A wonderful story that gives insight into the war years in occupied Paris and the 1950’s in California, USA. It is as harrowing as it is beautiful, with themes of love, loss, sacrifice and survival. Ruth Druart’s writing draws you completely in, you can feel the darkness in Paris and the contrasting brightness of California. When reading about Auschwitz, the desperation and hopelessness were almost tangible, I defy anyone not to be moved by it. This book and it’s descriptions has inspired me to do further research and reading in to Auschwitz and credit must go to the authors writing for that.

The story is told by Charlotte, Jean-Luc, Sarah and Sam. Charotte’s narration is the only one in first person. The two timelines also run alongside each other. There is some French and German dialogue interspersed with the English, sometimes with translation offered, other times not. My only feedback here is that on occasion this could make the dialogue feel slightly awkward, a phrase in French, followed by the English within the dialogue. As a reader I think I would personally prefer a side note on the page offering the translation, to keep the dialogue flowing.

My thanks go to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this hopeful tale that shows the mother and child bond beautifully.

Wow, what a book! I cried my eyes out reading this. A truly heartrending story that explores a parent's love for their child. I loved the way the story flitted between the different characters and timelines. Beautifully written. I would highly recommend.

One of the best books I have read for a while I absolutely adored this book full of loss, trudged the, love and hope with a beautiful ending,

I will not repeat the excellent summary of the narrative given in the book's blurb itself but would highly recommend this account as an entirely credible and moving account of ordinary people having to face extra-ordinary circumstances that test their limits of humanity. The characters, with all their innate goodness but inevitable flaws, are expertly drawn for us and introduced gradually to us as the story progresses and flips between the present day (1950s America and France) and the final days of WWII in Europe.

We are drawn in to the story of Jean-Luc and Charlotte who rescue a Jewish baby and endure great danger and both physical and emotional turmoil to flee France for the safety of all of their lives. We congratulate them on being able to shower such love on the life of this child who is not theirs biologically. So we are shocked as they are when their settled life in America, the baby now 11 years old, is shocked and changed beyond measure.

I don't want to spoil the story with too much detail, but I was shocked to the core by the sudden turn of events of 1955, in particular the behaviour of the authorities concerned. I've no doubt that, though a fictional account, this reflected the times pretty accurately - where families can be split apart, children taken from their parents with less than a day's notice, with no thought for the psychological and emotional repercussions on all concerned. Sadly it has become a familiar story for us, at least hear in the UK, where we are aware of the fate of babies of unmarried mothers in that era, hordes of babies transported to Australia and the like, and even older children being torn away from all that is familiar.

Thankfully, this is not the end of the story for the adults and the child himself in this story. Despite our initial fears and our horror at the behaviour of people we would expect more of, we see self-sacrifice, love and compassion coming into their own. As always, I personally find it uplifting to see such redeeming features in the lives of 'ordinary' people and to me this is a greater encouragement and thrill, almost, than seeing it in people we would normally already consider to be heroes. It makes us hope that we too might find the best in ourselves if and when we need to.

A really excellent book. I'm very sparing with my five stars, keeping it down to just a handful, but for me the four stars means very highly recommended.

Author Ruth Druart moved to Paris in 1993. While walking around the city when she first moved there, she was moved by the plaques and monuments to those killed during World War II. Outside a school in Le Marais, she noticed a simple plaque telling of the 260 pupils who were detained by the Nazis during the war. This inspired her to learn more about the German occupation of France.

Paris was governed by the German military from June 1940 until August 1944. Parisians were subjected to a strict curfew and rationing, with their press and radio taken over by German propaganda. Jewish people in Paris were persecuted harshly, forced to wear the yellow Star of David badge and barred from certain professions and public places.

This persecution escalated with the Vél d’Hiv roundup in 1942, when over 13,000 Jews were detained in Paris in just two days and deported to concentration camps. The title of the novel may inadvertently suggest that such atrocities were ignored or overlooked by the French, however the French police were very much complicit in these mass arrests. Their complicity was acknowledged by France when French President Jacques Chirac made an official apology in 1995.

