The Paris Network

The Paris Network is a brilliant tale weaved between the past and the future.  It follows Laurence, a bookstore owner, in France during WWII and Jeanne, a retired police detective, living in the US in 1993.  I know it sounds like a weird combination, but you quickly learn the connection and are intent on finding out more.  Laurence runs a small book store in her small town where she prescribes books to lighten the heavy burden of life.  When Germany occupies her small town and begins banning books, Laurence starts a secret bookclubb to help cope.  They read books that are banned as a way to resist.  When reading banned books doesn't seem like enough anymore, Laurence finds herself diving deeper into the resistance.  
After Jeanne's mother's death and while trying to reconcile while her mother always held her at a distance, Jeanne learns about a shocking secret.  She travels to France with her father to help uncover the secrets from their shared past. I received an ARC from Netgalley. This book gives you a perspective of what it was like to live under German occupation.  The dual timelines were easy to follow.  Siobhan Curham dove deep into the emotions of the characters addressing all of the difficult topics that come along with war.  I was emotionally devasted for the rest of the day when I finished reading this.  My only criticism is that the book was a slow starter and focused more on Laurence in the beginning.  I didn't feel the connect to Laurence until her character develops more later in the book.  I was missing the dual timeline aspect in the beginning of the book that made it magical later on.

While I wasn't wild about the portrayal of Jeanne, the story overall was amazing. I really felt like I was in the small French town living out life along side Laurence. It's just the way Jeanne spoke that just rubbed me wrong. Not a fan of the term “pops” and just the overall American accent that was portrayed in Jeanne's chapters.

It's the 1940s and the Nazis have taken over the town where a young lady, living alone, owns a book store. Laurence doesn't just own a book store, she prescribes poems and books to the people of the town like a prescription a doctor would give them, to help them with whatever need they have.
What else does a young woman living alone in France during the most dangerous time of her life do? She joins the French resistance.
She puts her life on the line for the people who have now become her family and for the freedom of France but can she survive what the resistance is asking her to do? Can she help liberate her people and end the Nazi invasion?

I needed a moment after I was done with this book. The tears I didn't know I was crying, slipping silently down my cheeks was all the noise I could handle.
Laurence, took root in my soul right from the first moment I read her name. I felt like I was right there with her. Living her life, feeling her emotions, reading the books through her eyes. I was catapulted into a world I never dreamed I would see.
Right from the beginning she was never going to give up France to the Nazis. She was not going to collaborate. She was not going to hand over her radio.
I ask myself would I have been brave enough to join the resistance? I honestly hope I would but the dangers she faced.... She was an amazing hero in a time where a lone woman should have been keeping her head down.
She meets Wendell during one of her missions and the sparks flew. I could feel their passion flaming down my spine. Every page I needed to know if they ever found their way back to each other.

The rest of the story is set in the 1990s where Jeanne, a detective now in early retirement finds out the lady she buried, her mother, wasn't really her mother and now her father Wendell has some explaining to do. After Wendell gives Jeanne the deeds to the bookstore in France, they both travel to France in hopes of finding out what really happen to Laurence and why she had to send Jeanne as a baby away to the safety of her Father.

I was torn between both times, I had to know what happened and the storylines merge perfectly. It was artfully done and the ending, horrific as it was, was just the kind of closure my heart needed,

It was magnificent. Truly, I have read dozens and dozens of books set in this era and this one sent me on a whirlwind through time. If you love a really well written, flawlessly researched that will have you turning pages with the force of an atom bomb, this is the book for you. Grab a box of tissues and a cup of tea and know you would be getting up for hours.

5 stars

Merged review:

It's the 1940s and the Nazis have taken over the town where a young lady, living alone, owns a book store. Laurence doesn't just own a book store, she prescribes poems and books to the people of the town like a prescription a doctor would give them, to help them with whatever need they have.
What else does a young woman living alone in France during the most dangerous time of her life do? She joins the French resistance.
She puts her life on the line for the people who have now become her family and for the freedom of France but can she survive what the resistance is asking her to do? Can she help liberate her people and end the Nazi invasion?

I needed a moment after I was done with this book. The tears I didn't know I was crying, slipping silently down my cheeks was all the noise I could handle.
Laurence, took root in my soul right from the first moment I read her name. I felt like I was right there with her. Living her life, feeling her emotions, reading the books through her eyes. I was catapulted into a world I never dreamed I would see.
Right from the beginning she was never going to give up France to the Nazis. She was not going to collaborate. She was not going to hand over her radio.
I ask myself would I have been brave enough to join the resistance? I honestly hope I would but the dangers she faced.... She was an amazing hero in a time where a lone woman should have been keeping her head down.
She meets Wendell during one of her missions and the sparks flew. I could feel their passion flaming down my spine. Every page I needed to know if they ever found their way back to each other.

The rest of the story is set in the 1990s where Jeanne, a detective now in early retirement finds out the lady she buried, her mother, wasn't really her mother and now her father Wendell has some explaining to do. After Wendell gives Jeanne the deeds to the bookstore in France, they both travel to France in hopes of finding out what really happen to Laurence and why she had to send Jeanne as a baby away to the safety of her Father.

I was torn between both times, I had to know what happened and the storylines merge perfectly. It was artfully done and the ending, horrific as it was, was just the kind of closure my heart needed,

It was magnificent. Truly, I have read dozens and dozens of books set in this era and this one sent me on a whirlwind through time. If you love a really well written, flawlessly researched that will have you turning pages with the force of an atom bomb, this is the book for you. Grab a box of tissues and a cup of tea and know you would be getting up for hours.

5 stars

Despite Being Set Nearly A Century Ago, Still All Too Relevant. This is one of those books that makes a lot of solid political points... without ever actually coming across as preachy, as they are completely couched within the story being told and the period it is being told within. Specifically as it relates to resistance of tyranny not always needing to be violent and that the mind is the only thing the tyrants can never take, as well as a war-born form of “cancel culture” to boot. But again, the tale makes all of these points in a moving tale of a 1990s era 50 yr old woman trying to find her origins in 1943 France - and of a young woman in 1939 France destined to become the mother of the 50 year old. Kudos to the author as well not only for the points I've already mentioned but also in not being afraid to take what is a ... less conventional... path that makes the tale all the more realistic for it. This is absolutely one of those books that truly takes you to the era and brings out all of the emotions therein... leaving you breathless by the end, and maybe sitting in a room that suddenly becomes quite dusty. Very much recommended.