A fascinating tale of how Paris was caught by surprise when the Germans invaded and how a group of book lovers managed the incursion onto their territory at the American Library in Paris. I liked how this showed the shades of grey faced by ordinary people as they negotiated the balance between resistance and collaboration in a new reality.

A fascinating story set during the second world war in Paris featuring the American Library and it's staff.
The book is a homage to books and the power of words. A heart-warming tale of love and loss, friendship, trust and dedication.
It was delightful to read Odile's story but I found the parallel story of Lily made the book rather disjointed.

I really enjoyed this book - I had not been aware of the American Library in Paris nor of its role during World War Two sending books to servicemen and delivering books to their Jewish subscribers at the risk of their lives. This story revolves around Odile during the war and in the early 1980s - 2 distinct phases of her life. Lily - her teenage neighbour - befriends her and she gradually relives her war years and helps Lily to understand herself.

Odile apparently had it all - family, job she loved, friendship and a boyfriend but the war changes everything and forces her to make some hard choices . All this with the Library and its characters - both staff and subscribers - in the background adding depth to the story.

A riveting read.

I really enjoyed this, though it did flounder a little, I felt, towards the end. The enormous build up to final revelations just felt a bit too long & drawn out for me. But still, it was a captivating read. I found Odile both endearing and infuriating. I loved Lily, but she annoyed me. The cavalcade of characters in the Library sometimes felt a little bit unmanageable, but overall the sense of place, and the inter-woven story worked well.
I've seen some readers say they preferred the historical parts to the novel, which I can understand, but I really loved some of the writing in the modern day parts, and I was intrigued as to how Odile had wound up where she did.
And since I'm a librarian, obviously the library bits were great!

A fantastic story, well written. It had me drawn in and hooked from the start.
I would like to read more by Janet.

The out of office is ON, I am still full of the curry we shared with lovely friends last night and I think I have possibly found the best line in any book, totally summing up how I feel about the Bookstagram community...

"'We're bookmates,' she said, in the decisive tone one would assert, 'The sky is blue,' or 'Paris is the best city in the world.' I was sceptical about soulmates, but could believe in bookmates, two beings bound by a passion for reading."

I loved The Paris Library - it fulfilled my passion for history and was a beautifully told story, full of interesting characters and unexpected friendships. I would totally recommend it. Thank you @netgalley for this lovely, heartwarming book.

Wonderful WW2 take set in two time zones and from two points of view. All set in the American Library in Paris and , rather bizarrely, Montana USA- all will be revealed!

Beautiful characters that will stay with you long after you have finished it’s a tale of love and friendships that are found in the most unexpected of places.

I will read again !

An interesting story that keeps you involved from start to finish. I found the events portrayed as fascinating as the characters involved. Definitely recommended.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL book. I could not put this down and became so emotionally invested in this story! I highly recommend this book. Thank you to netgalley for the chance to review this title.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, which I really enjoyed. Set in Paris during WW11 and the occupation by the Germans, this is compelling reading and is based on a true story. The story of Odile, the main character, with her love of books and the risks she took during this time while working at the American Library in Paris. An emotional read, which jumps between the 1940’s and the 1980’s, when Odile is living in Montana telling her story gradually to a young American girl. who is fascinated by the French Odile.
A book I would recommend.

If you're a book lover you can't help but become absorbed by this and it's heaven on pages if you're also a fan of novels set in the second world war.
'The Paris Library' is full of emotion as it sets itself at the heart of occupied Paris in the second world war.
The story is told from the viewpoint of several of the main characters from that time and later in 1983. I found the writing and character portrayals involving and the switch between the time periods left me desperate to know what was to come. However the time spent with each narrator was, for me, too short which meant I was continually forgetting to note at the beginning of the chapter who was speaking and when.
This novel provides an alternative angle from which to tell the story of those affected by the occupation and Odile's naivety gives the reader the chance to question the actions or inactions of those involved. However, it niggled me a little that Odile would risk her own life, that of a jewish friend and also those at the library by continuing to deliver a book when aware of being followed by a nazi supporter. I fear those readers who don't quite get the all-absorbing lure of books will find this just too incredulous to read on.
Overall, though, I would really recommend this, especially for those who can fully appreciate how life-absorbing a love of books can be.
Thank you to John Murray Press (Two Roads) and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Very compelling and beautifully written book about life in Paris during WWII. I felt like it gave me a much greater understanding of what life would have been like in the city during those war years. I felt very invested in the story and its characters, compelled to keep returning to find out more. Really enjoyed the Paris Library.

The Paris Library is a amazing book full of stories. Odeli is a wonderful main character and lead this book well. I adore lily's side story it was very compelling.

A war story for all lovers of books, based on a true story and characters; thoroughly researched when the author worked at the American Library in Paris. A great mix of loveable characters, dream locations and the harrowing reality of the Second World War. It gives a different insight into the plight of the Parisians of that time, how friendships were torn, made and endured. I loved it, it's about books, it's set in Paris, hey what is there not to love. Enjoy it, savour it or like me devour it, just read it!

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher John Murray Press - Two Roads, for the ARC.
I found this a really interesting read as historical fact is woven through the lives of those working at the American Library in Paris during WWII. Based on some actual characters and events, the reader is taken on a journey from happy Parisian times to the darkest of days in occupied France when the Gestapo clamped-down on Paris, once a Free Zone.

