Book Review: “While Paris Slept”

Written by: Mimi Dulany

“While Paris Slept” is a novel written by Ruth Druart and published in 2021. It is an outstanding book about a man, Jean-Luc, and his girlfriend, Charlotte. It is mainly set in Paris in 1944, towards the end of World War II. Jean-Luc, a twenty-one-year-old French railway worker, despises the Nazis and constantly tries to sabotage the railway tracks that the innocent Jewish people are loaded on to be taken to Auschwitz. Sarah, a French woman, is one of the people being forced into a train car with a newly birthed baby. She spots Jean-Luc, hands him her baby, and gets on the train car. Jean-Luc runs to Charlotte, and they decide that they need to get out of the country and flee to America to keep the baby safe and raise him well. They name him Samuel. Druart does a phenomenal job describing their extremely harsh hike to America. Later, in 1953, Charlotte and Jean-Luc hear a knock on the door while living in California. Sarah and her husband, David, survived the Nazi invasion and want to take their son home to France. Ultimately, Sam is forced to stay with his birth parents until he becomes too miserable, and Sarah does the hardest thing she ever had to do once more, she lets him go again. Sam ends up living with Charlotte and Jean-Luc forever, while Sarah and David have empty hearts. This book is amazing and was extremely hard to put down after the first five pages. I love this book so much, and it is great to read on vacation or even before bed, although it might be hard to fall asleep after reading an engrossing chapter. I highly recommend this story to any reader, it is the perfect blend between history, romance, and action. Give it a try!