I selected this book on 10/25/15 from The Book Thing of Baltimore whose mission is to put unwanted books into the hands of those who want them. Thank you very much!

This is one of 125 books that I brought home from The Book Thing that day. I made that visit with a friend of mine from Catonsville, Maryland, and her cousin from New Hampshire. Needless to say, I came home with the largest haul! :)

I read another copy of this book in 2011, and this is what I wrote about it then:

Here's a book I knew nothing about prior to reading its title. The book title grabbed me because I was looking to read a book for a challenge titled (appropriately enough) "April in Paris" in which the book needed to be set in Paris. I found the book on BookMooch, read a few pages on Amazon, and decided I would like it.

The setting is Paris during the German occupation of France during WWII. Corporal Roth is a German soldier whose job it was to translate from French to German for the officers who were torturing prisoners into revealing secrets. Roth tried not to let his job overwhelm him and took solace by secretly assuming the identity of a French civilian. He even named himself Antoine and tried to befriend a few people who lived in Paris. This, however, did not work to his advantage and soon he found that his difficulties multiplying.

This book reminded me a lot of the setting in Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky's novel of German-occupied France, although the story is very different. Wallner's book deals mostly with Germans capturing and torturing members of the French Resistance.

A reader who knows no French should beware of the large amount of French narrative in this book. It takes place mostly in conversations, but I felt compelled to look up the translation while reading because I was interested in picking up details of the story.

I'm not sure I believe this story completely in the way it's told. It's a love story that is based on two people not spending much time together at all. In addition, I'm not certain I believe that Corporal Roth could have physically done what was described in the book. Nevertheless, I found this a most engaging story and was glad that this book just came into my possession by chance.

I released this book to a friend who lives in Leisure World, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.
She says she likes to read romances.

-------------------------------------------

Happy reading!

Caught!

My friend returned this book to me tonight. She found it to be quite the page-turner, but she didn't like all of the cruelty in this story.

I'm releasing this book for the following BookCrossing challenge:

*** The What's in a Name Release Challenge December 2016 hosted by DragonGoddess . This book has the names APRIL, ARIS, and PARIS in the title.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello and welcome to BookCrossing...where we make the whole world our library!

Please make a journal entry so we know this book was found. You may now join BookCrossing (free!) to follow this book's travels. It's so much fun. Your information will not be shared or sold. As you join, consider listing SqueakyChu (or any other journaler) as your referring person.

This book is now yours to keep or share with someone else. Take your time to read this book. Afterward, make a journal entry to record your thoughts about it. If you release it, kindly make a release note to let me know where it is traveling. Thank you so much.

Happy reading!