Echoes (Steel novel)

Last updated
Echoes
Echoes (Steel novel).jpg
Author Danielle Steel
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Random House
Publication date
October 2004
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages336 pp
ISBN 978-0-385-33634-5
OCLC 53001441
813/.54 22
LC Class PS3569.T33828 E23 2004

Echoes is a novel by Danielle Steel, published by Random House in October 2004. The book is Steel's sixty-fourth novel.

Synopsis

In the summer of 1915, Beata Wittgenstein, daughter of a rich German-Jewish banking family, meets and falls in love with Antoine de Villerand, a young Catholic French army officer on leave in Switzerland. She follows her heart to be with him against the wishes of her Jewish Orthodox family and decides to live with him in Switzerland till World War I ends. Both their families disown them and Beata's parents sit shiva for her. She becomes a Catholic to marry Antoine.

After the war, she goes back to Germany with her husband Antoine and her two-year-old daughter Amadea. They begin a peaceful life and after eight years, she has her second daughter, Daphne. Antoine has a good position in charge of a horse farm at a schloss owned by an army friend of his. He inherits his father's title and estate, but dies soon after and his fortune as a Count is passed on to Beata, now 'Madame la Comtesse'.

Beata returns to Cologne, her home town. She still attends church but begins to visit synagogue on Yom Kippur, in the hope of meeting, and being reconciled with, her parents. They meet but they reject her, and her mother is the only person to secretly meet her.

Amadea decides to become a Carmelite nun and commences her period of training for this calling. On Kristallnacht, the Wittgenstein bank and home are looted; the family are arrested and transported to Dachau concentration camp, never to be heard of again.

Beata is accidentally betrayed by a former family servant and arrested. She and Daphne are transported to Ravensbruck concentration camp, from which they never return.

Amadea has stayed in the convent, but is still forced into hiding as her friends disappear without a trace. She is moved for her safety, but arrested and sent to Terezin concentration camp. She survives for several months and escapes with the help of a German soldier who says her loves her. But, when he tries to rape her, she accidentally kills him and flees into the forest. She is found, more dead than alive, by Czech Partisans.

They assist her to move to France where she lives in a country farmhouse. She becomes involved with the work of the local Resistance movement and in time heads the local cell. A French boy, Jean-Yves, falls in love with her, but he is killed in a sabotage operation.

She continues her work and meets a British secret agent, Colonel Rupert Montgomery, with whom she carries out several highly dangerous missions into Paris and even into Germany. She is badly injured, not expected to live, and evacuated to a hospital in Britain.

Now using a wheelchair, she moves to Rupert's home in Sussex and takes care of a group of child evacuees who came on the Kindertransports and live in Rupert's ancestral home.

As the war draws to its close, Amadea and Rupert marry. Amadea begins to understand the ways of life and how love can echo through the generations.

Footnotes

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/steel/bookshelf/display.pperl?isbn=9780385336345

    Related Research Articles

    <i>The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank</i> 1988 television film

    The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank is a 1988 television film directed by John Erman. It is based on Miep Gies's 1988 book Anne Frank Remembered. The film was broadcast as part of an ad hoc network, Kraft Golden Showcase Network. Playwright William Hanley received an Emmy for his script.

    <i>The Hiding Place</i> (biography) 1971 book on the life of Corrie ten Boom

    The Hiding Place is a book, published in 1971, on the life of Corrie ten Boom. It was written by Ten Boom as well as John and Elizabeth Sherrill.

    Verano del '98 was an Argentine telenovela intended for teenagers, broadcast by Telefe from January 26, 1998 until November 24, 2000. Allegedly planned as way to cover a programming gap for the summer of 1998, it became such a hit that it ended lasting three consecutive seasons. After the series aired Telefe came under fire as it became apparent that Verano del '98 was a thinly veiled copy of the popular American teen drama Dawson's Creek, which also started airing around the same time. Gustavo Yankelevich, Telefe's chief artistic director, admitted having attended an early screening of Dawson's Creek in 1997 but thought Sony had lost interest in the project and decided to use it as inspiration when developing Verano del '98. Sony and Telefe settled out of court.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindsey Corkhill</span> Fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside

    Lindsey Corkhill is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, played by Claire Sweeney. The character debuted on-screen during the episode broadcast on 12 June 1991. Lindsey was originally a recurring character and was later promoted to the show's regular cast in 1995. After departing in 2001, she made additional appearances in 2002 and 2003.

