At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf
"At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf" is the story of a twelve-year-old Parisian Jewish girl in World War II France, living “in hiding” as a Catholic orphan with a family in a small village.
When Danielle Marton’s father is killed during the early days of the German Occupation, her mother sends her to live in a quiet farming town near Limoges in Vichy France. Now called Marie-Jeanne Chantier, Danielle struggles to balance the truth of what’s happened to her family and her country with the lies she must tell to keep herself safe. At first, she’s bitter about being left behind by her mother, and horrified at having to milk the cow and memorize Catholic prayers for church. But as the years pass and the Occupation worsens, Danielle finds it easier to suppress her former life entirely, and Marie-Jeanne becomes less and less of an act. By the time she’s fifteen and there is talk amongst the now divided town of an Allied invasion, not only has Danielle lost the memories of her father’s face and the smell of her mother’s perfume, but her very self, transforming into a strict Catholic and an anti-Semitic, fervent disciple of fascism.
Bio
Tara Ison is a professor of English at Arizona State University.
Praise for this book
A suspenseful and disturbing psychological story of an adolescent Jewish girl, relocated from Paris to a small village in Vichy during WWII and hiding with a Catholic family, who becomes increasingly and dangerously aligned with her invented identity. Written in exquisite prose, Tara Ison’s novel of persona, identity and survival in collaborationist France is chilling and profoundly moving.
Janet Fitch Author of "White Oleander" and "Paint it Black"
'At the Hour Between Dog and Wolf' is a thrilling novel, not just as a splendid read but as a deeply resonant work of art driven by the central yearning in the greatest literary narratives: the yearning for a self, for an identity, for a place in the world. Tara Ison has always been a writer I’ve ardently admired. Here she is at the height of her estimable powers.
Robert Olen Butler Pulitzer-Prize winning author of "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" and "Paris in the Dark"
