Review
Don't be misled by the title into
thinking that
April In Paris is a fluffy
romance. Life and love are both battlefields in Wallner's anguished debut of wartime suspense,
translated from German, which quickly embroils the
reader in the tragic double-life of 22-year-old
Corporal Roth.
Roth is not an heroic figure, he's not even a
particularly moral or likable figure. He's simply a
young man who, for a few sanity-restoring minutes,
escapes his despised life as a translator posted to
the Gestapo's interrogation unit, to become
"Antoine", a French student, and ends up falling in
love with a member of the French resistance. This
relationship forces him to face an untenable moral
dilemma between obedience to the Reich and following
his...
Beyond the Book
A short history of the French
Resistance
France capitulated to Germany on
June 25 1940 and was divided
into three key zones: A German
occupation zone in the north and
west, a small Italian occupation
zone in the southeast and
unoccupied collaborationist
"Vichy France" in the south ( map).
The French Army was disbanded
except for a small force to keep
domestic peace, and the French
government agreed to stop
members of its armed forces
leaving the country and to
instruct its citizens not to
resist.
Despite...
