The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles tells the story of Odile, a young Frenchwoman living through World War II in Paris. Her life of library work and romance is turned upside down when German forces occupy her city. Eventually, she ends up in Montana, and 40 years later finds a confidante in her teenage neighbor Lily.
The novel goes back and forth between the 1940s and the 1980s, so that we see Odile's history unfold and understand more of how she ended up in America and why her advice to Lily is so important.
I really enjoyed reading about Odile and the American Library in Paris, which was a real place and many of the book's characters were real people or based on real people. The 1940s part of the book was much better than the 1980s part. It wasn't until I got about 75 percent of the way through the book that I started to see why the author had us going back and forth between the two time periods. Knowing what I finally knew, I understood and appreciated the transition better.
This book was hyped up during last year's BookExpo, so I was really excited to read it, but I can't say that I finished the book with the same amount of enthusiasm. I wasn't a fan of the author's writing style, which was very fast-paced and felt like details that would help guide the reader were being left out, and as written above, I didn't like the 1980s part for the majority of the book.
But if you can get past some of that and you want to read about a little-known part of World War II history, then you'll enjoy the details of the American Library in Paris and what the librarians did to keep knowledge accessible to all.
The Paris Library is published by Atria Books and is on bookstore shelves today. I received a free e-ARC in exchange for my review.
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