WHILE PARIS SLEPT
By
Ruth Druart
Publisher:
Grand Central Publishing (February, 2021)
Format:
Hardcover
Price:
$28.00
ISBN:
978-1-5387-3518-3
Reviewed
by Shirley Wetzel
(February,
2021)
Paris: 1944. Charlotte… was from a wealthy family,
and her parents had expectations for their only daughter. Jean-Luc was a
laborer who’d been working for the French railroad since he was fifteen. In
normal times, the two would never have met, but those were not normal times.
The Nazis took over the railroad, and Jean-Luc had become uneasy about the
rumors that cattle cars full of Jewish citizens were being sent from his
station to an unknown location in the east. He decided to take action to hinder
that process, but his attempt at sabotaging a rail junction landed him in the
hospital where Charlotte was working. They found they had much in common,
including their hatred of the Nazis, and soon they were in love.
Jean-Luc returned to work, and on one horrible day
he realized the rumors were true. One of the trains was stuck at the station,
and hundreds of frantic people, men, women and children were on the platform
hysterically looking for a way out. A young woman ran to Jean-Luc and asked him
to take her most precious possession and keep it safe until the war was over.
Jean-Luc knew he couldn’t continue to help the
Nazis, and that he had to escape France. Charlotte had broken with her parents,
and he convinced her to come with him. After a harrowing trip through the
mountains to freedom, they made their way to the United States, settling in
California.
Nine years passed. Jean-Luc, Charlotte, and their
son Sam were living the American dream, until a knock on the door turned their
lives upside down. At war’s end, he and Charlotte had made a decision that they
believed was the right one. What happened next would require courage,
sacrifice, and the wisdom of King Solomon to make things right.
Return to Over My Dead Body! Online.