The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles – 368 pages
ARC from Netgalley and Atria for an honest review.
Book Blurb:
Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet has it all: her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into Paris, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal. Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor’s mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings, and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.
My Review: 4 stars
The Paris Library skillfully showed how Paris and her people struggled during the Nazi invasion. The highlight, however, is the American Library in Paris and the struggles they went through to keep it open.
This particular library has a rich history from the war as it donated hundreds of books to different regiments fighting in the war. The remarkable staff continually put themselves at risk as they secreted books to their Jewish patrons. The library became a family to many; a safe haven protected by books. Each of the regular “subscribers” at the library had a backstory and of course, all of them had a love affair with literature.
Odile was a great character and her story in 1944 definitely overshadowed Lily’s, a young girl in the mid 1980s. I’m not sure the book needed to be written in two timelines. It easily could’ve been Odile’s story throughout. When we jumped into Lily’s current story, I was jarred, forgetting there was a second timeline. I rushed through the ladder storyline in order to get back to 1944.
The book was laden with amazing quotes about reading, books and libraries. I shared a few below. I adore reading books about books. Learning in the author’s notes that she lived in Paris and that many of the characters she mentions are real, was a bonus for me.
Quotes I liked:
I was skeptical about soul mates, but believe in bookmates, two being bound by a passion for reading.”
“I wept with I finished. First because I was happy to have read it. Second because the story was so moving. Third because I’ll never again experience the discovery of it.”
“Kissing was the prologue of a marvelous book, one I wanted to read until the end.”
“I decided that words were worth fighting for, that they were worth the risk.”
“The Library is a bridge of books between cultures.”
“We all have a book that’s changed us forever, one that lets us know that we’re not alone.”
“Grief is a sea made of your own tears. Salty swells cover the dark depths you must swim at your own pace. It takes time to build stamina. Some days, my arms sliced through the water, and I felt things would be okay, the shore wasn’t so far off. Then one memory, one moment would nearly drown me, and I’d be back to the beginning, fighting to stay about the waves, exhausted, sinking in my own sorrow.”
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