5th book of 2021
release date: feb. 09th 2021
Thanks to NetGalley, John Murray Press to send me a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Reading period: Jan 03rd 2021 – Jan 09th 2021
Summary
Paris, 1939. Odile Souchet is obsessed with books and the Dewey Decimal System, which makes order out of chaos. She soon has it all – a handsome police officer beau, an English best friend, a beloved twin, and a job at the American Library in Paris, a thriving community of students, writers, diplomats, and book lovers. Yet when war is declared, there’s also a war on words.
Montana, 1983. Widowed and alone, Odile suffers the solitary confinement of small-town life. Though most adults are cowed by her, the neighbor girl will not let her be. Lily, a lonely teenager yearning to break free of Froid is obsessed by the older French woman who lives next door and wants to know her secrets.
As the two become friends, Odile sees herself in Lily – the same love of language, the same longings, the same lethal jealousy. The Paris Library’s dual narratives explore the relationships that make us who we are – family and friends, first loves and favorite authors – in the fairy tale setting of the City of Light. It also explores the geography of resentment, the consequences of unspeakable betrayal, and what happens when the people we count on for understanding and protection fail us.
The wit, empathy, and deep research that brings The Paris Library to life also brings to light a cast of lively historical characters and a little-known chapter of World War II history: the story of the American librarian, Miss Reeder, who created the Soldiers’ Service to deliver books to servicemen, and who later faced the Nazi ‘Book Protector’ in order to keep her library open. She and her colleagues defied the Bibliotheksschutz by delivering books to Jewish readers after they were forbidden from entering the library.
Rating
Review
This book is a great discovery, it took me a long time to read it (thanks to 2020), but I don’t regret reading it. I dive into this story from the first chapter to the last one.
In this novel, you have different viewpoints and two significant timelines: WWII and the end of the eighties.
The thing that surprised me the most was the view of the war that the author chose. I was an emotional mess while reading this book even if it was the eighties.
In fact, but it’s a personal liking, I wasn’t fond of the eighties parts as I found that it tells too much, too fast and I didn’t quite understand the utility of this and the link with the war.
In this book, the characters were all unique, and they all surprise you at some point or another. The library is also living through the librarians, making it so vivid that it becomes a character in itself.
Advice: read the Acknowledgements, you will thank me.
Liz.
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