Publication Date: January 30, 2024
From acclaimed author of The Third Daughter comes an epic historical novel of ingenuity and courage, of love and loss, spanning postwar France when Israeli agents roamed the countryside to rescue hidden Jewish orphans—to the 1969 daring escape of the Israeli boats of Cherbourg.
1942: As the Vichy government hunts for Jews across France, Claudette Pelletier, a young and talented seamstress and lover of romance novels, falls in love with a Jewish man who seeks shelter at the château where she works. Their whirlwind and desperate romance before he must flee leaves her pregnant and terrified.
When the Nazis invade the Free Zone shortly after the birth of her child, the disabled Claudette is forced to make a heartbreaking choice and escapes to Spain, leaving her baby in the care of his nursemaid. By the time Claudette is able to return years later, her son has disappeared. Unbeknown to his anguished mother, the boy has been rescued by a Youth Aliyah agent searching for Jewish orphans.
1968: When Israeli naval officer Daniel Yarden recruits Sharon Bloomenthal for a secret naval operation in Cherbourg, France, he can’t imagine that he is the target of the agenda of the twenty-year-old grieving the recent loss of her fiancé in a drowned submarine. Sharon suspects that Danny’s past in Youth Aliyah may reflect that of her mysterious late mother and she sets out to track her boss’s extraordinary journey as an orphan in a quaint French village all the way to Israel.
As Danny focuses on the future of his people and on executing a daring, crucial operation under France’s radar, he is unaware that the obsessed Sharon follows the breadcrumbs of clues across the country to find her answers. But she is wholly unprepared for the dilemma she must face upon solving the puzzle.
At the end of WWII, many Jewish children are orphaned due to the aftermath of the Holocaust. Author Talia Carner brings a well-researched and heart-rending story to life in The Boy With the Star Tattoo.
The book has multiple timelines, so paying attention to the dates and places is essential.
1942: The main character is Claudette, a French seamstress residing in Vichy, France. With a crippling disability, she has given up on love until she meets the love of her life—a softspoken Jewish man she helps hide from authorities.
1968: Daniel Yarden and Sharon Bloomenthal are from Israel on a secret mission in Cherbourg, France. Sharon takes the opportunity to be in France to see if she can find out more about Daniel’s biological mother, whom he knows nothing about.
It took me a while to get into the book because there was so much information—especially regarding the military history of Israel in the early years of their country. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting, but it did seem to take away from the book’s overall theme. It felt like it needed to be two separate books—both of which I would read. When the military operations and its history were discussed, I felt far removed from the heart of this story.
I wasn’t aware of the history of the orphaned Jewish children and how devoted Jewish organizations were to getting them to Israel and their Jewish roots. I appreciated the author’s clear descriptions of what occurred to so many children left behind, which was, in many instances, horrific and criminal.
Once I got into the book, I couldn’t put it down. With Sharon’s mother’s story, Daniel’s history, Claudette’s heartbreaking search for her son, and Uzi’s relentless pursuit of Jewish orphans, it was indeed a very compelling and poignant read.
The Boy With the Star Tattoo will pull at your heartstrings and break your heart, but in the end, cheer for the resilience of the human spirit. 
Talia Carner is the former publisher of Savvy Woman magazine and a lecturer at international women economic forums.
