Books Set in Europe; Paris, France

The Perfect Nanny, by Leila Sliming (2016)

Read: October 26, 2024

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe, Paris, France

The Perfumist of Paris, by Alka Joshi (2023)

Read:  September 26, 2024

4 Stars

This is the third book in the Jaipur Series.

The Henna Artist: Read February 6, 2021 and August 27, 2024

The Secret Keeper of Jaipur: Read September 8, 2024

The Perfumist of Paris: Read September 26, 2024

Books Set in Europe: Lisbon, Portugal and Lyon, France

The Librarian Spy, by Madeline Martin (2022)

During World War II, Portugal was ostensibly neutral country.  Interestingly, the country’s newsstands sold newspapers and magazines from various European countries, including Germany.  Warring countries sent their intelligence officers to Portugal to scour magazines and newspapers to glean information on the enemy.  The Interdepartmental Committee for the Acquisition of Foreign Publications (IDC) was created in the United States for gathering such documentations.  The United States Library of Congress sent a contingency of its librarians to Lisbon to gather publications to collect and copy foreign publications.  

 

This has all the making of an interesting angle on stories about World War II.  Sadly, The Librarian Spy, by Madeline Martin is not that book.  I know I am in the minority on this, but this book just didn’t live up to its hype.

 

The novel follows two women: Ava Harper, an American librarian working in the Library of Congress, and Elaine, a French woman in Lyon, hoping to join the Resistance.  Elaine is the more interesting of the two.  After her husband joined the Resistance, she began working as a printing apprentice and distributes an underground newspaper that contains information about the War.

 

Ava was recruited by the United States military to go to Portugal to gather information newspapers then microfilm them to send to intelligence officers.  She is supposedly intellectual and an avid reader.  To emphasize this point, the author has Ava make numerous references to pieces of literature, and notes that she carries her copy of Little Women everywhere she goes.  She apparently received little training for this job, and her naivety is annoying.

 

This book did not depict the actual horrors and fears of living in Europe during Nazi-occupation.  I would classify this novel as being for young adults.  It is probably something I would have enjoyed in 7^th grade.

 

Read: January 5, 2024

2.5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France

The Book of Lost Names, by Kristin Harmel (2020)

 

The premise of this book is interesting.  It is about forgers during World War II who created false documents to save French Jews during World War II.  Instead, the book reads like a young adult sanitized version of Nazi-occupied France.

 

Eva Traube is a 20-something young woman who lives in Paris with her parents.  Although Eva was born in France, her parents are Polish immigrants.  As the Nazi’s begin rounding up Jews, her father is arrested, but Eva and her mother escape to a small town in southern France’s “Free Zone.”  Apparently, Eva had some talent as a budding artist, thus, created some forged documents that aided in their escape.

 

Soon she become involved in an underground resistance group and begins forging documents to help young Jewish children escape into Switzerland.  Although the dialogue is stilted and unrealistic (she asks questions that, as a Jew, she should have known), she does realize that by creating new identities for these children, she is, in effect, erasing their past.  This bothers her, and she wonders how these children will be able to reunite with their parents after the war.

 

One of her collaborators in drafting forged documents is Rémy, a young Catholic.  Together, they devised an elaborate code to identify the children with both their real names and their forged names.  Eva and Rémy record these coded names in an old obscure religious text found the parish church’s library.

 

While Eva is working on these documents with Rémy, they form a budding romance.  Her mother, however, frets about this relationship because Rémy is not Jewish.  Her mother sits around and broods about her missing husband and accuses Eva of abandoning her faith.

 

As the War continues, Eva becomes involved in activities that stretch the imagination, especially considering that she appears as being very naïve.

 

This was a very quick read, and something that I could see myself enjoying when I was about 12 years old.  The characters were not fully developed and the book did not depict the actual horrors and fears of living in France during the Nazi occupation.

 

Read:  March 23, 2021

3 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

The Room on Rue Amélie, by Kristin Harmel (2018)

The Room on Rue Amélie reads like a young adult sanitized version of Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II.

The novel focuses on Ruby Henderson Benoit, a young American woman who meets the French Marcel Benoit in a coffee shop in New York and marries him 6 months later.  They move to Paris in the late 1930s against her parent’s objections.  She is determined to become a true Parisian.  (She had learned French in school and can apparently speak a passable version of the language, albeit with an accent.)

Her marriage soon sours.  Marcel spends long hours away from their apartment and never explains his absences.  Since his character was not developed, we don’t know why Ruby fell for him in the first place, other than he was very handsome.  We do learn, however, that he is involved in the French resistance and has been hiding downed Allied pilots in a secret room in the hallway of their apartment building.  Marcel doesn’t want his wife to be involved in the Resistance, she wants to feel useful in the War effort.  She learns of the secret room and becomes involved in the escape line for downed pilots.

