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Published Aug 2015
336 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
A moving and powerfully dynamic World War II novel about two American journalists and an Englishman, who together race the Allies to Occupied Paris for the scoop of their lives.
Normandy, 1944. To cover the fighting in France, Jane, a reporter for the Nashville Banner, and Liv, an Associated Press photographer, have endured enormous danger and frustrating obstacles - including strict military regulations limiting what women correspondents can. Even so, Liv wants more.
Encouraged by her husband, the editor of a New York newspaper, she's determined to be the first photographer to reach Paris with the Allies, and capture its freedom from the Nazis.
However, her Commanding Officer has other ideas about the role of women in the press corps. To fulfill her ambitions, Liv must go AWOL. She persuades Jane to join her, and the two women find a guardian angel in Fletcher, a British military photographer who reluctantly agrees to escort them. As they race for Paris across the perilous French countryside, Liv, Jane, and Fletcher forge an indelible emotional bond that will transform them and reverberate long after the war is over.
Based on daring, real-life female reporters on the front lines of history like Margaret Bourke-White, Lee Miller, and Martha Gellhorn - and with cameos by other famous faces of the time - The Race for Paris is an absorbing, atmospheric saga full of drama, adventure, and passion. Combining riveting storytelling with expert literary craftsmanship and thorough research, Meg Waite Clayton crafts a compelling, resonant read.
"Involving and thoroughly researched... Clayton tells a story that will draw women's-fiction readers as well as historical-fiction and WWII devotees... Entertaining and enlightening reading." - Booklist
"A must for World War II buffs and fans of sharp, boundary-busting female characters." - Kirkus
"Don't wait to read The Race for Paris. It's a fine book." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Thrilling…a dangerous, fast-moving adventure. Well-researched, the novel puts the women in the path of bombs, gunfire, gender bias and arcane military restrictions; Clayton models her characters on real-life pioneers - Martha Gellhorn, Lee Miller and other women who broke barriers to get the story." - San Jose Mercury News
"Clayton's narrative is sophisticated and well structured… Her description of the liberation of Paris is riveting. She skillfully reveals the inadequacies of one photo or one article to capture the full magnitude of such an event. And her prose stirs the imagination." - San Antonio Express–News
"Clayton's multilayered, fast-paced novel is as dramatic as any newspaper account. There are wonderful historical details and plenty of danger and action with enough romance to satisfy adventure readers as well as WWII romance aficionados." - RT Book Reviews
"Editors' Choice. Clayton's gripping tale was inspired by the women writers and photographers who broke through bureaucratic and gender barriers to report from the front lines... There's danger, secrets, and romance in the story, along with the underlying deep need of Jane, Liv, and Fletcher, to portray the truth about the war." - Historical Novel Reviews
"A smart, engrossing, and ultimately heartbreaking story… Clayton gives us a story of friendship, love, and sacrifice that no one who has the pleasure of reading it will soon forget. I loved this book." - Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants and At the Water's Edge
"Ambitious, riveting... Deftly weaving fact and fiction, Clayton captures the texture and cadence of daily life in a world that is anything but ordinary." - Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
"This marvelous novel has everything-adventure, romance, history, and most of all heart. Every reader who enters this 'Race' will come out a winner." - Ann Packer, bestselling author of Swim Back to Me and The Children's Crusade
"Clayton introduces us to a world we never knew existed and then makes it utterly compelling. I loved the story of these brave women, the risks they took, the ambitions that fed them. Moving and gripping, it is a thriller of women and war." - Mary Morris, award-winning author of The Jazz Palace and The River Queen
This information about The Race for Paris was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
New York Times and USA Today bestseller and book club favorite Meg Waite Clayton is the author of eight novels, including The Postmistress of Paris, published by HarperCollins November 30, and named a Publisher's Weekly notable book for Fall/Winter 2021.
The Jewish Book Award finalist The Last Train to London is a national and international bestseller, and is published or forthcoming in 20 languages. Her screenplay for the novel was chosen for the prestigious Meryl Streep- and Nicole Kidman-sponsored The Writers Lab.
Meg's prior novels include the #1 Amazon fiction bestseller Beautiful Exiles; the Langum Prize honored The Race for Paris; The Wednesday Sisters, named one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time (on a list with The Three Musketeers!); and ...
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