Do you enjoy novels that stretch characters to their limits, or even beyond, to pursue their highest calling, come what may?
If so, you’ll love Skylark! Author Paula McLain places her characters in terrible danger in two interweaving stories, set in 1664 and between 1939 and 1942.
The Paris underground has always been a dark, foreboding place, so how could a novel set in that location brighten a reader’s day?
My answer is simple: Skylark reveals the heroism that transformed the underground into a refuge for the persecuted.
Plot Summary:
In 1664, Alouette Voland wishes to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a master dyer. She secretly experiments with dyes, seeking to create a lost shade of blue dye. When her father is arrested for treason by his employer, The Gobelin Tapestry Works, she testifies at his trial and is sent to the Salpêtrière asylum, a place where women are treated with extreme cruelty. Along with her allies Marguerite and Sylvine, she plots an escape through the city’s sewers and tunnels.
In 1939, Kristof Larsen arrives in Paris to work in a psychiatric ward. His neighbors, the Brodsky family, befriend him, particularly their young daughter Sasha. When the Nazis begin deporting Jewish residents in 1942, Kristof and Alesander attempt to utilize their knowledge of the labyrinthine Paris catacombs to guide Sasha and other refugees to safety.
Major Characters:
1664 Timeline
• Alouette Voland: The daughter of a master dyer at France’s Gobelin Tapestry Works, she secretly creates forbidden dyes, but her ambition leads to her imprisonment in the brutal Salpêtrière asylum
• Étienne Duchamp: A young quarrier who works in the dangerous limestone mines beneath Paris. He forms a deep romantic connection with Alouette.
• Marguerite: A fellow prisoner at Salpêtrière who chronicles the institution’s horrific abuses against women in a secret ledger
• Sylvine: Another prisoner at Salpêtrière who lost her child to the system; she allies with Alouette and Marguerite in their quest for freedom
1939–1942 Timeline
• Kristof Larsen: A Dutch medical student who specializes in psychiatry because of personal tragedy. He lives in Paris as World War II begins, and eventually risks everything to help his Jewish neighbors escape the Nazi occupation.
• Sasha Brodsky: A precocious 13-year-old Jewish girl. She uses a “memory palace” to help her remember and tell stories, as well as to cope with her family’s persecution during the Nazi roundups.
• Alesander Extebarria: A charismatic Basque architecture student who befriends Kristof and uses his expertise to map the Paris tunnels for the Resistance
• Ursula: An Austrian nurse and Resistance member who works alongside Kristof to save children and patients from the Nazi threat
Strengths:
• Scenes with life-and-death choices and cliff-hanger endings
• Poignant, yet very human characters I cared about
• Well-researched historical background, with a new location and two new subcultures to inhabit and explore
• Insights into the lives of cloth-dyers and female mental patients in bygone times
Weakness:
Frequent shifts between timelines may occasionally disrupt the narrative flow.
Content review:
Both stories contain violence (including sexual) and the mistreatment of powerless individuals and groups by those with power.
My recommendation:
Readers whose sense of adventure motivates them to explore unfamiliar locations and times will find much to love in this suspenseful novel, as I did. It’s a rewarding read for those who can tolerate descriptions of the harsh realities of life and the darker side of social institutions in earlier eras.
Reader, can you recommend a time-slip historical novel you loved? Many thanks to the friend who recommended Skylark to me!
This month, I’m pleased to offer you a review of a novel I recently enjoyed.
With its title, The Women of Chateau Lafayette, you might expect a biography of Lafayette’s wife, but this novel offers much more.
This amazing time slip novel draws readers into three distinct eras, separated by generations but united in several ways:
Each takes place in one of history’s darkest hours
Each is set at least partially at Castle Chavaniac, the residence of Gilbert Lafayette, the Frenchman who helped the American colonies win their independence so long ago
Each female protagonist’s efforts culminated in heroism at Chavaniac
Summary of each time period:
(includes protagonists; kept general to avoid spoilers)
Revolutionary era: After helping American colonists win their independence from the British, Gilbert Lafayette returns to France a hero and helps spark the French Revolution, which goes terribly wrong. His family and the French nation suffer grievously. Gilbert’s wife, Adrienne, must navigate between the values of her wealthy noble family and Gilbert’s ideals of democracy, political liberty, and religious freedom. Her heroism will surprise or even shock readers.
