The Mark of the Angel

I enjoyed the voice of the third person in which this story was written. The title comes from the legend of the origin of the Philtrum on the upper lip.The trauma of WWII has touched the daughter of a Nazi criminal and the son of a Jewish musician in Hungary. But Raphael, a spoiled bourgeois child of France continues moves through life in ignorance of the injustice of his own society and the horror of war. The reader is challenged to think about his contribution to society through the art of music while his wife slowly heals through a long love affair with another broken soul. Raphael has no capacity to suffer pain when he is finally confronted with an imperfection in his otherwise perfect life. A memorable read.

From our 2015 #80DayRead Summer Reading Club traveler Mallee: Saffie takes a maid's job in Paris trying to overcome her war torn past in Germany when she meets a Hungarian equally damaged by the war.

A novel that resonates with passion and politics, The Mark of the Angel is set in the late fifties in Paris, against the violence of a France at war with Algeria. Saffie, a young German traumatized by her childhood war memories, sleepwalks into marriage with Raphael, a famous French flautist. She bears his child, but is finally awakened and transformed by her love for Andras, a Hungarian instrument maker. The denouement is both unsettling and unforgettable – the angel forgot to mark us!