    <i>Manshaa</i> Indian TV series or programme

    Manshaa is an Indian television series that aired on Zee TV from 12 October 2003 to 16 June 2004 from Sunday to Wednesday.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Marissa Tasker</span> Soap opera character

    Marissa Tasker is a fictional character on the soap opera, All My Children. She was portrayed by Brittany Allen from April 21, 2009, to December 21, 2010, and by Sarah Glendening from December 27, 2010, to September 23, 2011.

    <i>Thatha-Manavadu</i> 1973 Indian film

    Thatha-Manavadu (transl. Grandfather-Grandson) is a 1973 Indian Telugu-language film written and directed by Dasari Narayana Rao in his debut. The film stars S. V. Ranga Rao and Raja Babu in the titular roles. Thatha-Manavadu featured Raja Babu, who had mostly acted in comic and supporting roles until then, as a lead actor. He is paired with actress Vijaya Nirmala.

    <i>The Strangers Child</i> 2011 novel by Alan Hollinghurst

    The Stranger's Child is the fifth novel by Alan Hollinghurst, first published in June 2011. The book tells the story of a minor poet, Cecil Valance, who is killed in the First World War. In 1913, he visits a Cambridge friend, George Sawle, at the latter's home in Stanmore, Middlesex. While there Valance writes a poem entitled "Two Acres", about the Sawles' house and addressed, ambiguously, either to George himself or to George's younger sister, Daphne. The poem goes on to become famous and the novel follows the changing reputation of Valance and his poetry in the following decades.

    <i>Aik Nayee Cinderella</i> Pakistani TV series or programme

    Aik Nayee Cinderella is a 2012 Pakistani drama serial broadcast on Geo TV every Saturday. The drama is based on a novel with same name by Faiza Iftikhar and directed by Haissam Hussain, starring Maya Ali, Osman Khalid Butt and Faizan Khawaja. It was released on 13 October 2012 with the production of A & B Entertainment.

    <i>The Gold Rimmed Glasses</i> 1987 Italian film

    Gli occhiali d'oro is a 1987 Italian drama film directed by Giuliano Montaldo, starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett and Valeria Golino. Set in Ferrara and in a nearby seaside resort in 1938, the plot follows a Jewish student and a homosexual doctor who suffer persecution in Fascist Italy. The film is an adaptation of Giorgio Bassani's novel The Gold Rimmed Spectacles.

    <i>Melrose Place</i> (season 2) Season of television series

    The second season of Melrose Place, an American television series, premiered on Fox on September 8, 1993. The season two finale aired on May 18, 1994, after 32 episodes.

    <i>The Nightingale</i> (Hannah novel) 2015 historical fiction novel by Kristin Hannah

    The Nightingale is a historical fiction novel by American author Kristin Hannah published by St. Martin's Press in 2015. The book tells the story of two sisters in France during World War II and their struggle to survive and resist the German occupation of France. The book was inspired by the story of a Belgian woman, Andrée de Jongh, who helped downed Allied pilots escape Nazi territory.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Hetty Voûte</span>

    Henriëtte ("Hetty") Voûte (1918–1999) was a Dutch Resistance fighter who was declared Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem on 24 March 1988 for her work rescuing Dutch Jewish children whose parents had been deported to Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

    <i>Chasing the King of Hearts</i> 2006 historical novel written by Hanna Krall

    Chasing the King of Hearts is a historical novel written by Hanna Krall. The novel was originally published in Polish as Król kier znów na wylocie in 2006 and was translated into English by Phillip Boehm as Chasing the King of Hearts in 2013. It follows the life story of Izolda Regensberg during the Holocaust in vignettes, short chapters often less than a page long.

    The Invisibles is a 2017 German docudrama by Claus Räfle. The film presents the experience of four Jewish teenagers who survived the Holocaust by going into hiding in Berlin during World War II. It interweaves personal interviews, dramatic reenactment, archival footage, and narration. The main actors are Max Mauff, Alice Dwyer, Ruby O. Fee and Aaron Altaras.

    Rosa (Roosje) Glaser was a Dutch dancer and survivor of the Holocaust.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Margot Friedländer</span> Holocaust survivor

    Margot Friedländer is a German survivor of the Holocaust and public speaker. She and her family were persecuted by the Nazis for being Jews. Born and raised in Berlin, she was forced to go into hiding when her mother and brother were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943. She was captured in April 1944 and deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp, but survived. After emigrating to the United States with her husband in 1946, she eventually returned to live in Berlin in 2010 and began speaking to German youth about her experiences in Nazi Germany. She has received various honours and awards for promoting human rights and fighting against antisemitism, including the Federal Cross of Merit.