Zazoo

I think this is technically a young adult book, but I thought it was a bit more sophisticated than the usual YA fare. I actually think this could make a good (and easy) book club pick.

The book is about Zazoo, a 14 year old Vietnamese girl who was adopted when she was 2 by an old French man who raises her as his granddaughter in central France. Together, they run their tiny village's locks on the canal. Zazoo meets a young French boy on a bike near her canal one morning and over the course of their budding relationship, you get to watch her relationship with her aging Grandfather develop as well. Her Grandfather's stories of WWII come out of the woodwork and other characters in the village get involved in the story and it turned out to be a really beautiful, touching and sad book.

I think because of the YA factor, it stops short of being a major cry fest, and perhaps things are tied up a little neatly at the end, but I still thought it was a seriously enjoyable book.