Summary and Reviews of April In Paris by Michael Wallner

April In Paris by Michael Wallner

April In Paris

by Michael Wallner
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  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • First Published:
  • May 1, 2007, 248 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 2008, 256 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Set in 1943, April In Paris, by first time German novelist Wallner, is the dramatic story of an impossible love between a German soldier and a French Resistance fighter in occupied Paris.

Set in 1943, April In Paris is the dramatic story of an impossible love between a German soldier and a French Resistance fighter in occupied Paris.

Roth, a twenty-one-year-old German soldier, has spent most of his time in occupied Paris working in the army's back offices. But when his superiors learn of his ability to speak accent-free French, he is abruptly transferred to Gestapo headquarters to work as an interpreter during the interrogation of Resistance fighters. Rather than question his role in the Nazi regime, Roth translates with impeccable accuracy as the torture proceeds.

But when his duty ends, Roth slips away from his fellow officers, changes into civilian clothes, and wanders aimlessly through Paris disguised as his alter ego "Antoine." One day he is drawn into an antiquarian bookshop and becomes enchanted with the bookseller's beautiful daughter, Chantal. The two begin to meet and fall in love before Roth has the courage to reveal his true identity, nor to discover Chantal's.

When a bomb placed in a popular nightclub by the Resistance kills several high-ranking German officers, Roth finds himself not in his role as translator but as the suspect of the SS's interrogation.

April in Paris is one of those rare books in which the emotional force of the love story is matched by page-turning suspense. Written in an elegant and arresting style, it is a thrilling novel by a promising new writer, who has brought the reality of a war-torn past very much to the present.

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

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Life and love are both battlefields in Wallner's anguished debut of wartime suspense, translated from German, which quickly embroils the reader in the tragic double-life of 22-year-old Corporal Roth...continued

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Beyond the Book



A short history of the French Resistance

France capitulated to Germany on June 25 1940 and was divided into three key zones: A German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast and unoccupied collaborationist "Vichy France" in the south (map). The French Army was disbanded except for a small force to keep domestic peace, and the French government agreed to stop members of its armed forces leaving the country and to instruct its citizens not to resist.

Despite this, some members of the French Army, led by GeneralCharles De Gaulle, escaped to England, from where he gave his famous speech on June 18th (four days after the Nazis occupied Paris) via BBC radio, in which he rallied his countrymen to continue the fight and urged that "Whatever ...

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