The Time Left between Us

A blend of memoir, history, and oral storytelling, The Time Left between Us bridges the gap between the generation who fought World War II and the generation who has forgotten it. Alicia DeFonzo takes an unplanned visit to the Normandy beaches while staying in Paris. Her grandfather “Del” (Anthony DelRossi) had fought in World War II, and she becomes distraught after realizing how little she knows about the war and his experiences, which until then had remained largely unspoken. Across landscapes and lifetimes DeFonzo retraces her beloved grandfather’s tour through World War II Europe. The eighty-four-year-old DelRossi recounts stories as an army combat engineer surviving major campaigns, including Normandy, St. Lo, the Bulge, Hürtgenwald, and Remagen, then liberating concentration camps. In this braided narrative, we see DeFonzo’s childhood in a traditional Italian American family with an erratic Marine Corps father and a beloved grandfather. Spanning ten years, DeFonzo’s travels and research take an unexpected detour after she inherits a Nazi Waffen-SS diary from her grandfather, and, in her final trip, returns to Germany to confront the diary owner’s family. DeFonzo’s and her grandfather’s stories merge when Del undergoes open-heart surgery and Alicia must be the one to safeguard the past. Both nostalgic and gripping, The Time Left between Us is a meditation on how deeply connected the past is to the present and how the truth—and what we remember of it—are fragmented. A Visit -- Operation Overlord -- France In June -- The Neighborhood, 1924 -- The Bocage -- Dad -- The Turk -- Grandpop -- Hürtgenwald -- The Soldier Friend -- The Bulge -- The Diary -- Lost Men -- O Holy Night -- Christmas Eve -- Werner And Gertrud -- Remagen -- The Camps -- The Letters -- The Saar -- Rose -- Luxembourg -- Waves Ahead -- St. Patrick's Day -- Lieselotte -- The Coast -- The Last Stop -- Boys Of War -- No Visitors -- Borrowed Time -- Tell Me Again -- The Memorial -- Eulogy -- The Truth -- Salute. Alicia Defonzo. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. Baltimore, Md Available Via World Wide Web. "The Time Left between Us is a hybrid work of memoir, narrative nonfiction, travel, history, and reportage. Spanning landscapes and lifetimes, 30-year-old Alicia retraces her grandfather's tour through WWII Europe, as a young Del survives D-Day, The Bulge, Remagen and liberates concentration camps"-- Provided by publisher Across landscapes and lifetimes, a granddaughter retraces her beloved grandfather's tour through World War II Europe. Alicia DeFonzo discovers how deeply connected the past is to the present and that the truth, and what we remember as truth, are often fragmented.