When the RAF pilot, Thomas, appears at her door, she falls head-over-heels in love.  The author doesn’t explain the attraction.  Why this pilot?  She harbors numerous downed soldiers.  We learn as much of some of the other soldiers as we do Thomas.

A Jewish family lives in the apartment next door.  Young Charlotte befriends Ruby.  When the French police round up Jewish families, Ruby promises Charlotte’s parents she will take care of her should anything happen.  Soon young Charlotte, who is forced to grow up very quickly, becomes involved in the resistance as well.

This was a very quick read, and something that I could see myself enjoying when I was about 12 years old.  The characters were not fully developed and the book did not depict the actual horrors and fears of living in Paris during the Nazi occupation.

Read:  July 6, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in Africa and Europe; Egypt and France

Zarafa: A Giraffe’s True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris, by Michael Allin (1998)

This is the delightful story of how, in 1826, a baby giraffe was captured in the Sudan and transported to Paris as a gift from Muhammad Ali, Ottoman viceroy to Egypt, to Charles X, King of France.  In the process, the reader is treated to a brief glimpse of the world as exploration in Egypt was opening up, compliments of Napoleon.

Napoleon exposed Egypt to Europe.  For centuries, the artifacts of ancient Egypt had been buried to the world.  After Napoleon’s army landed in Egypt, Europeans began looting its tombs for profit.  Europe was intrigued.  Muhammad Ali, a brutal ruler to his own people, wanted to forge a link to Europe, so arranged to have a baby giraffe captured and transported to France as a gift to the post-Revolution King of France.

Allin explained how it was possible to trap the young giraffe, probably no more that 2 months old at its capture, and have it sent down the Nile River, across the Mediterranean, and finally the long walk from Marseille to Paris.  The young giraffe had not yet been weaned, it could be separated from its mother, while it was still tame.  Because it hadn’t been weaned, several cows travelled with it to provide it with 25 gallons of milk per day.  Details of the trip from its initial capture until it reached Cairo are sketchy, however, detailed records existed on the trip from Cairo to Paris.  Two and a half years after its capture, it entered Paris, where it lived for the next 19 years.

Modern Europeans had never seen such an exotic animal before, so during its trek through France, hordes of people flocked to see the creature.  The reader learns that the ancient Romans had imported exotic animals for gladiator fights, but that had long been forgotten.

This is a fun book that describes not only a bit about the lives of giraffes, but also a slice of political life in France at the beginning of the 1800s.

Read:  May 23, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: England and France

I'll See You in Paris, by Michelle Gable (2016)

I’ll See You in Paris is loosely based on the life of Gladys Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (née Gladys Deacon; Feb. 7, 1881 ~ Oct. 13, 1977).  A bit of background: Gladys was born in France into a wealthy, but eccentric American family.  When she was a child, her father killed her mother’s lover.  Her father spent a few years in prison, but when he got out, he was given custody of his children.

As an adult, Gladys travelled in an artistic social circle and encountered many major authors and artist of the time.  She became close friends with Consuelo Vanderbilt, who was married to the 9^th Duke of Marlborough.  Theirs was an unhappy marriage.   Gladys became the Duke’s mistress.  It was a happy arrangement for decades.  When Consuelo and the Duke divorced, Gladys and the Duke married, making Gladys the Duchess of Marlborough.

In her later life, the Duchess became a recluse.  She lived in a small village in England with a host of cats and dogs. She was known to threaten visitors with firearms.

This is where the novel begins.  The novel goes back and forth in time and we slowly learn about Gladys’s life.  The novel begins in 2001 with Annie Haley, a young woman newly engage to a marine who has been shipped to Afghanistan.  Annie was raised by her single mother, Laurel.  Annie never knew her father ~ her birth certificate lists her father as being “unknown.”

Laurel has business in England and invites Annie to accompany her.  While her mother is tending to business, Annie wanders through the little village and encounters Gus, an aging aristocrat.  They strike up a friendship over a book entitled The Missing Duchess.  Gus knew the woman who was the subject of the book, although she adamantly denied she was the Duchess.  His recounting of the Duchess brings us to the 1970s, where a young American woman named Pru was hired to be a companion to the aging Gladys.

This was a fun and quick read.  The style of moving back in forth in time, while not entirely seamless, was smooth enough to keep me turning the pages.  It is not necessary to know the background of Gladys Deacon to enjoy this book.  While reading this book, I did a little research to see how closely the novel tracked the life of the Duchess.

