I have read memoirs about the Holocaust and stories about spies but nothing like The Certainties. This book has two protagonists – a fifty year old man who is referred to as the professor, narrating in first person; the second a woman named Pia. The story goes back and forth between the professor and Pia. Here are my thoughts on this unique book along with some notes on the writing. Book blurb first!
In 1940, as the shadow of war lengthens over Europe, three mysterious travelers enter a village in Spain. They have the appearance of Parisian intellectuals, but the trio of two men and a woman are starving and exhausted from crossing illegally through the Pyrenees. Their story, told over a period of 48 tense hours, is narrated by one of the men, who slowly accepts his unthinkable fate. In a voice despairing and elegant, he calmly considers what he should do, and weighs what any one life means. As he does so, his attention is caught by a five-year-old named Pia who wanders near his cafe table. To Pia he begins to address all that he thinks and feels in his final hours–envisioning a rich future life for her that both reflects and contrasts with his own.
Meanwhile, in the 1980s, a woman named Pia seeks solitude on a remote island in the Atlantic, where she works at an inn and reflects on her chaotic childhood. As Pia’s story begins, a raging storm engulfs the island and a boat flounders offshore. Pia and her fellow islanders rush to help–and past and present calamities collide.
By turns elegiac and heart-pounding, a love letter in the guise of a song of despair, The Certainties is a moving and transformative blend of historical and speculative fiction–a novel that shows us what it means to bear witness, and to attend to those who seek refuge, past and present.
Content Notes: Depictions of life of a refugee
Themes for Thought
In the 1940s, the professor is trying to escape to America with his two companions. Having spent some time in the camps, the professor’s possessions have been confiscated by the Germans and he might be on the list of people that the Germans are looking for. While his fate hangs by a thin thread, the professor meets five year old Pia and he starts to talk to her as he comes to terms with his precarious situation. Forty years apart, we learn about Pia and her nomadic life, the people around her recovering from the war and the conditions in which she lives. I will focus on the professor for my thoughts because I felt more connected to his narrative.
On Accepting One’s Fate
I don’t think I ever learned the name of the professor in this story. There is something to be said about reading about a character that we will never come to know well. I think that was an interesting way of portraying how people’s names and identity really don’t matter in the last days. The professor’s narrative only spans two days and in those days, his fear of being found and denied travel are palpable in every word. He reminisces about the past, how he came to meet the people he is traveling with. He appreciates the little things in life, so in some ways it is not surprising that encountering Pia in the cafe, he weaves a narrative around her, talking to her and sharing his life in his mind with her.
You might wonder, does Pia know any of this? This was a bit of a mystery to me for the first half of the book but there are clues around how Pia’s life intersects with the professor’s works.
On War and Thinkers
There are a couple of people in the story who are trying very hard to get the three travelers out of France and into Spain. They use all the connections they have but the government seems to be aware of illegal immigration operations and fake visas so they suspend all visa originating from certain places, trying to use travelers to give them intel on the people helping them. This is another dark side of war – everyone is a pawn on the chessboard.
In exchange for safe travels on the forged documents, the French immigration officers try to get information from the three travellers about other people. The professor and his companions reflect on the names on the list and the few who they know or had a chance encounter with before they left Germany. There are a lot of intellectual people in the professor’s side of the story – artists, painters, elites and researchers – who are affected by war. They might not be well known inventors or scientists, but the fact that they are thinkers and philosophers makes them dangerous.
For the professor’s side of the story, the narrative focuses on him coming to term with his fate that he will not be able to travel further. He starts to realize that his life is worth nothing and neither is his knowledge. It is a harsh reality and I liked the manner in which this truth dawned to him and he accepted it.
Notes on Writing Choices in The Certainties
There is something about this book that kept me reading. Maybe it was the atmospheric prose, maybe the unique connection between the two characters or maybe it was simply learning about the plight of an immigrant and refugee before the Second World War. I found the storytelling quite visual and the scenes depicting the city and the sea transported me to these places. There is commentary about death and meaning which I really liked and found a bunch of quotes that struck me.
“When we are dead, we will not know our nations”.
Excerpt from The Certainties
Like I mentioned, we never learn who the professor really is. We learn the names of high level officers in the police as well as the professor’s companions, but these are minimal, and not really of consequence in the full story.
The use of flashbacks for the professor’s time and the future with Pia’s present made me, as a reader, wonder and try to fill in the gaps about the time that has passed. She is reading his work decades later while he is speaking to her decades earlier. The author does a phenomenal job of depicting the sad ans surreal setting.
The Certainties is a one of a kind book. It is one of those books that you read for the writing and to find a unique perspective that is not prevalent in literature. I can see it being used in comparative literature classes (and yes, those are my favorite kind of classes) to think about other aspects of war… the sides that we do not see in popular fiction.
** The Certainties is now out in stores so get a copy online or from your local library and let me know what you think! It isn’t a book for everyone but if you do give it a chance, I hope you enjoy it! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Other books to check out if you are interested in World War 2 are When a toy dog became a wolf and the moon broke curfew (review) and Quest for Eternal Sunshine (review).
Cover image: Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash
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