Told mainly from two points of view:
Odile Souchet, a 20yr-old, in early 1939, who is intent on defying her father's wishes to marry in favour of having a job and independence. She begins work at the ALP. She, as well as all the subscribers to the library, love reading, they love books, they love recommending them and discussing them. It is a community; they have students, writers, diplomats and aristocracy adorning their reading rooms, and you gradually get to know their backgrounds - American, French, Russian, Catholic, Jewish - all exist happily alongside one another. Then war is declared.
:Lily, 40 years later in the 1980s, lives in Montana amidst the Cold War missile deterrent silos and worries about nuclear war. Opposite her house lives a reclusive elderly widow - Odile Gustafson. Lily engages Odile's attention by doing a school project on France - Odile is just so "exotic". During their discussions Odile gradually reveals her past, as well as teaching Lily French.

The two story strands come together. We learn of Odile's father's police work during the war; the anonymous letters sent to the authorities denouncing Jews; the heroism of the staff at the ALP as they package-up books for soldiers across the continent, as well as supplying their subscribers who had been banned from the library. We learn how Odile came to be in Montana, the betrayals that haunt her and the sadness of lost friendships.

Yes, this is a very interesting story, well-written and engaging. However, there were, for me, too many detailed references to authors and their works intermingled with narrative, which I found distracting.
Glad I read it though. I'm sure not a lot of people know about the American Library in Paris.

This is the story of Odile Souchet,a young Parisian woman who loves books and finds work as a librarian in the American Library just before the outbreak of war in 1939.The book follows the lives of the library staff ,led by the redoubtable Miss Reeder,and the subscribers to the library during the German Occupation.
This story is interspersed with the story of Lily,an American teenager in 1980s Montana, who befriends a much older Odile through her interest in all things French.
The story is based in real events and gives a real insight into the lives of ordinary people living in wartime France.Odile learns about the letters of denouncement of Parisians written anonymously by neighbours and colleagues, and this has shattering repercussions for her.
Definitely recommended for all book lovers and fans of historical fiction.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for a review which reflects my own opinions.

Just an absolute delight to read.

Story begins in 1939 Paris with Odile being interviewed for a job at the American Library in Paris, after being introduced to some of the characters who run and frequent the library we are then transported to 1980s Montana where we meet Lily.

Lily is working on a school project about France, and decides to write about her neighbour Odile Gustafson who is renowned locally for liking her solitude and being a loner.

This is a wonderfully enthralling story which I highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

This one is a winner. Well researched and gripping from start to finish. The rigours of occupation are juxtaposed with a reverence and regard for readers and reading that kept me enthralled. Holding no punches, this is a book about loss, deprivation and the slow decline of civility in the midst of war but even when things look darkest, Hope shines through .

The modern sections add to the theme of letting go of the superfluous so you can hold what you treasure closer.

Women to admire and to emulate, quiet heroes and those afflicted by weakness or fear all coalesce into one of the most extraordinary stories I had read this year.

I have just devoured this wonderful book in 2 days!! The well rounded characters jumped from the pages. The unusual setting of The American Library was an added bonus. I would thoroughly recommend this book.

This is an historical novel, about Paris just before and during WW2 and Eastern Montana in the Cold War of the eighties. It’s a shock for a reader of my generation to realise that, in 2020, not just children, but parents of children, probably do need to know what the early to mid eighties were like. There are both similarities and differences in the two threads, of course: Paris was occupied by the NAZIs, but the thousand nuclear missiles buried in the American plains never flew and Soviet Communism turned out to contain the seeds of its own destruction. The Montana characters are geographically isolated, those in Paris are isolated by their circumstances and their (fully justified) fear of letting anyone know just what those circumstances are.

Lily, a Montanan teenager is fascinated to learn about the Paris that her new friend, Odile (older than Lily’s parents) knew, even though it was Paris in her darkest hour. It all sounds so chic, if not “cool” that she wonders why Odile ever left and that’s not a tale that Odile wants to tell. The central message of this book is that everyone has something they’d prefer others not to know and it’s essential to respect this.

The author does a good job of portraying escalating oppression and declining nutrition in occupied Paris, without pretending that Parisians knew about everything that was going on elsewhere in Occupied France, let alone the rest of Europe. The NAZIs kept everyone in the dark, unless there was a news story which would take spin, in which case it was put on posters everywhere in Paris.

She also does a good job of showing how important “Crow Letters”, anonymous letters denouncing people to the French police or even directly to the NAZIs, were in that oppression. {It is beyond the scope of this book, of course, but in Germany the NAZIs made a rod for their own backs by offering a reward of 1,000 Reichsmarks to anyone who denounced neighbours or even relatives to the Gestapo. By early 1944, the Gestapo was fully aware (there were memos about it) that most of the people they were arresting were good Germans denounced out of spite, but to stop doing it, or to stop paying out the bounty, would have been to admit that the NAZIs were fallible and had perpetrated a great injustice, so it continued. The 610 Office in Communist China may have the same regrets, one day.} She also shows us that immediately upon being liberated, some Parisians behaved as vindictively towards anyone thought to have been friendly to the occupiers, as the writers of the Crow Letters had been to their neighbours. Almost certainly, none of the Crow Letter writers were amongst those publicly punished after the liberation, because nobody knew who they were: they went for the women who’d had babies instead.

This is a very well-researched book and I have only two gripes:
French characters refer to the Germans as “Krauts” even before America enters the war, and I wonder how accurate this is? Also, the lethally-poor treatment of captured French soldiers forced to do manual labour in Germany, is put down to the Germans not caring whether they lived or died. In fact the Germans did care about this issue: Heinrich Himmler’s official policy on forced labour was called “death through exhaustion.” The slaves were meant to die and the only reason why fewer French prisoners died than Russian or Polish ones was that the Germans needed the French economy to go on working as long as the occupation lasted, and that meant letting the working population still in France believe that their loved ones might one day come back safely. Had the Germans won, this would not have happened.