In World War I, Beatrice, whose marriage to William “Willie” Astor Chanler, elevated her from humble beginnings, finds her passion in creating the Lafayette Memorial Fund, first supplying care packages for French soldiers in the trenches, and then helping refugee children orphaned by the war. Her husband buys Castle Chavaniac for her, and she manages its transformation into a sanctuary for displaced children and orphans. She is torn between her failed marriage and a new life with a kind Frenchman who loves and supports her.
During World War II, Marthe, an orphan who grew up at Castle Chavaniac, now teaches there. She must come to terms with her identity, as well as deciding how she can live out her ideals with integrity during and after the Nazi occupation of France.
Other major characters:
Maxime Furlaud—a banker and military officer; Beatrice’s French romantic interest
Victor Chapman—Willie’s nephew, close to Beatrice and Willie; an American architecture student who joined the French Foreign Legion
Emily Sloane—Beatrice’s American friend who works with her to gather aid and work at Chavaniac
Baron Amaury de LaGrange—husband of Emily Sloane; interim president of Preventorium at Chavaniac after Fall of France Riom Trial
Anne—daughter of Emily and Amaury, contemporary of Marthe
Yves Travert—small-town policeman who keeps an eye on Chavaniac and Marthe; he must cooperate somewhat with the Gestapo
Madame Pinton—mother of Marthe’s fiancé, she plays an unexpected role
Strengths:
This is a fascinating novel, with its three linked plots, all strong, well-portrayed, and providing windows into life in France in each era.
Weakness:
Three time frames and sets of characters can lead to confusion for readers, who may benefit from taking a few notes as they read.
Content review:
This novel doesn’t shy away from the violence of war, or expressions of the major characters’ sexuality.
My recommendation:
Readers who enjoy historical fiction steeped with romance and values (both personal and societal) will find The Women of Chateau Lafayette a rewarding and thought-provoking read.
Reader, do you have a favorite time slip historical novel?
My writing update:
I continue to sift through the comments of my beta-readers and polish my upcoming novel, Lucia’s Journey.
If you know any librarians, can you imagine them as heroic spies?
Neither can I, so Madeline Martin’s recent novel, The Librarian Spy, sparked my curiosity.
I discovered a spy-filled World War II story set in Lyon, France, and an intriguing, new-to-me location—Lisbon, Portugal.
Here’s the plot in a nutshell:
The Allied Special Libraries and Information Bureau in Lisbon brought in research librarians from the U.S. and U.K to track down facts about clear or possible Nazi plans and activities, which helped shorten the war.
At the same time, German spies in Lisbon soughtinformation about Allied plans.
Into this mix arrived a constant flow of refugees (especially Jewish) seeking safe refuge from parts of Europe under threat or occupation by the Nazis.
In occupied Lyon, France, under threat of torture or immediate execution, the Resistance continues to work actively against the Nazis, printing and distributing truthful news about the progress of the war and the Nazis’ crimes.
The stories begun in these two locales converge at a certain point in the story (sorry, no spoiler here!)
Characters:
Each must make heart-wrenching choices with potentially fatal consequences:
which risks to take
whom to trust
whom to help
Most are heroic, so readers will root for many, among them:
Ava Harper – 1st protagonist, she’s a Rare Book librarian recruited from the Library of Congress to aid the U.S. intelligence effort in Portugal
James MacKinnon – Brit in Lisbon who takes an interest in Ava, who thinks he works for the Special Libraries and Information Bureau
Elaine Rousseau (alias of Hélène Bélanger) – 2nd protagonist; she’s a resident of Lyon, France, who sympathizes with the Resistance, but her husband, Joseph, forbids her from volunteering and scolds her for not being a proper Vichy wife
Etienne – Joseph’s best friend, he connects Elaine with the Resistance
Josette, Nicole, Denise, and Manon – all Resistance sympathizers in Lyon who interact with Elaine
Sarah – Jewish refugee desperate to escape with her young son, Noah, to join her husband in the U.S.
Kommander Werner – cruel German known for torturing Resistance captives in Lyon so they would reveal names of their fellow anti-Nazi sympathizers
Strengths:
This suspenseful story keeps readers on the edge of their seats, while weaving in setting details and interesting information that’s not widely known about Portugal and Lyon in World War II.
Weakness:
Although this is a compelling story, a major premise is fictional. This may disappoint readers seeking a completely historically-accurate novel. The author admits that the U.S. sent no women librarians to Portugal during World War II to uncover potentially useful information.
Content review:
Descriptions of violence committed by the Nazis will make this story disturbing for some, especially young readers.
I recommend The Librarian Spy, an entertaining and informative dual-protagonist novel, to readers who enjoy suspenseful reading about the World War II era, with a fresh twist.
Reader, what are your favorite novels of World War II?