‘It always starts with insignificant measures, you know, things you can live with, like not being allowed to own a bike or a radio. It makes you feel uneasy – alienated, but life goes on. Then further restrictions make it much more awkward: limiting the places you can go, where you’re allowed to shop. You can no longer mix with nonJews.’ […] ‘And finally they take away your livelihood. Then it becomes almost impossible to support your family; your children go hungry, and you begin to think to yourself: they’re trying to kill us. But by then, it’s too late. You no longer have the money or the connections to get out.’

In this debut novel Druart focuses on French railroad worker Jean-Luc, who is forced to work for the Germans at the Drancy internment camp. Thousands of Jews were transported from Drancy by rail to Auschwitz. Jean-Luc notices people’s belongings strewn by the train tracks, including those of babies and small children, and gradually comes to realise the horror of the camp’s true purpose. The story’s action really begins when he is entrusted with the baby boy of a desperate woman about to be transported. From then on he does everything he can to keep the boy safe.

It’s a thoroughly researched novel, giving an insight into the lives of Parisians under occupation – how they lived and how they might have felt about the situation. Many novels have chronicled the horrors of Auschwitz already and while this is touched on here, it’s not the main focus. Druart shows us the pain of those who did manage to survive after their families were torn apart, and how their lives could never be the same again. I found myself wondering how the author would manage to come to a satisfying conclusion after such a harrowing story, but the ending paid off. I had tears in my eyes as I turned the last page.

What a book. Ruth Druart has written an emotional and riveting book about Sam(uel) and his parents. Wartime Paris and Auschwitz are well drawn and represented and the characters are mostly strong and able to be empathised with. War fiction is my preferred genre and I read this in a little over 24 hours as I couldn't put it down once I had started it - apart from to sleep. An excellent read, an unquestioning five stars. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for an e_ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and couldn't wait to pick it up every day. I particularly liked how the book switched between Paris under German occupation in the 1940s and America post- war 1950s and also gave the accounts of each character. This is a thought provoking, suspenseful read and I will definitely look out for the authors next novel. The book has a feeling of 'what would you do?' and I think it would be a great book club read.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this amazing book.

Absolutely rivetting and harrowing story of dilemnas in war torn Paris. Sarah hands her baby to a stranger at a train station convinced it is the only chance for him, certain she is going to her death. Jean-Luc has worked under the Nazis maintaining the train lines only to survive and to keep his mother safe. When he gets given the baby he sees the one thing he can do that would be good, and his girlfriend Charlotte, working in a German hospital, also sees it as the way to do some good. They escape France and lovingly raise Sam in America where they consider him to be their only child, without hope for his real parents to have survived. Sam knows nothing but a loving American home. Then one day, against his will he is told they are not his real parents and is sent to live in Paris with people he doesn't know, a foreign language and culture, and all he wants to do is go home. Sarah and David just want their son, but he is no longer theirs. Officials in France and America have let everyone down, simply saying give the boy time, he will get used to it. These are real people and they have emotions that do not fit scientific or legal solutions. Written with heartfelt passion, this story was amazing, I could not put it down.

Wartime, Train station platform, Sarah doesn't know where the Germans are taking her and her husband, in an act of desperation she hands her newborn, Samuel, into the hands of a stranger, who seems like a kind man. Anything must be better than bringing him with them to what they will be facing at the end of this train journey.
Fast forward several years, Sam is living in sunny California with his parents, Jean- Luc and Charlotte. Little he knows the journey they took to bring him to safety, to escape the danger of the war. They thought they left it all behind, but past is about to knock at their door.

A tale of love and survival at a time of persecution. Beautifully written, the kind of book you won't be able to put down and the last chapter brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you Netgalley and Headline for the advanced review copy in exchange of a honest review.

