Les Parisiennes by Anne Sebba

LES PARISIENNES  by Anne Sebba

This is a very, very dense scholarly book concerning the women of Paris during WWII.  I ended up reading it as a collection of brief episodes as it was difficult to follow any one person’s activities because of the chronological order of events and the various names used by the women during the course of the war. The “Cast list” was almost useless as women were listed under their family name, or their husband’s name, or their resistance name, etc, but not all of them.

There are many French language phrases and words used throughout the book without translation.

You really need a very good working history of France and WWII to understand the enormity of places and events mentioned in passing, ie, the Hiv d’Vel roundup, Ravensbruck medical experiments, the Comet Line and others.

I would not recommend this book to my book group although I did appreciate the work that went into the writing of the book.

3 of 5 stars