The Things We Cannot Say : A novel

The priest presiding over my wedding was half-starved, half-frozen and
wearing rags, but he was resourceful; he’d blessed a chunk of moldy bread from
breakfast to serve as a communion wafer.
“Repeat the vows after me.” He smiled. My vision blurred, but I spoke the
traditional vows through lips numb from cold.
“I take you, Tomasz Slaski, to be my husband, and I promise to love,
honor and respect you, to be faithful to you, and not to forsake you until we are
parted by death, in fear of God, One in the Holy Trinity and all the Saints.”
I’d looked to my wedding to Tomasz as a beacon, the same way a sailor
on rough seas might fix his gaze upon a lighthouse at the distant shore. Our love
had been my reason to live and to carry on and to fight for so many years, but
our wedding day was supposed to be a brief reprieve from all of the hardship and
suffering. The reality of that day was so very different, and my disappointment
in those moments seemed bigger than the world itself.

Read more from the book......