Paris Never Leaves You
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4.3 • 43 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
‘Masterful, magnificent. A passionate story of survival. This story will stay with me for a long time.’ Heather Morris, author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz
The war is over, but the past is never past …
Paris, 1944. Charlotte Foret is working in a tiny bookstore in Nazi-occupied Paris struggling to stay alive and keep her baby Vivi safe. Every day they live through is a miracle until Vivi becomes gravely ill. In desperation, Charlotte accepts help from an unlikely saviour – and her life is changed forever.
Charlotte is no victim. She is a survivor. But the truth of what happened in Paris is something she knows she can never share with anyone, including her daughter. Can she ever really leave Paris behind, and embrace the next chapter of her life?
Seamlessly interweaving Charlotte’s past in wartime Paris and her present in the 1950s world of New York publishing, Paris Never Leaves You is a heartbreakingly moving and unforgettable story of resilience, love – and impossible choices.
‘Amid the glut of World War II fiction, Ellen Feldman’s nuanced romance stands out, its shifting sands of perception and reality set against a backdrop of Nazi-occupied Paris.’ Australian Women’s Weekly
‘A thrilling achievement ... I was thoroughly drawn into a deep, rich, vivid world of engrossing characters and emotional and moral crises ... a great piece of writing in every way.' Forbes
‘This beautiful novel tells the bittersweet story of a young mother's strength and survival during WWII, effortlessly capturing the terror, immediacy, and inextinguishable human spirit.’ Noelle Salazar, author of The Flight Girls
'With more twists and turns than the back streets of Paris, the story is as propulsively readable as a spy novel, and as rich and psychologically rewarding as only the finest literature can be.’ Liza Gyllenhaal, author of Bleeding Heart
‘An exquisite novel that gives us what we’re hungry for: an intelligent, complex female character who challenges our ideas of right and wrong, morality and immorality. Feldman achieves all of this with admirable precision and wit; she takes aim and does not miss.’ Elizabeth J Church, author of All the Beautiful Girls
'Completely compelling. I tore through it. This novel pivots on how we manage to survive surviving ... Charlotte's visceral story will stay with me.’ Naomi Wood, author of Mrs Hemingway
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Motherhood is put to the test in this page-turning historical novel. Split between Nazi-occupied Paris and 1950s New York, Paris Never Leaves You follows book lover Charlotte’s ongoing fight to protect her young daughter. Subjected to anti-Semitism, they discover their capacity for resilience, but the spectre of the past is never far behind. Although the promise of romance awaits, Charlotte must first confront her lingering trauma. Ellen Feldman excels at crafting a multi-layered story that tackles themes such as survivor guilt and mother-daughter relationships alongside romance and the beautiful Paris setting with tenderness and respect. her female characters are particularly well-drawn and sharp banter keeps the story relatable—even when the stakes are at their highest.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The question of what it means to be Jewish drives Feldman's nuanced WWII story of love and survival (after Terrible Virtue). Nine years after the war, Charlotte Foret, a widow from France, lives in New York City with her teenage daughter, Vivi, working as an editor at a publishing house. Vivi learns to navigate the social whirl of her school as one of only a handful of Jewish students, while Charlotte tries to deny a growing attraction to her married boss. When Charlotte receives, and tries to ignore, a letter postmarked Bogot , Colombia, a sanctuary for many former Nazis, she realizes she cannot escape the memories of occupied Paris. In flashbacks, Feldman vividly recreates those years as Charlotte runs a Paris bookstore where she meets and befriends German Wehrmacht officer Julian Bauer. She rationalizes that Julian (the subject of the letters she receives from Bogot ) is different from other Nazis; though he assumes she's Jewish and getting by on false identity papers, he's unconcerned. The night Julian saves Charlotte and Vivi from a roundup, he and Charlotte become lovers and he confides a dangerous secret that gives Feldman's story a gasp-worthy spin, elevating an otherwise conventional wartime love story. With its appealing heroine and historically detailed settings, romance fans will find this satisfying.
Customer Reviews
A wonderful read
Loved this beautiful book and it left me wanting to know more about what happens to Charlotte!
Great writing/book but ending was meh
Great book, loved the characters and juxtaposition of the timeline in Charlotte’s life. However the ending felt quite abrupt. I think the ending needed more.
A book you won’t be able to put down
This was one of those books you can’t put down once you’ve started reading. I felt like I was there and the plot was so detailed that I didn’t want it to end.