This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
In The Silent Hours Cesca Major draws the threads of different people's lives and brings them together in a powerful, shocking and heartbreaking way. It is the Second World War in a village in France. This village has been largely untouched by the war. Yes, sons, husbands and brothers have gone off to fight, but right there in the village little action had been seen. Some of the children had never even seen soldiers before.
But the novel begins in 1952, some years later, in a nunnery in South West France. Adeline is being looked after by the nuns; she can't speak, she has become mute, and no-one knows what has happened to her.
We then rewind to the war and the stories of Isabelle, Paul, Sebastien and a nine-year-pld boy called Tristan.
Tristan and his mother, father and various siblings, are fleeing Paris. They're in a motorcar, but stuck in traffic as many other families have had exactly the same idea. Their destination is a village, some way away, to safety. It was going to be a long journey. They eat onion tartlets on newspaper on their laps. They're were nice enough, but Tristan prefers a hot meal. His innocence is heartbreaking.
Through the food immediately we are thrown into the back seat of the car, the smell of onion powerful. Scared, sad to leave home, frustrated, irritated by siblings – so many emotions must be coursing through Tristan's mind. But the childish and spoilt wish of a hot meal ("our maid, packed up the silver earlier anyway, so we don't have any cutlery even if we had been given something hot") and annoyance with the alternative supplied, was captured beautifully by the onion tartlets. 
Recipe for onion tartlets
Equipment
Large frying pan or pan with lid. Sharp knife. Baking tray covered with baking parchment. Pastry brush
Ingredients
One pack ready rolled puff pastry
Knob of butter
Glug of olive oil
About ten small onions, sliced
1 tsp sugar
Salt
Fresh thyme
Egg
Method
- Heat the pan with the olive oil and add the sliced onions. Stir in the butter, then reduce heat to low and cover with the lid. Cook for ten minutes.
- Remove the lid, stir in the sugar and season with the salt and cook for another ten minutes with the lid off until all the liquid has gone.
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees fan.
- Unwrap the pastry and divide into small rectangles with a sharp knife. You can make them as small or large as you wish. (Though, obviously, not too small!) Place onto the baking sheet/s.
- Place the caramelised onions in the centre of the rectangle, leaving a gap around the edge.
- Sprinkle with fresh thyme.
- Beat the egg with a fork and use a pastry brush to paint the egg around the edge of the rectangle on the pastry.
- Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove and serve warm or cold.