First published 2020
Charlotte works in a Paris bookstore during World War II, caring for her young daughter Vivi while navigating the dangers of occupied France. She makes choices that ensure their survival, but these decisions carry consequences that follow her across the ocean. Years later in 1950s New York, Charlotte has built a new life in the publishing world. Yet the war's shadow reaches into her present, forcing her to confront what she did to survive. The story moves between wartime Paris and postwar America, revealing how Charlotte's past threatens to unravel the future she has constructed. She discovers that surviving the war was only the first challenge. Living with the aftermath proves equally difficult as old secrets surface and demand a reckoning.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, past-haunts-present
Setting: Paris, New York
Period: World War II, 1950s
368 pages · Paperback · St. Martin's Griffin
Content warnings: war