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The unforgettable story of one woman's struggle to survive persecution in wartime France 'I loved my bookstore the way a woman loves, that is to say, truly' In 1921, Françoise Frenkel – a Jewish woman from Poland – opens Berlin's very first French bookshop. It is a dream come true. The bookshop attracts artists and diplomats, celebrities and poets – even the French ambassador himself. It brings Françoise peace, friendship and prosperity. Then one summer's day in 1939, the dream ends. It ends after Kristallnacht, when Jewish shops and businesses are smashed to pieces. It ends when no one protests. So, just weeks before the war breaks out, Françoise flees to France. In Paris, on the w...
A PEOPLE BOOK OF THE WEEK WINNER OF THE JQ–WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE “A haunting tribute to survivors and those lost forever—and a reminder, in our own troubled era, never to forget.” —People An “exceptional” (The Wall Street Journal) and “poignant” (The New York Times) book in the tradition of rediscovered works like Suite Française and The Nazi Officer’s Wife, the powerful memoir of a fearless Jewish bookseller on a harrowing fight for survival across Nazi-occupied Europe. In 1921, Françoise Frenkel—a Jewish woman from Poland—fulfills a dream. She opens La Maison du Livre, Berlin’s first French bookshop, attracting artists and diplomats, celebrities and poets. The ...
Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 I had a love of books as a child. I would spend hours leafing through a book, and I would spend my spare time browsing the bouquinistes’ old, damp cases of books. When I returned to Paris after the first war, everything had been taken away. #2 I began to see the importance of a book’s reader. I would place the book I thought was appropriate down close to a reader, discreetly, so they wouldn’t feel it had been suggested to them. I grew fond of my customers. #3 I attempted to open a French bookshop in Berlin, Germany. I was not unfamiliar with the country, having spent some time there as a girl to perfect my German and pursue music studies with Professor Xaver Scharwenka. I was able to get a bookshop open, but the German government was against it. #4 I opened a bookshop in Paris in 1921, and it was a big day for my female customers when the newspapers and fashion magazines arrived. They would swoop on them with exclamations of delight.
In 1921, Fran oise Frenkel -- a Jewish woman from Poland -- fulfills a lifelong dream. She opens Berlin's first French-language bookshop, La Maison du Livre, attracting artists, diplomats, celebrities, and poets. The shop soon becomes a haven for intellectual exchange as Nazi ideology begins to poison the culturally rich city. But as the occupation intensifies and politics darken, Frenkel's bookshop is frequently visited by police officers who confiscate her beloved books.
Initially published as No Place to Lay One's Head - the unforgettable story of one woman's struggle to survive persecution in wartime France __________ 'Poignant love letter to literature' Clare Mulley, Spectator, Books of the Year 'A book that wholly merits publication... it's rare to find an account of the camps that's so feisty and eccentric' Lara Feigel, Telegraph 'An astonishing memoir... as gripping as any thriller... stark and chilling... we owe [Frenkel] a huge debt of gratitude. In sharing her bitter taste of bitter history, she has shown us the worst of humanity - but also the best' Christina Patterson, Sunday Times __________ In 1921, Françoise Frenkel-a Jewish woman from Poland-...
Inspiration for the major motion picture Mama Weed; translated from the international bestseller La Daronne, winner of the European Crime Fiction Prize and the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, France’s most prestigious prize for crime fiction Meet Patience Portefeux, a fifty-three-year-old, underpaid Franco-Arab interpreter for the Ministry of Justice who specializes in phone tapping. Widowed after the sudden death of her husband, Patience is now wedged between university fees for her grown-up daughters and nursing home costs for her aging mother. Happening upon an especially revealing set of police wiretaps ahead of all other authorities, Patience makes a life-altering decision that...
An unforgettable new novel by the award-winning author of the international French bestseller The Godmother. She had been dead now for four days and I had become rich. Unimaginably rich. Blanche de Rigny has always considered herself the black sheep of the family. And a black sheep on crutches at that. But it turns out her family tree has branches she didn’t even know existed. And many of them are rotten to the core. As Blanche learns more about the legacy left by her wealthy Parisian ancestors, she decides a little family tree pruning might be in order. But great wealth also brings great responsibility – a form of richesse oblige, perhaps – and Blanche has a plan to use her inheritanc...
Factory you shall never have my soul I am here And I count for so much more than you And I count so much more because of you Thanks to you Unable to find work in his field, Joseph Ponthus enlists with a temp agency and starts to pick up casual shifts in the fish processing plants and abattoirs of Brittany. Day after day he records with infinite precision the nature of work on the production line: the noise, the weariness, the dreams stolen by the repetitive nature of exhausting rituals and physical suffering. But he finds solace in a life previously lived. Shelling prawns, he dreams of Alexandre Dumas. Pushing cattle carcasses, he recalls Apollinaire. And, in the grace of the blank spaces cr...
Garrett Cotter was an Irish convict transported for life in 1822. The tales of his relationship with a fierce Aboriginal leader in the Canberra region are many, and his name is remembered in the Cotter Valley, River and Dam. The novel expands on known history, and imagines the extraordinary connection between these two men.
Rome, too, wants the sound of roaring as evening falls ... The Rome Zoo: a place born of fantasy and driven by a nation’s aspirations. It has witnessed – and reflected in its tarnished mirror – the great follies of the twentieth century. Now, in an ongoing battle that has seen it survive world wars and epidemics, the zoo must once again reinvent itself, and assert its relevance in the Eternal City. Caught up in these machinations is a cast of characters worthy of this baroque backdrop: a man desperate to find meaning in his own life, a woman tasked with halting the zoo’s decline and a rare animal, the last of its species, who bewitches the world. Drifting between past and present, Th...