Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When the Germans seize Paris, its peaceful streets fill with terror overnight, and nowhere is safe. Desperate to help her friends, Parisian bookseller Madeline Valette turns her bookshop into a sanctuary for those in hiding, but she knows it’s only a matter of time before she’s found out.
So when she is asked to join the Resistance and smuggle banned books from Berlin, she accepts, desperate to defy the Nazis. And while she wants to save precious books from destruction, she also hopes her trips to Germany might help her find the last living connection she has to her beloved husband…
Because Madeline has received a letter from a German woman called Ada, the mother of her husband’s son. Facing persecution, the Jewish boy is in terrible danger. But where are they now, and can Madeline help them before it’s too late?
When Madeline finally finds Ada and the child, she realises Ada is at the mercy of a high-ranking Nazi official and both their lives are now at risk. Can Madeline get them to safety? Or will the unthinkable happen to this innocent child?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Bookseller of Paris to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
Madeline Valette is the next sister to have her story told in Suzanne Kelman’s, Paris Sister’s series. Book one gave us brief glimpses of her where there were suggestions that she disappeared for periods of time which made me curious but all is revealed here. The story moves back and forth between two timelines, Paris during World War Two and the present day setting takes place in Britain and Germany. There was a lot of chopping and changing between the two periods but after a while I did become accustomed to the fact each chapter would be from a different viewpoint.
As the title The Bookseller of Paris suggests Madeleine runs her own bookshop, The Elegance of Ink (what a great name for a bookshop) in Paris. Her business is her sanctuary and anchor, a small island in a sea of instability following the death of her beloved husband Alex and the invasion of Paris by the Germans. Madeline cares for all her customers and without them and the bookshop she would be truly lost and adrift as the grief she feels is deep and long lasting.
Madeline receives a letter addressed to her late husband. It’s from a woman named Ada asking for help. It transpires that Ada was his former wife who resides in Berlin and she needs help in getting their half Jewish son Kurt out of Berlin. For the laws against Jews are increasing by the day and if captured Ada and her son will be sent to a camp. Madeleine is bereft when she reads this letter as she never knew Alex had been previously married let alone that he had a son. From the point of when she reads the letter this is where the reader sees the true grit, resilience and strength that Madeline possesses and this will be tested time and time again throughout the course of the story. Anyone else would have probably binned the letter and not given it any more thought. After all, it was a deceit by Alex, an omission of the truth and why should she take this burden on herself when all she is trying to do survive the war which has brought so much upheaval to the citizens of Paris and beyond. It took a lot of courage to decide that she would search for Kurt and bring him to Paris if she could and I admired her for taking on this quest which was relentless and put her in great danger many a time.
Soon Madeline is part of the Resistance and thanks to her American passport, courtesy of Alex’s heritage, she is able to slip in and out of Germany carrying back banned books and literature and using microfilm to copy important documents. At the same time she hopes to find news of Ada and Kurt's whereabouts. I thought it so incredibly brave that time and time again she slipped into the lion’s den. She could just have easily hidden herself in the bookshop continuing her daily life just trying to get by to the end of the war. Instead, she chose to put herself out there in the firing line and her trails lead her to Eichenwald, a beautiful house in Berlin where a Jewish family once lived but now is home to Frederick Mueller, a member of the Gestapo. When she learns important life altering information, Madeline doesn’t run from the source instead she wants to know more and finding Alex’s son and getting him to safety is always at the forefront of her mind.
The story takes a dark turn when we learn of Frederick and what he is capable of but in the middle when Madeline meets Jacob, the caretaker for the estate, I felt this was where a lull occurred. The same happened in the present day timeline also. It kind of came out of nowhere and dragged the plot down for a good chunk of the midway point of the book as I thought it transformed into a full blown love story and the aspects regarding espionage, spying and secret agents took a back seat as did the main crux of the story. Don’t get me wrong I know there is usually some form of romance in books in this genre and especially those that use the dual timeline format but I wanted more action, adventure and excitement and I found myself thinking oh I’m not enjoying this as much as the first book. With every turn of the page I was waiting for the pace to pick up again and then thankfully around the 75% mark it did and things got back on track and I found myself fully invested in the eventual outcome. Even, if at some points I found myself getting mixed up with some details regarding events or links establishing themselves between the past and the present. A reread of a couple of pages every so often helped me with this issue. Madeline became a warrior in her quest and I thought the way her story evolved became bittersweet, emotional and poignant.
Olivia is the character who we follow in the present and although I preferred Madeline’s story, the modern day aspect was still a vital cog in the overall wheel. Olivia has suffered from such emotional trauma in her past that she is still finding it difficult to reconcile and move on. When the details of what she went through emerge you can understand why she feels this way. She is an antiquarian bookseller and upon discovering a link to her families past in a sale lot of books she went to view, a whole can of worms is opened up. She questions everything she thought she knew about her family and one thing makes her think that she needs to delve deeper into the past. For what she learns surely can’t be true. A photograph and a bundle of letters has her setting out on her own quest as Madeline did all those years ago.
It was almost as if Olivia had a map that she had to follow, uncover the clues and hidden meanings and the answers she so desperately wanted regarding her heritage will make themselves known. In doing so she will connect with her grandfather Kurt who has remained an enigma for as long as she can remember. She tries to get through to him but he is cold, aloof and hurting so very deeply. He has blocked the trauma of past and refuses to unlock it. But Olivia is resolute and her journey takes her to Germany where she meets Markus and as mentioned previously this is where romance took over until things went back to familiar territory with the search. But what does Olivia uncover, and will this knowledge help bridge the gap between the past and present?
Reading Suzanne Kelman’s end notes I discovered that the character Of Madeline was based upon Adele Kibre, a woman who saved thousands of books and produced over 3,000 reels of microfilm smuggled from Nazi occupied territories. This made the admiration I had felt for Madeline grow even further. I love when stories are based upon real people as it sheds light on little known people who did so much so selflessly for the war effort. The epilogue to The Bookseller in Paris was fitting and emotional and it gave the story a resolute and conclusive ending. The literary themes throughout will bring a smile to your face and apart from the over reliance of romance halfway through I found this to be an engrossing and fascinating read which has left me eager to know which sister will feature in book three.
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