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 shop becomes a haven for intellectual exchange as Nazi ideology begins to poison the culturally rich city. In 1935, the scene continues to darken. First come the new bureaucratic hurdles, followed by frequent police visits and book confiscations. Françoise's dream finally shatters on Kristallnacht in November 1938, as hundreds of Jewish shops and businesses are destroyed. La Maison du Livre is miraculously spared, but fear of persecution eventually forces Françoise on a desperate, lonely flight to Paris. When the city is bombed, she seeks refuge across southern France, witnessing countless horrors: children torn from their parents, mothers throwing themselves under buses. Secreted away from one safe house to the next, Françoise survives at the heroic hands of strangers risking their lives to protect her.
adult
Françoise Frenkel ; with a preface from Patrick Modiano ; dossier compiled by Frédéric Maria ; translated by Stephanie Smee.
"First published in France as Rien où poser sa tête by L'Arbalète Gallimard in 2015"--Title page verso.
"Originally published in English by Vintage Australia in 2017"--Title page verso.
"Previously published by Pushkin Press in 2018"--Title page verso.
Translated from the French.
