping to uncover their story of romance and what caused her Grandmother to leave him. The story she uncovers, with Grandmother's approval, is one which takes place during WW2 and they are a Jewish family, however the struggles this young couple face are much more than you could possibly imagine. I have read several books regarding family struggles of this time period, however I must say this is the best. Read/listen to the book, you won't be sorry.

A Great read

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed this book. The coming-of-age of the author as she tries to understand why her grandparents refused to speak to each other for over 50 years was both moving and unique. I laughed and cried in places, and loved that the author narrated this book herself. I could picture Both of Miranda's grandparents, their feisty desire for her to both remember and let go, to love and to hold at arm's length. The dilapidated house was a terrific symbol of hope, of ruin, of renewal and disappointment.

A well-written, well-read biography, both of the author and of her grandparents themselves.

Great listen and wonderful history angle

The author does a lovely job of capturing history through the eyes of personal experience. I was often anxious to begin a new listening series in order to find out further events. However, the story is not told in a specifically sequential manner, and activities are often enumerated outside of a logical timeframe to the listener. It was not revealed until the very end of the book the specific reason as to the estrangement, and the reader/listener would often find themselves wondering "why don't you ask ________?" The narration was extremely well done and it was never questioned as to who is speaking due to the narrator's great ability to distinguish characters' voices.

Wonderful story, charmingly told

This is the story of a loving granddaughter's search for her grandparents' history and especially for the reason they could not live together after surviving the Holocaust. Miranda Muilliot is not the best narrator, but this is her book and no one else should be reading it. I was moved to tears at the end.