Reading this novel was an experience in being transported in time and place. Beautifully written, it was astonishingly gripping and I was awake reading it long into the night, unable to let it go before I'd finished.. And then, I felt overwhelmed by the emotional journey that I had just been on. It is not routine for me to be able to relate to all the characters and view life from each of their perspectives, but I did,. Not only that, but I felt such empathy for each, in their individual dilemmas. In the context of While Paris Slept, this meant that I would inevitably be torn with regard to where my loyalties lay. I think that I felt every possible emotion as I entered the story, never quite being able to guess where it was heading, or where it could reasonably go next. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is quite outstanding and I would unapologetically admit to being a highly critical audience!

Thanks netgalley and Ruth Druart for letting me read this wonderful book.
It was heartbreaking for Sarah to give her baby up to a railway worker to save as she was taken on a train to the camps by the Nazis.
After the war Sarah knew her baby was still,alive but she did not know where he was.
It took nine years to find Samuel and get him back to her, but when he came to Paris after living in America with the family who took him in he was terrified, angry and very unhappy.
This was a very sad story and it must have affected many people during the war.
Only hope everyone found happiness in the end like Samuel.
Yes loved it.

A beautifully written book that is very evocative of the era. When Jean-Luc who is living in America is arrested and returned to France you have no idea of the story that will unfold. He and his girlfriend Charlotte risked their own lives for this Jewish baby. One that was entrusted to Jean-Luc as his mother boarded the train to .Auschwitz. An enthralling story that unfolds over different timelines. Not the usual war time novel. Would definitely recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the advance copy of this book.

A truly inspiring, beautifully crafted novel. Not usually a historical genre fan, I was taken with the premise.
When a book is emotionally, educationally entertaining it delivers on both fronts and marks it out as extraordinary.
Heartfelt and harrowing, it tells of love and loss and the lengths parents would go for their child. The only criticism, I have was the Epilogue.
It was a little too detailed with with a couple of facts that were unnecessary.
Nevertheless a truly heart-rending story.

Sam (Samuel) is a lively boy; well adjusted and happy with loving, supportive parents, living in America.
Samuel (Sam) is unhappy; displaced, living in Paris, where he doesn't speak the language, with strangers who call themselves his parents. His stress erupts in painful eczema rashes all over his legs.
Sam's life is turned upside down when he learns that his parents are not his birth parents and that, as a baby, he had been given to them to be rescued from the horrors of the holocaust. .Samuel's parents survived Auschwitz, motivated by their love for their son, and spent the next nine years searching for him so that they could be reunited.
Ruth Druart tells they stories of all the characters involved sensitively, and powerfully. Each one has to cope with loss and suffering. Each faces their own prison. By weaving together the different threads, she explores what it means to survive, where do we find our identity, and what it means to love.
Sometimes harrowing, sometimes light-hearted enough to make me laugh, sometimes hauntingly beautiful -, this is a story that will stay with me.

While Paris Slept is an amazing book that covers every emotion. It starts at a train station where a train is leaving for Auschwitz and from there you are taken on such an emotional journey. This book reached into my heart, made me cry and proved to me how far parents will go for their precious child. Without revealing too much about this book, it was a wonderful read, gripping and thought provoking. 10/10. Amazing.

Initially when I started this book, I wasn't sure if it was for me or not, as the subject matter was about the movement of Jewish prisoners in France during World War II. However...this book didn't go down the route I thought it would and went in a completely different direction which I wasn't expecting (I gasped!)

The characters were so well written, and completely believable given everything they had been through and I didn't know who I felt more sorry for. It's not a soppy war time story either - this will really pull at your heart strings.

A brilliant read, and it well deserves 5 stars!

A very moving powerful story on unconditional love that grips you from the beginning.

The story swaps from 1944 in France and 1953 in America frequently but is well written and easy to follow.
Jean-Luc works on the railway where Jews are being sent to concentration camps, when a young mother hands her new baby to him to save, he then escapes France with his new girlfriend Charlotte and the book describes the horrendous journey they have travelling to Spain then eventually to America where they settle into life as a family.

I normally wouldn`t read historical fiction more of a murder mystery fan but this book definitely pulled at my heart strings and couldn`t put it down, it brought the heartache of war and the love and courage they went through.
I would definitely recommend this book

Thanks to Netgalley and Headline for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was a bit wary of this book at first as I thought the story might be too harrowing for me at a time when I’d rather read something more gentle during dark days of the pandemic. I did speed read a few sections but I was so hooked on the story that I read the second half in one session.

