My October 2021 selection of The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles was influenced by a few events.

This title has been on my radar since its release in February of this year because I enjoy historical fiction. When a friend offered to lend me a copy, it seemed a perfect follow-up to September’s banned books theme.

The Paris Library is the American Library in Paris (ALP). Janet Skeslien Charles learned about the history of the library during the time she worked there as the program’s manager. She was amazed by the records she discovered about the contributions of the staff at the American Library in Paris during World War II.

The library was a place for Parisians, tourists, and ex-pats to gather, socialize, and share their love of books. Children gathered for story hour and authors researched topics for the books they were writing or hoped to write.

The library remained open during the German occupation of Paris. By order of Dr. Hermann Fuchs, the Bibliotheksschutz – Library Protector in charge of intellectual activity in occupied France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, certain books were banned. Unlike many of his colleagues, Fuchs allowed the ALP to store these books instead of ordering them to be burned. The library staff delivered books to older subscribers and Jewish subscribers who were no longer allowed to enter libraries, schools, and many public buildings. Many of these deliveries had to be made in secret to protect the Jews after the Nazi’s began ordering their arrests and sending them to concentration camps. The library also sent books to soldiers in combat areas, military hospitals, and prison camps. It’s also believed that members of the library staff helped hide Jewish people and help them leave the country.

From historical documents and letters, Charles used real and fictional characters to recreate what she believed it would have been like to live in Paris and work at the library during the second world war. She divides the story between Odile as a young Parisian working at the library and Odile decades after the war and now living in Montana where she befriends a young neighbor named Lily.

Odile’s love for the library started when her Aunt Caro took her there for story hour and encouraged her to explore the wonders of the library. Aunt Caro taught her the Dewey Decimal system and introduced her to the card catalogue, so Odile could find any book in the library. Odile studied English in school in hopes of someday working at the library. Odile and her twin brother Remy are trying to establish their independence, but their police commissioner father and perfectionist mother think they know best. They are angry when Remy announces he does not want to become a lawyer and adamant Odile should marry a nice police officer like her father and forget her silly notions of working at the library. When Odile starts working at the Paris Library, her brother becomes enamored with one of her coworkers and Odile falls for Paul, one of the handsome police officers she vowed never to consider dating.

When the Nazi occupation of Paris begins, many of the friends she’s made at the library must go into hiding and others are in danger simply because they are ex-pats from countries at war with Germany. Soon after Remy enlists in the French Army, he is injured and becomes a POW. Odile delivers books to her Jewish subscribers, helps package books for the soldiers, volunteers at the American military hospital in Paris and struggles to contend with food shortages, the illegal market, and Nazi checkpoints throughout her beloved city. Paul takes her to uninhabited apartments all over the city, so they can have some time away from her parents’ watchful eyes, but Odile never asks where the owners are or why they left their belongings behind.

Interwoven with these flashbacks, Charles gives us glimpses of Odile’s life many years after the war. What happened to Paul? Why does she leave Paris? How did she become a war bride and later a widow in Montana? Odile’s past is revealed slowly as she and Lily develop a friendship that helps Lily deal with the loss of a parent and the arrival of a stepparent and new siblings. Odile uses her past mistakes to guide Lily on her journey through these difficult years.

Charles brings to life many of the perils of war we don’t typically see or read about…the anger and mistrust of foreigners, jealousy… the inequalities between the wealthy and the working classes. The people at home during a war struggle to honor the sacrifices of our soldiers. They worry about loved ones and feel guilty to be enjoying some modicum of safety and normalcy. Words spoken in anger without thinking can ruin the lives and reputations of neighbors or loved ones. Decent people can be pushed to tolerate horrible injustices.

I’m trying to be deliberately vague because I want you to read this book. Many of the characters and events mentioned are real. The author outlines them in her follow-up notes at the end of the book. Except Dr. Hermann Fuchs, I won’t tell you which characters from the library are real people. I want you to try to figure it out for yourself.

Janet Skeslien Charles has also written Moonlight in Odessa and shorter works published in literary magazines such as Slice and the anthology, Montana Noir.

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