The Girl in the Blue Beret: A Novel
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

In the 1980s, 60-year-old widower Marshall Stone is on the verge of retirement from his career as an airline pilot. For years, he has kept the past in the past, but no. something had shaken loose. He has become invested in calling up his WWII experiences, revisiting the site where his B-17 was shot down, his crew forced to land in a muddy field in Belgium. What he remembers most, apart from the sickening crash, are the people who risked their lives to usher him to safety. He was hidden by farmers in the countryside before being taken to Paris, wher. the girl in the blue beret. Annette Vallon, guided him to her family's apartment, where he spent many tense weeks before he was safely sent home. Mason's leisurely pace at the outset in no way prepares readers for the emotionally devastating sections in which Marshall reunites with Annette and learns of the incredible hardships her family faced as a result of their work with the Resistance. Relayed almost entirely in dialogue, these sections convey, in heartbreaking detail, the suffering of the Parisians and the high cost they paid for freedom. In her fifth novel, the talented Mason offers an emotionally powerful story of the ruinous effects of war. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Award-winning Bobbie Ann Mason bases her first novel in five years on the war experiences of her father-in-law, lending a personal touch to a novel that will be pitched to book clubs and featured on NPR.--Wilkinson, Joann. Copyright 2010 Booklist

Mason (In Country) is back with a touching novel about love, loss, war, and memory. Shot down over France during WWII, Marshall Stone takes the controls and lands the plane, helping as many of his surviving airmen to safety as he can. He's saved by the French Resistance and ferried from one safe house to the next until he reaches the U.K. In 1980, after being forced into retirement, he returns to the crash site and vows to find those who helped him. Two in particular stand out in his mind: Robert, the dashing young man who helped plan his escape, and Annette, a school girl who lived in one of the safe houses. Moving between the present and the events he revisits, the novel descends deeper and deeper into memory, profoundly revealing how the past haunts the present. Stone learns that Robert and Annette were both punished for the roles they played in the war, and that memory serves us all differently, saving one while destroying another. Mason's latest, based on the real-life experiences of her father-in-law, is fascinating and intensely intimate. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

It is 1980, and commercial airline pilot Marshall Stone, having just turned 60, has been forced into retirement. A widower with grown children, Marshall heads to France to retrace his World War II experiences there; as a flight engineer, he was shot down over Belgium. Now, Marshall wants to reconnect with the Resistance members involved in his rescue. He remembers a young woman, partial to a blue beret, and Robert, a brave freedom fighter. Finding them will be difficult, as code names and cryptic passwords were used to protect identities. Flashbacks of his days at the English airbase follow Marshall as he searches for his rescuers and the chance to come to terms with his place during a horrific time. Renowned American author Mason (In Country) based this haunting novel on her late father-in-law's wartime experiences, and the rich setting, detail, and intimate character nuances ring true. VERDICT Great crossover appeal for fans of the award-winning author, World War II fiction, and novels with French settings. Highly recommended.-Jenn B. -Stidham, Houston Community Coll.-Northeast, TX (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Mason (Nancy Culpepper, 2006, etc.) may surprise fans of her Appalachian stories with this historical novel about a World War II pilot who returns to France to find the families who helped him survive after his plane was shot down 36 years earlier.In 1980, 60-year-old Marshall Stone is forced to retire as an airline pilot. His wife Loretta, whom he loved but largely took for granted, has died, and he is not close to his grown children. With an empty future looming, he decides to retrace the trail he took after he crash-landed his B-17 bomber in 1944. Marshall was co-pilot, but when the plane was hit on Marshall's 10th mission, he had to take over from the fatally wounded pilot and crash land in a field. Local farmers helped him before the Germans could reach him. A French farm family took him in and then passed him into the care of the resistance. Soon Marshall has reconnected with the Albert familyhis oldest son named Albert in their honorand the Alberts' son Nicolas, now a school principal, offers to help him in his search. Marshall sets himself up in an apartment in Parishe has studied Frenchand begins to look for the Vallon family that hid him in Paris in 1944. He is particularly haunted by memories of the family's teenage daughter Annette and her charismatic friend Robert, a member of the Resistance who led Marshall to safety in Spain. Soon he meets Robert's illegitimate daughter, whose memories of her father are shockingly dark. Then Marshall finds Annette, now a lovely widow, and she fills in the missing piecesshe and Robert fell in love shortly before he and the Vallons were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Robert never recovered from survivor guilt. Marshall and Annette become lovers before they set off to cross the Pyrenees, a trip full of bittersweet memories for Marshall.Like Marshall himself, the novel maintains a reserved, laconic, even pedantic toneoff-putting at times yet often moving.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.