First published 2023
Paris, 1939. Elise and Juliette meet in the Bois de Boulogne and form a quick friendship as young mothers with small daughters. When the German occupation makes Elise a target, she places her child in Juliette's care. Juliette runs a bookshop called Librairie des Rêves where she shelters both girls. Then a bomb destroys their neighborhood. Juliette's world collapses around her. Over a year passes before the war ends and Elise returns to reclaim her daughter. She finds only rubble where the bookstore once stood. Juliette has disappeared completely, taking with her all knowledge of what became of Elise's child in those final moments. Elise begins a frantic search that eventually leads her across the ocean to New York. There she will confront Juliette one last time and learn the truth about her daughter's fate.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, world-war-ii
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Paris, New York
Period: 1939, 1940s
384 pages · Hardcover · Gallery Books
Content warnings: war