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 this,...
