The Innocents Within [Kindle Edition]

Robert Daley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An American pilot shot down over central France during WWII falls in love with the Jewish ward of a pastor who runs an underground resistance network in this suspenseful and moving novel based on the true story of pastor Andre Trocme of Le Chambon sur Lignon. In England, 1944, New York-born fighter pilot Davey Gannon has not yet killed a man or slept with a woman. In France, German and Vichy officers are closing in on Pastor Favert, who with local accomplices has been hiding Jews to keep them from Nazi roundups. When Davey's plane crashes over the Massif Central during a mission, two villagers bring the wounded American to the pastor's house, unaware that Favert has been taken into custody. Rachel Weiss, a Jewish refugee the pastor is sheltering under the name Sylvie Bonaire, nurses Davey to health. They fall in love, and Davey vows to keep Rachel safe. Meanwhile, in Le Vernet concentration camp, the pastor preaches passive resistance and compassion, even while coping with wrenching spiritual dilemmas. With the Gestapo dragnet sweeping closer to Lignon, tension rises as the hidden Jewish children in the community seem destined to be discovered, and Davey's fate seems equally grim. Prompted to join the maquis, 19-year-old Pierre Glickstein, a talented forger of false identity papers, behaves heroically beyond his years. A prolific author of fiction and nonfiction, Daley (Prince of the City; A Priest and a Girl, etc.) depicts characters wrestling with moral decisions of every type: Favert deciding whether to lie about Jews converting to Christianity in order to save them, a policeman enforcing inhumane laws and a humble farmer risking his life for others. An expert on police procedure as well as an adept prose stylist, Daley precisely details communications, methods and logistics in the underground and in the bureaucracy bent on destroying it. The wartime romance at times seems as naive as the lovers themselves, but Daley's portrait of clear-sighted heroism in a historical moment marked by moral crises is compelling. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This seems to be a good year for love stories featuring downed World War II pilots hidden by the French underground and saved through the offices of strong-willed, albeit rather naive, young women. Unlike Sebastian Faulk's Charlotte Gray (LJ 2/1/99), however, Daley's novel focuses more directly on the underground itselfAin this case the activities of a real-life pastor named Andre Trocme, whose small Protestant village in the Massif Central region of Vichy France became a haven for Jews fleeing the Nazis. While Daley (author of thrillers like the classic Prince of the City) has changed the names of real people and places and created some fictional ones, he captures the spirit of the times, the courage that innocence often engenders, and the pain and self-doubt that come when innocence is shattered. The story is partly about love between a young, almost cherubic pilot and an 18-year-old Jewish hideaway, but ultimately it serves as an homage to the heroism of those who helped fellow humans simply because it was the right thing to do. Recommended for public and larger academic libraries.
-ADavid W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, FL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 786 KB
• Publisher: Rivera Productions ltd. (May 22, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002AVTZQ2
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Message of Hope, November 21, 1999

By 

Timothy Mahin (Northeastern U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Innocents Within: A Novel (Hardcover)

I found Robert Daley's "The Innocents Within" to be a fascinating look into a part of World War II that I had never read about before. We all know of the invasion of Normandy, the fall and liberation of Paris, the bitterness of the Nazi occupation of the country. But Mr. Daley's moving story about simple people preyed upon by war in a poor, little known, "unglamorous" part of France, was, for me, both interesting and powerful. In a time when moral decisions seem to be hedged or clouded, Mr. Daley's story of Pastor Andre Favert rings with a refreshing and reassuring clarity. The book's portrayal of a Protestant minister who saves the lives of thousands of Jews (and others), despite physical and spiritual trials, reveals a rare heroism, rarer still because it is paterned aftr a true story. Of course, like all strong books, "The Innocents Within" is made up of more than one story and it is the intertwining of these several threads that moves the book forward at a brisk pace. I found the rather improbable love story between the downed American pilot and the pastor's adopted Jewish daughter to be a touching counterpart to Nazi brutality and to the senseless repugnance of war. Despite the horrors, the cruelty, the poverty of place and time, Mr. Daley's message is still one of hope, personified by Andre Favert. For me, "The Innocents Within" is a "real book, adult in the best sense of the word and a rich, satisfying read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Up all night!, November 3, 1999

By 

Ira Stone (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Innocents Within: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book kept me up later than I wanted to be up. The blending of history and deeply evolved characters make for a worthwhile investment of precious time. I was interested to see the New York Times (Oct 29, 1999) interview with Mr. Daley which took place in the town where these brave people stood up for what was right. DON'T MISS THIS ONE-an excellent book!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Story Of Those-Behind-The-Lines In France WW2., January 18, 2001

By 

Joseph L Burke - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Innocents Within: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

A fascinating story of people trapped in Nazi occupied France in World War II. The author knows his subject, the terrain, the characters, and all the small details of the time and the situations described. The sole defect of this book is that the author tells his tale so straight and somehow at-a-distance that the author does not seem to care who wins or loses and thus, neither does the reader. The author also does unnecessay embellishment; for instance we read pages of background on a priest - a minor character who appears briefly - for no apparent reason. Robert Daley is a craftsman who does a good job of writing - but he neither varnishes nor polishes his work. Good while you read it, but soon forgotten when you put it down.