Something Rich and Strange

In 1963, Lily Marie Engel sets out for a year abroad in France on scholarship from the French government. Before departure, her father tells her to keep a diary, to write down every event, every thought, every impression during this year, which promises to be the most wonderful of her life. She keeps her promise—up to a point. During the Christmas holiday in 1963, her life takes a dramatic turn for the worse and the diary is suspended until 2000 when Lily feels compelled to take up again her life story, an event that will have disastrous consequences. No matter. She must finish what she began so long ago. Her daughter Caitlin is the only person who could find and read the diary—or so she believes—and Lily assumes that her daughter is mature enough and loves her to such an extent that she will be able to forgive her mother any past indiscretions. The eventual reading of the diary is met with a mixture of horror and disbelief. Something Rich and Strange is a novel of student life in France in 1963-64 and includes descriptions of the French reactions to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and to the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, and of a visit to East Berlin. It is also a novel of extremely painful secrets revealed gradually and chronicles a life dominated by an overwhelming obsession to keep one secret in particular deeply buried until the very last moment of a life changed forever in a single shattering event. The last words in the book are spoken by one of the characters who read Lily's story: "We say absolutely nothing to anyone! Then we burn the diary. Burn it! And we never speak of these matters again."