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Is 'The Things We Cannot Say' Based On A True Story?

Heard this WW2 historical fiction novel by Kelly Rimmer was partly inspired by real events from her own family history—can someone clarify?

2025-06-26 20:28:18

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Opal McDowell

No. I am talking about a work of fiction called The Things We Cannot Say. This novel is historically accurate and true to the time period in which it took place, WWII. Another fiction novel that explores the long and desperate attempts of two star-crossed lovers to send each other messages of love, hidden within ordinary objects, while they are separated by war in a fictional kingdom, is Whispers Of a Forgotten Love. It is free to read online on a few of the major web novel sites.

2026-08-05

Olivia

I just finished reading The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer and it was amazing. The book is not a direct historical story but was inspired by true historical events. The author did an enormous amount of research into the Polish resistance during World War II and the atrocities committed by the Nazis against civilians. The main characters in the story are all fiction but their circumstances are true and Rimmer portrays them beautifully.

The past focuses on Alina who is fighting to survive in war time Poland. Desperation, fear and courage to keep fighting for what is right to try and defeat the Nazi’s are all chronicled throughout her story. There are many historical scenes that are factual such as the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and the underground resistance and their work throughout Poland to fight against the Nazi’s. The present day focus is on Alice as she discovers more about her grandmother’s past and the trauma that she endured during the war and how it affected her and their family for generations to come.

While the characters and settings of the book are fictional, the situations in which the characters find themselves are not. The author of The Things We Cannot Say has referenced a number of sources for her writing, including interviews with a number of Holocaust survivors as well as extensive research into the history of the Polish resistance during World War II. His note at the end of the book is wonderful as it gives readers a sense of the work that went into creating this imaginary story and of the suffering that is behind every page.

2025-06-30

Noah

I think 'The Things We Cannot Say' is an authentic story. It’s not completely true to the people in it but it is set during a time and in a situation that is completely true. The liquidation of the Polish villages, for example, and the underground railway and the ways that Jews were able to escape all of that is true. But the main character’s story is not true although it is true in the sense that millions of people suffered and went through the same sorts of things that Alina went through. I think that Kelly Rimmer used survivor’s accounts to try to write a true and honest story in the sense of honoring history while at the same time creating a really good story.

2025-07-02

Isaiah Masangkay

I see History Live as historical reenactment with a script. So while the script is original, the stage and the historical context of the era being studied is rigorously researched history. The dialogue and the personal history of the ‘guide’ through the period are written as fiction to create a personal and emotional connection to help bring home the complexities of the period in question and the stakes of the historical events that have occurred. Rather than gain a lot of historical facts you gain a real sense of the historical period and the events that have occurred in that era. So, even though the ‘guide’ is a fictional character, it is still legitimate history.

2026-07-31

Reta Pehi

I wouldn't call this a true story. But it is a really true story. In the sense that there is a big difference between this being a true story and it being a historical account, and if this were a true story we’d be talking about whether or not the dates were correct and whether or not she wrote the letter on the correct date, as opposed to this being a work of fiction very heavily researched to try and get as accurate as possible an emotional and social history of that time. And I think that Rimmer does an amazing job of giving us Alina’s eyes to see her world. Those are fictional eyes but the world that she sees is not. It is an incredibly accurate portrayal of life under occupation. It is an incredibly accurate portrayal of life in the USSR. That is why this feels so true. It’s not true in the sense that Alina and Natashya are not real people.

2026-08-01

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This is not a war book about battles. It is a book about women’s quiet strength and defiance in the face of war. Alina’s story takes place in Nazi-occupied Poland during WWII. Most of the action unfolds through the eyes of a kitchen window, where Alina, the heroine, bakes bread made with sawdust when there is no flour. She even uses the church’s-confessional booths to transmit resistance messages. Alice’s modern-day story runs counter to Alina’s as she struggles to come to terms with the war long past. Much of the novel is set in the present but is thrown into relief by Alice’s growing realization of her grandmother’s story. That moment when Alice realizes that ‘Babcia’ was in fact Alina is quite breathtaking. Rimmer also cleverly uses technology to tell the story of Alice’s son with autism, who communicates with his mother via an iPad. He ‘speaks’ via the indirect means of diaries and heirlooms that Alina and Tomasz used. It has been so carefully researched that there is a sense of history of the war, not just of the statistics of death, but of the individual humans’ experiences, as opposed to just reading about year X happened, this battle, that. The ways that the Polish girls during starvation would rub beets in their cheeks in order to appear healthy. Alina’s realization of Tomasz’s joining of the Warsaw Uprising during the war.

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