A Jewish Girl in Paris by Melanie Levensohn

One of my favourite genres is historical novels set during World War II, so I didn’t think twice before diving headlong into A Jewish Girl in Paris by Melanie Levensohn, published by Pan Macmillan UK and translated by Jamie Lee Searle.

What I enjoy most about factual historical novels is the extensive research on the author's part, often born of personal interest, such as trying to unearth what happened to family members during the war. In this case, Levensohn uses her research to spin a spellbinding tale punctuated by countless twists and turns and spanning multiple timelines. The author was inspired by a story she read in the Levensohn family archive about her husband’s French cousin, also named Levensohn, who had been killed at Auschwitz.

A Jewish Girl in Paris kicks off in the French capital in 1940, a city under German occupation and a dangerous place for Jewish citizens. Christian, a son of a bank director and Nazi sympathiser, falls in love with a Jewish girl named Judith. As the Germans impose increasing restrictions on Jewish Parisians, the couple secretly plans to flee the country. But before they can escape, Judith disappears, and Christian begins a frantic search that would last for years.

Later, in Montreal in 1982, Lica Grunberg is on his deathbed when he confesses to his daughter, Jacobina, that she has an older half-sister called Judith. Lica escaped the Nazis but lost all contact with Judith. Jacobina vows to find her long-lost sister.

Her promise goes unfulfilled until decades later (set in modern-day) when she meets young Béatrice, a disenchanted French diplomat working at the World Bank, who becomes her researcher to help find the missing Judith, sparking an epic journey into the past.

A Jewish Girl in Paris is a reminder that truth is often stranger than fiction and that real life frequently results in the most unexpected outcomes. If you are, like me, a fan of WWII intrigues, this one is waiting for you.