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The Paris Library � Janet Skeslien Charles
Book on CD performed by Nicky Diss, Sarah Feathers,and Esther Wane.
3.5*** (rounded up)

This is a work of historical fiction based on the real story of the librarians and staff at the American Library in Paris during WW2. The author uses the de rigueur dual timeline to tell the story.

In 1939, Odile lands her ideal job as a librarian at the library in Paris. But the Nazi occupation soon makes things difficult. Fast forward to 1983 in small-town Froid, Montana, where a lonely teenager, Lily, befriends the widow next door, and Odile begins to teach her French.

Lily will uncover some of Odile’s long-held secrets, though not always understand their importance and true meaning. During the war, Odile will also be privy to secrets she doesn’t fully understand. In both cases there will be betrayals and the parties involved will have to come to terms with whether they can forgive.

I loved all the literary references and how Charles used the Dewey Decimal System throughout the book. She also did a fine job of exploring the various emotions and reactions to incredible stress. Some characters were virtually paralyzed by fear, others moved boldly, still others did their best to stay under the radar, hearts pounding while they tried to help the cause. The younger characters, especially Lily, were frequently impetuous and rash, not understanding until later how their actions / statements might impact others.

The author notes at the end tell us that, apart from Odile (our fictional heroine), all the people in the library were real; they all did what they could in the face of horrendous circumstances. Would that we all could be so brave and steadfast!

The audiobook is marvelously performed by a trio of talented voice artists. This certainly helped to keep straight both timeline and which point of view was being used in a given chapter.


LINK to my review