Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2023
384 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
From the bestselling author of the "heart-stopping tale of survival and heroism" (People) The Book of Lost Names comes a gripping historical novel about two mothers who must make unthinkable choices in the face of the Nazi occupation.
Paris, 1939: Young mothers Elise and Juliette become fast friends the day they meet in the beautiful Bois de Boulogne. Though there is a shadow of war creeping across Europe, neither woman suspects that their lives are about to irrevocably change.
When Elise becomes a target of the German occupation, she entrusts Juliette with the most precious thing in her life—her young daughter, playmate to Juliette's own little girl. But nowhere is safe in war, not even a quiet little bookshop like Juliette's Librairie des Rêves, and, when a bomb falls on their neighborhood, Juliette's world is destroyed along with it.
More than a year later, with the war finally ending, Elise returns to reunite with her daughter, only to find her friend's bookstore reduced to rubble—and Juliette nowhere to be found. What happened to her daughter in those last, terrible moments? Juliette has seemingly vanished without a trace, taking all the answers with her. Elise's desperate search leads her to New York—and to Juliette—one final, fateful time.
An "exquisite and gut-wrenching novel" (Lisa Barr, New York Times bestselling author) you won't soon forget, The Paris Daughter is also a sweeping celebration of resilience, motherhood, and love.
"Harmel brings the novel's historical moments to life through deep research and enriching historical facts, and she conveys an acute sense of her characters' emotions as they face tragedy upon tragedy. This is Harmel's best to date." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A gorgeous, gut-wrenching read!" —New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn
"Brilliantly crafted and heart-shatteringly beautiful, The Paris Daughter is one of the best historical novels I have ever read....This is a timeless book of survival, strength, courage, a forever lasting song calling for peace." —Nguyen Phan Que Mai, internationally best-selling author of The Mountains Sing and Dust Child
"The Paris Daughter is a heartrending, uplifting novel. It is a poignant portrait of how we assign guilt even in the most blameless of circumstances, and a powerful reminder of the importance of moving on from the past before we become trapped there." —Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library
"Kristin Harmel is one of my must-read authors, and I loved The Paris Daughter....Harmel exemplifies the best in historical fiction; a story that brings history to vivid life, and one that enlightens as well as moves the reader." —New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline
This information about The Paris Daughter 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.
Photo: Phil Art Studio, Reims, France
Kristin grew up in Peabody, Mass.; Worthington, Ohio; and St. Petersburg, Fla., and she graduated with a degree in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from the University of Florida. After spending time living in Paris, she now lives in Orlando, Fla., with her husband and young son.
Kristin Harmel is the international bestselling author of The Room on Rue Amélie and The Sweetness of Forgetting, along with several other novels. Her work has been featured in People, Woman's Day, Men's Health, Runner's World, and Ladies' Home Journal, among many other media outlets.
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