Title: The Paris
Daughter
Author: Kristin Harmel
Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
Publisher: Simon
& Schuster Audio
Length:
Approximately 12 hours and 7 minutes
Source: Review
Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio. Thank
you @simonandschuster #BookClubFavorites for the free books!
What is your favorite novel/movie/show that is set
during WWII? I have so many
favorites. I am looking forward to All
the Light You Cannot See by Anthony Doer becoming a series on Netflix later
this year. I loved that book.
Kristin Harmel is one of my favorite authors and her
works that I have read so far have all been set during the WWII time
period. In the Paris Daughter, American
ex-pats Elise and Juliette become best friends in Paris right before WWII. They are both expecting babies. Elise is married to an artist and Juliette
and her husband Paul run a bookstore.
Both women have daughters, but as war marches across Europe, their lives
are changed forever. Elise has to make
one of hardest decisions a mother has to make and give her daughter to Juliette
to care for as she flees from the Nazis.
After the war ends, Elise returns to find the bookstore bombed out and
Juliette and her family missing. What
happened to her daughter in her last moments?
Where is Juliette?
The Paris Daughter was a bit of a slow start for me,
but once I got into the story, I couldn’t stop listening to the audiobook. Madeleine Maby is a good narrator as well and
the story was engaging. I guessed the
big reveals in this story, but I still enjoyed it.
This novel really tugged at my heart strings as a mother,
and it really made me think about all of the children that disappeared or were
killed during World War II (and other conflicts). Thinking about their parents and wondering what
happened to your children. How many children
were never found again? How many
children returned home to find their families gone?
I also enjoyed the story about artwork and how the war
impacted it. Art was worth more from artists
that were killed during the war. Art had
disappeared and been rampantly stolen. I
also love the movie Woman in Gold and it makes me wonder how many people never got
back their own works of art.
I learned new things in this novel as well and Harmel’s
notes at the end are wonderful. There is
a big moment towards the end of the book that I thought was all fiction, but it
was a real event. I was intrigued. I enjoy learning new to me history.
Overall, The Paris Daughter is an intriguing new WWII
historical fiction novel that focuses on motherhood and also the art world
during that time period. I highly recommend
it.
Another good one from this era
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