While Paris Slept
By Ruth Druart
Blurb
Paris 1944
A young woman's future is torn away in a heartbeat. Herded on to a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope.
Santa Cruz 1953
Jean-Luc thought he had left it all behind. The scar on his face a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi Occupation. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door.
On a darkened platform, two destinies become entangled. Their choice will change the future in ways neither could have imagined...
Our Review
While Paris Slept was a wrenching tale set in both Santa Cruz in 1953 and wartime Paris. It focuses on Jean-Luc and Charlotte, a French couple living in America with their son Sam. One day some official looking men take Jean-Luc away for questioning and the story begins.
We find that Jean-Luc worked at Bovigny train station, a platform for Drancy concentration camp. The American investigators look at him with disdain but as the tale progresses we learn things about Jean-Luc which call the reader to question the nature of complicity and ponder whether some acts of collaboration were justifiable.
We learn that a woman bound for Auschwitz gave her precious newborn son to a stranger in an attempt to save him from her fate.
Past and future collide in this book and the result is messy and brings into question the very nature of motherhood and what defines a family.
While Paris Slept is a unique take on this particular piece of history and one which will no doubt tear the reader in multiple directions. Beautifully written.
I found it very hard to write this review because I don't want to give anything away to a future reader, suffice to say it is well worth reading,
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 39 Times.
I hope you enjoyed this book review, please consider sharing it with others.
Get In Touch
Please feel free to leave a comment to this book review below. Or even leave your own review if you like.
If you run a blog and/or have posted a review to this book, a Q & A or general author interview online you can always add a trackback to it here and following moderation we'll add a link to it below.