The story starts in 1953 in Santa Cruz, California where Jean-Luc Beauchamps and his wife Charlotte have settled with their nine year old son, Sam, having left their native France towards the end of the Second World War. The plot then goes back to 1944 in Nazi occupied Paris where both Jean-Luc and Charlotte are working in places now controlled by the Nazis, Charlotte in a hospital and Jean-Luc is a railroad worker. Now 21, Jean-Luc left school at fifteen to work for SNCF where his job is checking the tracks to make sure that they are safe for trains to use. Four years into the occupation he reports for his job at Saint Lazare station to be told he is being moved to work at Bobigny station. This is located on the outskirts of Paris near to Drancy transit camp where people captured by the Nazis, mainly Jews, are taken to be deported to German concentration camps such as Auschwitz.

Jean-Luc suffers an injury at work and meets Charlotte as he is taken to her hospital to be treated. They fall in love but Charlotte’s family, who are wealthy and have a Picasso painting on their apartment wall, are not happy about her having a relationship with this uneducated man. Then there is an incident as a train is leaving Drancy and everything changes for Jean-Luc and Charlotte.

This is a really well written book which had me not wanting to put it down. It’s a very thought provoking book and author, Ruth Druart, has perfectly captured feeling of constant angst and dread for the people of Paris and also for Jean-Luc and Charlotte nine years later in California. It all felt very real and I couldn't put it down as I wanted to know the ending. I liked the ending but would have preferred it to be longer and also to have more closure about the families of Jean-Luc and Charlotte. This is the author's debut novel and she's going on my list to hopefully read future books by her. I hope she continues to write historical fiction as I loved learning more about real life places and events and this brought to life many things about that I was not aware of despite knowing the city quite well.

With thanks to NetGalley and Headline for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a well written historical novel partly set in America in the early 1950’s and the Second World War years in Paris. The central premise is that of love and sacrifice and so it is very moving at times. Jean Luc Beauchamp, his wife Charlotte and son Sam now live in Santa Cruz, California but during the war Jean Luc worked on railway maintenance at Bobigny, where from Drancy Station French Jews were transported to Auschwitz. In 1953 he is taken in for questioning about his wartime role. The story is told from several points of view including Jean Luc, Charlotte and a Jewish woman, Sarah in the two timelines.

This is a fascinating book which although fictional is firmly grounded in fact and it’s clear Ruth Druart has researched well. I like how during the war Jean Luc reluctantly follows orders, he’s not willing working for the Third Reich and you feel his despair at ‘survival collaborating’ and the impact this has on his health and personality. It’s extremely poignant at times as Jean Luc sees abandoned personal items on the railway tracks. Life under Nazi rule is clearly depicted especially the atmosphere in Paris with periods of tension and danger. When the truth of what Jean Luc does to help Sarah becomes apparent its a shock as you recognise his resolve and bravery, the danger he has placed himself and Charlotte in and at times the tension is palpable. As the storyline progresses you find yourself torn between Jean Luc and Sarah and the terrible dilemma that confronts them. Her perspective reveals suffering, pain, loss and much anguish and this is the one that resonates the most and is the strongest of all the points of view. The fact that she survives Auschwitz is a miracle. Her resolve is admirable as she becomes aware of the sacrifice she must make and this is heartbreaking. The second half of the book is the most intense and very emotional. The ending tears you in two and I defy anyone to have a dry eye.

Overall, this novel has so many elements to it that it makes for compelling reading. Recommended for fans of historical fiction.

With thanks to NetGalley and Headline:Headline Review for the arc for an honest review.

The novel starts in 1953 in Santa Cruz, America when two men in Navy suits come to arrest Jean Luc Beauchamps, but what is his crime? It then reverts to 1940s war torn Paris where Jean Luc works on the railway repairing train tracks near the station at Bobigny from where the Jews are deported.
An intense story of bravery and heartache, would definitely recommend this book.