Thieves of Paris
Max has grown up on the Rothschild estate outside Paris, his mother a servant to the family. He feels a strong allegiance to the son who he played with as a child. It’s 1940, France has just surrendered to Germany, and Max has promised the Rothschild son he will save Baroness Betty, a valuable family portrait, from the Nazi art looters. In doing so he gets caught up with Zionists smuggling Jews out of Paris.
I have to admit that I might have given up on this book after the first chapter if I hadn’t been reviewing it. There’s a lot of backstory and flipping back and forward in time, which was very confusing and required disentangling to follow. However, I’m glad I persevered because this is a fascinating and, at times, very exciting read. The author has done her research well, apart from one slip up about skunks (which are not found in the wild in Europe). We feel the fear and trepidation as Parisians emerge onto their streets after the Germans have taken over, and the desperation of Jewish people as they try to find work and food. We also see Max develop from a rather unpleasant thief (he’s spent time in prison for car theft) to a man with a conscience who wants to help his Jewish fellows. Rose Valland, the Frenchwoman who courageously kept a record of all the art looted by the Nazis, has a role in helping Max to become a better person and we get an insight into her work with a clever melding of fact with fiction.
Overall, this was an enjoyable and informative novel with a beautiful cover, and it kept me page-turning to the end.
