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Please Note: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not influence the opinions in my review in any way.
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Living through WWII working in a Paris bookstore with her young daughter, Vivi, and fighting for her life, Charlotte is no victim, she is a survivor. But can she survive the next chapter of her life?
Alternating between wartime Paris and 1950s New York publishing, Paris Never Leaves You is an extraordinary story of resilience, love, and impossible choices, exploring how survival never comes without a cost.
Review:
I've read many books set during WWII, particularly about the experiences of civilians in Occupied Paris. It was a time of unthinkable choices, as people weighed their morals against their empty bellies. While this novel was a unique take on this kind of tale, I was conflicted by some of the twists in this story.
What I Liked:
Settings:
This story takes place in two place and time periods, Paris during the war itself, and then New York City in the nineteen-fifties. The author did a wonderful job of using details of foods, smells, and textures to convey a sense of time and place. All this helps the reader understand how challenging it was to get even basic food during the war, and then how overwhelming the abundance of America must have seemed.
Characters:
I actually didn't like most of the characters, with the exception of one character in the New York portion of the story. Horace is a WWII veteran who lost the use of his legs during the Japanese fighting in the War. Horace is fiercely independent and never speaks about his experiences in the war. He also has a very strained relationship with his wife, Hannah. Hannah is overly helpful, and rather condescending to Horace. She seems to enjoy being the nursemaid, and forgets being a wife. It's heartbreaking to see how their marriage is crumbling.
What I was mixed about:
Characters:
I really couldn't connect to any of the characters. While I could admire that Charlotte and Julian did what they needed to do to survive, I felt they were both cowards. Yes, that's harsh. But what they did was pretty reprehensible.
Julian, in particular, could have made other choices, but wound up supporting Nazis. We never find out definitely if Julian actively killed Jews, but he certainly did nothing when people were taken away to the concentration camps.
Charlotte thinks what she does is justified because she has a small child. But, by lying to make her way to America, she may have displaced a refugee who should have been allowed to immigrate to the United States. Her actions did have consequences for others.
What I Didn't Like:
Story:
Okay, I usually don't discuss spoilers, but I see no way around this (stop now if you don't want to know) in order to explain why I objected to this book. I really dislike the notion of the "good" Nazi. And I became more angry over the course of the novel when Charlotte actually falls in love with the Nazi soldier, Julian. The twist of what Julian actually is is apparently historically accurate. But that doesn't make it okay. This really is over the top.
Rating: 
Release Date: August 4th, 2020
Author: Ellen Feldman
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Length: 368 Pages
Source: NetGalley
Format: E-Book
Recommendation: Although it may be historically accurate, the characters in this book are extremely unlikable, with a story that is quite hard to fathom.
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