Read:  Oct. 28, 2019

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France

The Baker’s Secret, by Stephen P. Kiernan (2017)

The Baker’s Secret takes place in the small coastal town of Vergers in Normandy during World War II in the years before D-Day.  The novel focuses on Emmanuelle, known as Emma, who learned how to bake as an apprentice to “Uncle” Ezra.  After the town came under Nazi occupation, Ezra was shot and killed for being a Jew.

Emma was then ordered to bake 12 loaves of bread each day for the Nazi soldiers occupying the town.  Food for the villagers was scarce, but Emma was given an extra ration of flour for her bread.  Emma found that, with her extra rations, and by stretching the dough with ground straw, she could meet her daily quotient for the occupiers, with extra loaves to share with the villagers.  By doing this, she also set up a secret network of bartering and exchange with the other villagers for supplies each needed for survival.  She siphons off fuel from a Nazi officer’s motorcycle to provide additional fuel to the fishermen for supplying fish.

After Captain Thalheim commandeers her home, Emma and her grandmother find ways to adapt, while still quietly rebelling against the Nazi’s orders. While the town people continue to be optimistic that the Allies will come and save then, Emma feels no such hope. Still, she preservers and continues to do what she can to help her fellow townspeople.

As D-Day draws near, hope in the village seems to fade.  This novel described the horrors of war, but also focused on the strength that keeps people alive when all seems lost.

This book was very well written.

Read: July 8, 2018

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: France and England

The Empress of Ice Cream, by Anthony Capella (2010)

This novel takes place in the courts of the French King Louis XIV and the English King Charles II.

We meet Carlo, an Italian confectioner who specializes in flavored ices.  He was born of a family so poor that his family sold him to the ice maker of the Medici family.  It was there that he learned the secrets of making flavored ices.  He soon mastered the technique and began experimenting with new flavors and creations.  After outwitting his master, he found himself in the court of King Louis XIV, where his creations soon brought him great wealth.

Although he could, and did, have any woman wanted, he was hopelessly in love with Louise de Keroualle (an actual historical figure), who was lady-in-waiting to Henrietta d’Orleans, sister to the English King Charles II.  After Henrietta died, Louise and Carlo are sent to London, ostensibly to comfort the grieving King Charles II, but also to assist in the negotiations between the two countries because Louis needs Charles’ support in the war against the Dutch.

King Charles has his eye on Louise and wants to make her his next mistress.  She, however, tries to keep her virtue.

I found this to be a fascinating look into this period of history, and I learned a lot about the creation of sorbet, and other flavored ices as well as ice cream.

4 Stars

Read: November 9, 2016

Books Set in Europe: France

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah (2015)

The Nightingale is the story of two French sisters who, each in her own way, survive the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.  The sisters are 10 years apart in age, and are motherless with a cold father who was a changed man after returning from World War I.

Vianne, the older sister, married young to the love of her life.  Her younger sister, Isabelle, was impetuous, and had been expelled from several boarding schools before the War began.  After Vianne’s husband goes off to war, Vianne is left at the family home with their young daughter.  Isabelle’s childhood heroine was Edith Cavell, who was executed in World War I.  Isabelle wants to follow in Cavell’s footsteps and joins a Resistance group, leading downed British and American soldiers cross the Pyrenees from France into Spain.  Her code name is The Nightingale, which also happens to be the English translation of their family surname ~ Rossignol.

This novel focuses on the lives of the women during the war and the sacrifices they were forced to make while their fathers, husbands and brothers were fighting.  The novel begins in 1939, just before Nazi occupation.  As France is forced into War, the Nazis begin rationing food and occupying homes.  A young German officer requisitions her home, although he is kind to Vianne and her daughter.  One day Vianne is asked to provide the names of the Jews in her town.  Believing that it is simply a list of names, she complies, giving up the name of her best friend and neighbor, Rachel.  Later, the Nazis begin rounding up all the Jews and communists.  Rachel is taken away, but Vianne takes her young son to raise as her own.

Later a brutal SS officer commanders her home and brutally rapes her.  Meanwhile, Isabelle is risking her life in the Resistance.  She acquires false papers and becomes known as Juliette Gervaise.  She doesn’t fully understand the risk she is taking until after she is capture.  She is ultimately sent to a German concentration camp, where her mantra become “Stay alive.”

This book gives the horrors of war and captures the terror of the citizens of France.  It is one of the best novels of the Holocaust that I have read in a long time.

5 Stars

Read:  February 14, 2016

Books Set in Europe: France and Germany

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr (2014)

I am probably one of the few people who did not absolutely love this novel.  I found it too choppy.  Each chapter was only a few pages long and the story line jumped between Marie-Laure, a young blind French girl and Werner, a young German soldier.

3 stars