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Published Jun 2015
288 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
In the autumn of 1943, André Boulloche became de Gaulle's military delegate in Paris, coordinating all the Resistance movements in the nine northern regions of France only to be betrayed by one of his associates, arrested, wounded by the Gestapo, and taken prisoner. His sisters carried on the fight without him until the end of the war.
André survived three concentration camps and later became a prominent French politician who devoted the rest of his life to reconciliation of France and Germany. His parents and oldest brother were arrested and shipped off on the last train from Paris to Germany before the liberation, and died in the camps. Since then, silence has been the Boulloches's answer to dealing with the unbearable. This is the first time the family has cooperated with an author to recount their extraordinary ordeal.
"Starred Review. At once heroic and heartbreaking, this story leaves an indelible mark." - Kirkus Reviews
"[A] riveting paean to unsung war heroes in occupied France." - Publisher's Weekly
"The Cost of Courage is good history, loving biography, excellent reporting. It turns out the cost of courage is beyond the means of most of us." - Edmund White, author of Inside a Pearl
"Charles Kaiser has not only unearthed the story of an extraordinary family, but set it against a world in which courage, selflessness and resilience were of greater importance than personal survival and collaboration, however trivial. It makes for a fascinating book." - Caroline Moorehead, author of A Train In Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance In Occupied France
"In this poignant personal tale, Kaiser explores the emotions and breaks through the silences that haunted an amazing family after their experiences in the French resistance to Nazi occupation. The result is a compelling and heart-wrenching book about courage, love, and the complex shadings of heroism." - Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs
"In this gripping true-life drama, Charles Kaiser reveals the long-buried story of one prosperous Parisian family that paid a high price for the bravery of its children." - Alan Riding, author of And The Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris
"A very compelling story." - Robert O. Paxton, author of Vichy France
This information about The Cost of Courage was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charles Kaiser is the author of 1968 in America, one of the most admired popular histories of the music, politics, and culture of the 1960s, and The Gay Metropolis, the landmark history of gay life in America, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a Lambda Literary Award winner. He is is a former reporter for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and a former press critic for Newsweek. His articles and reviews have also appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, New York, Vogue, Vanity Fair, The Guardian (UK), and New Republic, among other publications. He grew up in Washington, D.C., Dakar, Senegal, London, England, and Windsor, Connecticut. Since 1968 he has always lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, except for two and a half years he spent in France to research this book.
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