This was the location of another concentratrion camp that Chana and her grandmother Bubbe were sent to. On the train ride to the camp, a woman on the train says they are going there "to work, to starve, to die" (183).  Although this is a fictional novel, it accurately depicts the horrific reality of concentration camps during the Holocaust. When they finally arrive, "the air was thick and sticky, the sky was unnaturally pink.

Vianne moves to America after the war with her son Julien, named after her father to escape the horrible memories of her past. In 1995, Vianne is invited to give a speech in Paris in honor of her sister, Isabelle's work in the French Resistance. There, Vianne tells her son most of the truth of her life during the war, but does not disclose that his father is the German soldier who raped her.

Sought out by German officials, Isabelle is a target known as the Nightingale as she has been a successful spy for the Resistance. Isabelle is captured when she goes back to visit Vianne and is sent to concentration camps. Isabelle survives the multiple camps, but due to mistreatment is in poor condition at the end of the war. 

Isabelle works to save a British airman after he crashes in an M19 in occupied France. In order to save him from becoming a POW, Isabelle "The Nightingale", is instructed to escort him to Spain to get him safely to the British Embassy.

Isabelle fleas to German-occupied Paris to work for the french Resistance . Isabelle reconnects with her father, Julien, and rebuilds their relationship. Their apartment is at Avenue de le Bourdonnais. Isabelle meets Gaetan and has a relationship with him. 

France 1939 - German occupied France 

- The French countryside. The book follows the storylines of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle. Vianne lives in Carriveau and is married to Antoine, but Antoine is drafted and sent to the front lines. 

Ithaca is the land that Odysseus left and Ithaca is the home he returns to, yet his life would never be that simple. Rather, he must drive off the parasitic suitors that have taken to his home and prove his existence to his family.

Odysseus and the crew were brought to this location by a wrathful Poseidon, who vowed to never let Odysseus return home after he blinded his son Polyphemus.

The isle is full of people lavishly indulging in the decadence of the lotus, a strange plant that causes them to lose all track of time, self, and belonging as they only consume more and more lotus.  Odysseus has the willpower to escape the lotus-eaters and afterward is able to escape, plowing through their weakened bodies as he rushes towards his ship. 

One of the locations in "If I should Die Before I Wake" by Han Nolan is a Jewish Hospital in Poland during the Holocaust. This is where 16-year-old Neo-nazi Hilary is in recovery from a serious motorcycle accident caused by her boyfriend Brad. This location is significant because it is where somehow in Hilary's mind she switches back and forth between Hilary and a girl named Chana. In the hospital, she is forced to experience the horrors Chana experiences as a Holocaust victim.