Summary

In chapter 35, the author tells Isabelle’s story in the years of 1941-1943. Isabelle tries to dissuade Max from marrying her, but he is persistent. The two marry in a simple, quiet ceremony in the Spring of 1941, though Isabelle admits she felt almost nothing as she wed Max.

Isabelle and Max delay in starting a family, but Isabelle states she came to enjoy the mind-numbing pleasure of being intimate with Max.

The war starts in December 1941, and Isabelle states that it changes everyone. She weeps for Robert, knowing he will be in the violence. Time goes on and Isabelle and Max live a simple life in the home Max works to purchase for them. Isabelle sees Max as a fairly shallow person, and feels that in the first two years of their marriage she learned all she could of the man.

On a...