The Paris Daughter

The friendship between two American expats in WWII Paris leads to life-altering events in the powerful latest from Harmel (The Forest of Vanishing Stars). It’s 1939, and Elise LeClair, an American artist married to French artist Olivier, is pregnant with their first child and has newly befriended Juliette Foulon, an American bookseller who is expecting her third child with her husband, Paul. After the Germans invade and LeClairs’ daughter, Mathilde, is born, Elise begs Oliver to keep a lower profile with his work with the Resistance, but in 1941 he’s arrested and beaten to death by the Nazis. His art dealer tells Elise the Germans are looking for her, forcing her to flee and leave Mathilde with Juliette. After the war, Elise finds the Foulons’ bookstore reduced to rubble, and she learns that only Juliette and her youngest child Lucie survived the Allied bomb that killed Paul, their two older children, and Mathilde. Overcome with guilt, Elise struggles to move forward as an artist. Years later, Elise tracks down Juliette and Lucie in New York City, where her effort to seek closure is particularly wrenching. Harmel brings the novel’s historical moments to life through deep research and enriching historical facts, and she conveys an acute sense of her characters’ emotions as they face tragedy upon tragedy. This is Harmel’s best to date. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (June)