Gabrielle Madison is an American girl born of missionaries
and has spent her life living abroad. Gabrielle has just
traveled from where her family has been working many years
in Africa to France. Gabrielle has been given the
opportunity to spend her third year of University in an
exchange program it's the year 1961 in Castelnau, France.
Gabrielle is excited to be back in the small town her
family had once lived when she was a very young girl. Her
mother has given her a special cross to wear and tells her
to keep it near her heart and she will have God with her
always.
Gabrielle's classes are held at the Church of St. Joseph
and she quickly is befriended by the head mistress/director
Mother Griolet. Gabrielle enjoys her classes especially the
class taught by Mr. David Hoffmann, Visions of Man, Past
and Present which is taught in French and English and
covers topics from Literature, Art and History from England
and France. All the young women are taken with the handsome
Mr. Hoffmann but Gabrielle is most excited about their
intelligent, challenging theological and historical
discussions.
We soon discover while reading TWO CROSSES there is much
more going on in France than what we see on the surface.
The church is also an orphanage and children continually
are showing up as refugees from Algiers. There is a war in
Algiers between the FLN a national liberation group that
wants independence from France, the OAS a French
underground organization. Caught in the middle of this war
are the very poor in Algeria, the Pied-Nior (French living
in Algeria) and Harki (Algerian soldiers that were loyal to
the French Army). We are introduced to Anne-Marie a Pied-
Nior who has escaped with her daughter Ophelie but is being
hunted by a leader in the FLN.
TWO CROSSES is the first in a trilogy and much of this book
is setting up the story for the following books. There are
many secrets revealed and we learn who all the players are
and what motivates them. Gabrielle finds herself in the
middle of a war she knew nothing about and she becomes a
pivotal part of the rescue mission. I found TWO CROSSES
fascinating and educational. I was never much for history
but the way this story is presented I found myself drawn in
and eager to learn more. I was caught up in Gabrielle's
journey in the beginning of the novel I kept picturing
Gabrielle as a child even though I knew she was twenty-one.
I think it was her innocence and blind absolute faith in
God that gave her childlike personality to me then as the
story progressed I watched the woman/child grow and mature
into a hero of sorts. TWO CROSSES is a brilliant beginning
to an amazing trilogy that I highly recommend to readers
young and old.
The glimmering Huguenot cross she innocently wears leads her
deep into the shadows.
When Gabriella Madison arrives in France in 1961 to continue
her university studies, she doesn’t anticipate being drawn
into the secretive world behind the Algerian war for
independence from France. The further she delves into the
war efforts, the more her faith is challenged.
The people who surround her bring a whirlwind of
transforming forces—a wise nun involved in the smuggling, a
little girl carrying secret information, and a man with
unknown loyalties who captures her heart. When she discovers
a long hidden secret from her past, it all leads to
questions about trust, faith in action, and the power of
forgiveness to move beyond the pain of the past.
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