While the author was working as Programs Manager at the American Library in Paris she learned about the extraordinarily brave employees who endeavoured to keep the library open during World War II when Paris was under occupation. In 1917, the American Library Association’s Library War Service shipped over two million books donated by libraries and individuals to US soldiers serving overseas and these books formed the original collection. The library became a non-profit institution in 1920, developed what was seen as an open shelves system and opened its doors to readers and subscribers, who included Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway.
When Paris fell to the Nazis in 1940, the library was already prepared under its famous (and aptly named) Directress Miss Dorothy Reeder. The dedicated staff risked their lives by hand-delivering books to their numerous Jewish subscribers whom the authorities had deemed ‘undesirables’ and the library remained ‘an open window on the free world’ throughout the war. Miss Reeder said about books that ‘No other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people’s eyes. The Library is a bridge of books between cultures.’
The novel has a double timeline and explores the experiences of two women: Odile, who defies her parents in her determination to earn a living and to work as a librarian, and teenager Lily in small-town Montana in 1985 who becomes friends with her enigmatic neighbour and learns more about what took Odile in her later years to leave France. A work of fiction, the book is meticulously researched and based on actual people and events. It explores relationships that help to make us who we are and the consequences of the decisions we make.
I loved the physical descriptions of the books, the many references to literature, the nooks and crannies within the library and the work of the dedicated and defiant librarians. I felt caught up in the tension that occurred under the Occupation when the Gestapo planted informers, since the foreign staff and subscribers were considered enemy aliens, and several were interned.
The American Library in Paris remains the largest English-language lending library on the continent and continues to celebrate the written word and the importance of books in every community. What a wonderful book to recommend as we celebrate our own 7th birthday!
